broken with any amount of force, shards of glass would have sprayed directly into dozens of post office boxes. They had little doors that unlocked by keys at the front, but in back they were open so that Julie Simpson, Moosetookalookâs postmaster, could fill them with letters, postcards, advertising flyers, and package slips.
Liss was about to turn away and return to Moosetookalook Scottish Emporium when Betsy Twining stepped out of Clip and Curl. While the post office, at the front of the building, opened onto Ash Street and the town square, the entrance to Betsyâs business was on Pine.
âAwful, isnât it?â Betsy asked. âWhat some people get up to!â
âDid they catch whoever did it?â Liss asked.
âNot so far.â She made a face. âI donât think much of that new part-timer Sherriâs got working nights. Heâs supposed to patrol. Do door checks. He never even noticed the broken window.â
âItâs pretty dark on this side, away from the lights in the town square.â Liss knew and liked Mike Jennings, but to Betsy he still carried the taint of being âfrom away.â
âBe that as it may, it was left to Julie to spot the damage when she came in this morning. By the time I got here for my first appointment, a couple of men were already putting up that hunk of plywood.â
Julie Simpson was not only Moosetookalookâs postmaster, she was the only United States Postal Service employee to work at Moosetookalookâs tiny post office. Most days she came in at half past six and had the mail sorted and slotted by eight, at which point she opened the lobby to customers.
âIs Julie still in there?â Liss asked.
âWent home a half hour ago, and not in the best of moods, either.â Betsy chuckled. âIt wasnât just the vandalism that had her riled. It was the attitude of the higher-ups in the postal service. I donât know who she reports to, but she phoned him right after she called the cops. I think she was hoping heâd come give her a hand, or at least send someone to help out, but he just told her to close the facility. Facility! Then he told her to make sure none of her customers got cut on broken glass because it was embedded in their mail.â
Not a pretty picture, Liss thought.
âPoor Julie had to pull everything out of every box to make sure nothing had glass stuck to it. Then she had to vacuum the boxes before she could put the mail back in. And thatâs not all. She had to clean everythingâthe floor, the sorting tables, even the bins.â
Liss could sympathize. Glass had a tendency to fly in all directions and end up in the most unlikely locations.
âThen, on top of all that,â Betsy continued, clearly relishing the chance to regale someone with the details, âJulie still had to put out the new mail that came in this morning.â
âWho put up the plywood?â Liss asked.
âWell, thatâs another story. It was the glass company. Youâd think theyâd just come out and replace the glass, wouldnât you? But no. Seems that high-mucky-muck post office guy called that outfit down to Fallstown and instead of just ordering a new window, he insisted that this one be replaced with safety glass.â
âAnd this created a problem?â Liss didnât try to hurry Betsy along. She was in no rush to get back to the Emporium, and she was curious to hear all the details.
âWell, yes,â Betsy said, as if that should have been obvious. âThat made it a special order, and that meant the glass people couldnât replace it right away because they donât keep that kind of glass in stock. Not the size needed to replace that window, anyway.â
Liss wasnât surprised. Fallstown might be considerably larger than Moosetookalook, but it was far from being a big city. No sensible business kept an expensive product in stock when there
Tia Louise
Charlotte Hubbard
Sheena Binkley
Donna Jo Napoli
Carole Mortimer
Carmine Gallo
Joyce Carol Oates
Rob Spillman
Carolyn Hart
Bruce Wagner