The Norman Case

by Diana Xarissa

  Joan laughed. “I don’t know about that, but I’m certainly enjoying having them as guests. You go and get lunch for both you and William and then get back to the antique shop. If you think it would help, I could come over as well.”

  “I’ll ask William, but I don’t know. There so many things crammed into the shop that we might all just end up tripping over one another.”

  “There is that, of course. I do need to get to the supermarket, too, so maybe it’s best that I don’t volunteer. If you need me desperately, ring me, though. I’m sure I could help for a short while, once I’m back from the shops.”

  Janet gave Aggie her lunch and a few minutes of attention before changing into more casual clothes and flat shoes. If she was going to be working all afternoon, she wanted to be comfortable.

  “I’ll be back when I can,” she told Joan.

  “Don’t be too late,” Joan warned her. “The Fosters want breakfast for six tomorrow.”

  Chapter 6

  Janet couldn’t help but smile as she climbed into her car. Just sitting behind the steering wheel made her happy, and as the engine roared to life, she nearly clapped her hands with delight. The little café was only a short distance away.

  “I need lunch for two, for takeaway, please,” she told Ted, the ginger-haired co-owner of the place.

  “We’ve cottage pie or shepherd’s pie on special today,” he told her.

  “One of each,” she decided. As she liked both, William could choose which he wanted and she’d happily eat the other.

  “Todd will have that ready for you in a minute,” Ted told her a moment later.

  Janet nodded. Ted’s partner, Todd, ran the kitchen while Ted handed the dining room. A young woman called Stacey helped out on a part-time basis.

  “Should I ask why you’re in such a hurry today?” Ted asked as Janet paid for the food.

  “William needs to do a complete inventory of his shop,” Janet explained. “He’s had something stolen, you see, and Robert wants to be sure that it was only the one thing.”

  “Someone broke in?” Ted exclaimed.

  “It doesn’t seem so, actually,” Janet reassured him. “He just noticed that an item has gone missing.”

  “Shoplifters,” Ted sighed. “I worked in various retail shops over the years and they’re a perpetual problem. A lot of times it was just kids, stealing for the thrill of it, but I don’t know that many kids frequent William’s shop.”

  “He didn’t mention any when he was talking about his customers yesterday, anyway,” Janet said.

  “Let us know what happens, okay?” he asked as he handed Janet a large bag.

  “I will do,” she promised.

  She drove back into Doveby Dale with her mouth watering. William opened the shop’s door as she approached.

  “I should have given you some money,” he said as a greeting. “You weren’t meant to be buying me lunch today.”

  “I didn’t mind. The café isn’t expensive, anyway. I’ll even let you choose what you want. Shepherd’s pie or cottage pie?”

  William frowned. “Either will do me. You choose,” he said.

  Janet laughed. “I’ll just have whichever is on top, then,” she said. “That saves either of us having to make a decision.”

  William had a small table with two chairs in the small room at the back of the shop. He handed Janet a fork. “Coffee?” he offered.

  “Sure, unless you have anything cold?”

  “I have a small stock of fizzy drinks in the refrigerator.” He gave Janet a few options and she picked one.

  “So what did you get?” he asked as he sat down opposite her. She had already opened her container and was eagerly inhaling the wonderful aroma from it.

  “This is the cottage pie, but we can switch if you’d like,” she said.

  “I truly don’t mind either way,” William said. “I’m just hungry.”

  Janet was hungry, too. Once William had opened his lunch and she’s been reassured that it looked and smelled every bit as wonderful as hers, she dug in.

  After they’d finished and tidied up the back room, William handed Janet a pile of papers. “These are all the inventory sheets for the larger items. I’m sure I would have noticed if any of them went missing, but we should be check everything, just to be sure.”

  “Large items sound easier, anyway,” Janet smiled.

  “I think I’m just about finished updating the lists for the smaller items. I’ve taken off everything I’ve sold in the past fortnight, which seemed to take ages but was satisfying work. Now I just have to add the handful of items that I’ve purchased in the same period. That lighthouse lamp is one of those items.”

  “I’ll work as quickly as I can.”

  William was at his desk, sorting through piles of receipts, when Janet walked back into the shop. After reading through her lists, she decided that it would be easier to start in one corner of the room and work her way across the space. When she came across an item she wasn’t certain about, she found some sticky notes on one of the desks and affixed one to the item’s tag. By the time William joined her an hour later she was over halfway finished.

  “How are you doing?” he asked.

  “I’ve done that half of the room,” she replied. “And it’s going faster now as I’ve fewer sheets to go through.”

  William stared at her for a minute and then laughed. “If I were doing it, I’d be working from the lists, which would mean I’d be walking back and forth constantly and would probably mean that I’d end up losing track of what I’d done and not done. Your method is much more sensible.”

  “I used to inventory our school library,” she told him. “Both furnishings and books. I learned a lot of tricks along the way.”

  “Maybe I should do the same with the smaller items,” he said. “I took an extra few minutes to rewrite the lists by category, anyway. I was afraid we’d be tripping over one another, but I can start in the gallery space if I use your technique.”

  “I highly recommend it. It’s working for me, anyway.”

  “I’ll be in the back if you need me.”

  “Before you go, can you just tell me which item that is?” Janet asked, pointing to a large chest of drawers. “The one with the bright pink sticky note on it.”

  William laughed and then crossed to her and took the lists she offered him. “It’s this one,” he said after a minute. “I should change the description on the list to match what’s on the tag, I suppose. What is on the list is what I was told by the seller. I believe the tag has more correct information. After what I’ve been through in the past, I wasn’t going to make any claims I couldn’t verify.”

  Janet nodded. She knew that William had spent some time in prison for misrepresenting what he’d been selling in the shop he’d formerly operated in London. He claimed that his employees there had duped him. Janet could certainly understand his acting with extra caution now.

  Another hour later Janet was ready to start working in the gallery. William grinned at her when she appeared in the doorway.

  “I’m just about done in here. This isn’t taking nearly as long as I’d feared it would take.”

  “You may even be able to open for a short while later,” Janet suggested.

  “Or take you out for a nice meal to thank you for your time,” he countered.

  Janet wondered if he’d forgotten that he’d offered to pay her for her time. She wouldn’t have taken any money from the man, but it might have been nice if he’d offered it to her.

  There weren’t many large pieces in the gallery. It only took Janet a few minutes to verify everything on her lists.

  “You aren’t missing anything from any of these lists,” she said. “And you don’t have any extra pieces that aren’t accounted for, either.”

  “That’s good to know. I’m not sure if there’s any way to split up what I have left to do or not. What do you think?”

  Janet thought for a minute. “It’s probably best
for you to keep working your way across the room. That way you’ll be sure you haven’t missed anything.”

  “Then you can simply keep me company,” William suggested. “Unless you need to get back to Doveby House.”

  “No, I’m not in any rush to get back.”

  Janet sat and watched the man work for a few minutes and then got back on her feet. “Give me half the papers,” she suggested. “It’s taking you ages to sort through them all. We can work together.”

  It only took them another hour to finish. “And that’s the last item on the list,” William said. “At least I think it is. Do you have anything on your lists that hasn’t been ticked?”

  Janet flipped through the sheets of paper and then frowned. “What’s this?” she asked, handing William a page.

  “Four-inch diameter cut crystal dish,” he read. “It’s just that, a very small crystal plate. I don’t know that I’ve seen it lately. Let me think.”

  Janet glanced around the room, trying to remember if she’d seen anything like the missing dish. It didn’t sound familiar.

  “The last time I moved it, I put it back here,” William said, walking to a rear corner of the shop. “I put it with a similar group of items, small dishes and bowls. The rest of them have sold, but that one never did, I’m sure of it.”

  “When did you see it last?”

  William shrugged. “I simply don’t recall. I’m sure it was here when I did the last inventory, but that was in the spring, as I was getting ready for what I hoped was going to be a summer rush. Summer has been even busier than I’d expected, so I didn’t manage another inventory until today. It could have gone missing the day after that inventory or yesterday or any day in between.”

  “I hope it wasn’t terribly valuable.”

  “Not at all. It was very pretty, I thought, but that was its only redeeming quality. It came in a lot with many other items from an auction and it was the most modern and least valuable item in the box. I suspect you could probably buy one just like it on the high street in any big city in the UK. It wasn’t an antique or anything.”

  Janet nodded. “You’ll have to tell Robert about it.”

  “Yes, of course, but I am relieved to find that that’s all that I’m missing in the past three months. As busy as it’s been, I suppose I should have expected some shoplifting to have occurred.”

  “Sadly, that may be true. Ted said that it was a constant problem when he worked in a retail shop.”

  “I’m a bit spoiled here in the village, as I know many of my customers. I suppose I’ve been lucky with the majority of the summer visitors as well. They’ve spent a lot of money and I’ve never had reason to doubt anyone’s honesty.”

  “Maybe it helps that the police station is so close by?”

  William laughed. “That may be part of it. Anyway, I’m happy with our results, and it didn’t take nearly as long as I feared it would. I really should buy you dinner anywhere you want to go.”

  “If I hadn’t eaten so much lunch, I would be tempted, but the cottage pie was simply too delicious. I’m sure Todd gave me larger portions than he does in the café, as well.”

  “They were very generous portions. Maybe we should have dinner together another night.”

  “I’d like that.”

  “Do you think I should ring Robert or that we should just open up and wait for him to pay us a visit?”

  “He did say he’d come over at the end of his working day. I suppose there’s no harm in waiting, especially as we didn’t discover anything terribly interesting.”

  William nodded and then walked over to the shop’s front door. He removed the “Closed” sign and then unlocked the door. “Stand back. There may well be a rush,” he teased as he walked away from the door.

  Janet wasn’t sure if she should stay for a while or head for home. She didn’t have any reason to stay, but she was enjoying being there. She’d never worked in a shop, and it felt odd and almost fun being an insider in William’s. While she was trying to work out what she wanted to do, the shop’s door swung open and the loud buzzer that Janet hated sounded.

  “I was afraid you weren’t going to be open today,” Bridget Foster said. “We’ve been to the chemist’s and the newsagent’s but I barely spent any money at all.”

  “Don’t believe her,” Roy said. “I’ve never seen anyone spend so much money so quickly in a newsagent’s. If it wasn’t my money she was spending, I would have been impressed.”

  “It’s our money,” Bridget said, “and I work at least as hard as you do to earn it.”

  “I was only teasing,” Roy laughed.

  “Have you anything new today?” Bridget asked William.

  “As a matter of fact, I do have a few new things,” he replied. “If you’d like to wait here, I’ll go and get the ones I think you might like. They aren’t on the sales floor yet, as I only just finished taking an inventory today.”

  “We’ll take another look around while we wait,” Bridget laughed. “I’m sure I’ll find other things I didn’t know I needed.”

  “No doubt,” Roy muttered. He crossed to where Janet was standing and dropped onto the couch next to her. “What brings you here?” he asked her.

  “William needed help with his inventory,” she explained. “I didn’t have anything else that I needed to do this afternoon, so I came over to help.”

  “That was kind of you,” he said.

  “It was interesting, actually. I learned a lot about everything in the shop,” Janet told him.

  “What can you tell me about this piece, then?” Bridget called from across the room.

  Janet grinned. The small nightstand that the woman was standing next to was very similar to her own at Doveby House. It was so similar that Janet had paid close attention to the details of the piece on William’s paperwork. Now she repeated what she’d learned to Bridget, who looked suitably impressed.

  “Darling, we need a new nightstand for my side of the bed,” Bridget said to Roy.

  “Do we? I thought you liked our matching nightstands,” he replied.

  “You like our matching nightstands. I’ve always suggested that the room would look more interesting if everything didn’t match exactly,” the woman countered.

  “Yes, dear,” he sighed.

  Bridget winked at Janet. “He’ll only start disagreeing when he hears the total amount of what I’ve spent.”

  Janet laughed. She was curious what the woman had spent, too. Maybe it would be worth sticking around to find out.

  “I thought I recognised you, Miss Markham,” a voice in the doorway said.

  Janet turned and smiled at Floyd Conner. “I’m sure I told you to call me Janet,” she said.

  “You probably did, but I’m sure I forgot,” he grinned.

  “But what brings you into Doveby Dale? And where is your lovely wife?” Janet asked.

  “I’ve left Vera in the chemist’s. She needed a few prescriptions filled, but she sent me down here to see if it really was you that we saw in the window,” he explained.

  “And it is me,” Janet laughed.

  “I’m sure we’ll see you later,” Floyd said. “Now I must get back and help her back to the car. No doubt she’ll want something from the newsagent’s as well before she’ll agree to rest.”

  “I’ll see you both back at the house,” Janet said.

  By the time the exchange was done, William had returned with several of the items he’d purchased from Stanley that morning. Janet walked over to the shop window while Roy and Bridget loudly discussed the various items. A short while later Janet saw Floyd helping Vera out of the newsagent’s and back to their car. As they drove away, Janet watched as Trevor and Amelia Norman climbed out of the car that had been parked next to the Conners’. While she watched, the disagreeable couple walked into the chemist’s shop.

  Chapter 7

  “We’ll take both of those and that little nightstand in the corner,” Bridget said. “I’m sure we’ll be ab
le to fit it all into the car, won’t we, darling?”

  Roy raised an eyebrow. “I’m not sure about that. What about all of the things you bought at that place near Derby? It isn’t all going to fit into the car.”

  “We’ll have to hire a car, then, won’t we?” Bridget asked. “We can hire a nice big car and you can drive it home while I drive our car.”

  “That’s one option, I suppose,” Roy sighed.

  William was busy writing a list of all of the things that Bridget had selected. “What about the things from yesterday?” he asked.

  “Oh, I want all of those,” Bridget laughed. “We may have to hire a car and make two trips at this rate.”

  Roy looked far less excited at the prospect than Bridget did, but he didn’t object.

  When Janet glanced back outside a few minutes later, the Normans’ car had gone. What had they been doing in Doveby Dale, she wondered as she helped William pack a few of the smaller items that Bridget wanted into a box.

  “We’ll have to collect the rest once we’ve hired a car,” Bridget said, “but we’ll pay for it all today so that you don’t have to worry about us changing our minds.”

  William nodded and then ran the credit card payment through his machine. Roy signed the slip without even glancing at the total.

  After the pair left, Janet sighed. “I can’t imagine having enough money to simply buy everything that I saw and liked.”

  “I’m not even sure that Mrs. Foster liked everything she bought. She seems to simply have a compulsion to shop.”

  “Perhaps her husband should stop encouraging her, then,” Janet suggested.

  She stayed out of the way as William dealt with a few other customers, none of whom purchased anything. Robert arrived not long after five.

  “You’re open. Does that mean that you finished your inventory?” he asked.

  “Yes, we have,” William replied. “I’m only missing one other thing.” He told Robert about the crystal dish while Robert took notes.