him a copy. “I hope you catch the person who did this.”
“Thanks, I appreciate it.” Josh headed to the dress store next to Brooke’s shop to see if they had a security video that showed anything.
He walked inside the store, where a couple of women were perusing the sale racks, and spoke with a middle-aged woman who was making a sign behind her checkout counter. “Hi, I’m Detective Josh Wilding with the Portland Police Bureau.” He showed her his badge. “Are you the manager or the owner?”
“The owner, Polly Whitmore. You’ve come about the reindeer calf? I saw the pictures of it once everyone started posting about him. He is adorable. If I’d had help that day, I would’ve gone over to take some pictures. Or”—her eyes widened—“are you here about that other business today? DEA all over the place. The SWAT team, even. What in the world was going on?”
“It’s an ongoing investigation I can’t talk about. I’m here to learn more about the reindeer theft.”
“Okay. I couldn’t sleep that night—insomnia, you know. I kept thinking about all the merchandise I wanted to tag, the stuff I wanted to put on the sale rack, the new posters I wanted to make. I have a home behind the shop like Brooke does, so I just walked across my garden and entered my shop. I have big picture windows, as you can see, and we have hardly any traffic at night because all the shops are closed early. I saw this truck drive past real slow. That grabbed my interest.
“He parked in front of Brooke’s gate. Not like he would have done if he’d been visiting her store, but parallel parked.
“I heard a truck door open, and another open, then one slammed. I was watching the security monitor by then because I couldn’t see what was happening out my windows. I had to run back to my office and check the security video. My camera is set to capture things that happen in front of my shop or at the gate, and that means it catches what’s going on in the direction of Brooke’s gate too. I thought they were going to steal something in her courtyard, but then the one guy returned to the truck, and he wasn’t holding onto anything. He climbed into the truck, slammed the door, and the driver took off.”
“You didn’t see him moving something out of the truck and into the courtyard?”
“No. I had moved from the window to my office to see the security video. By then, he was returning to the truck empty-handed. So I figured the guy had been drinking and went to the bathroom in her courtyard. A guy did that in my courtyard once. I kept it locked after that. I didn’t even think to check out what had happened earlier. People steal stuff. They don’t usually leave stuff behind.”
Josh immediately thought about discarding dead bodies, but he didn’t mention that. “Did you catch the license-plate number?”
“Come into my office and watch the video. I couldn’t make it out, but maybe you can.”
When he reviewed the video, Josh couldn’t make the license number out with the naked eye. He had high hopes the techs could. “If I could have a copy of this, I’d really appreciate it. I’ll share it with some of our tech people and see if they can get anything more from it.”
Then he got a call from the police bureau. An armed robbery had just taken place at a local jewelry store. Armed perp down. They needed Josh to investigate.
“Got to run, and thanks,” he said to the shop owner. He got into his car and glanced at Brooke’s shop.
She was smiling and talking to George while he replaced the glass in her door. Josh was glad she wasn’t too upset about everything that had gone on earlier and seemed to be in relatively good spirits.
He sent the video to the police bureau so they could figure out the truck’s license plate number. He hoped to talk to the owner of the truck and solve the case of the tampering with their security video and the theft of the reindeer calf.
So why was he thinking of making sure Brooke had something more than a granola bar for lunch today?
* * *
As soon as George finished replacing the glass in her window, Brooke had a few customers waiting to enter the shop. She paid George, thanking him for doing such a great job. “If I ever need