least until they caught the bastards who had broken in.
Tension filling her while she waited in the kitchen, she listened to Josh moving about the rest of the shop, praying he wouldn’t run into any trouble. She heard jingle bells ringing in one of the rooms, then growing closer to the kitchen. She frowned, wondering what Josh was up to.
He walked into the kitchen holding antique leather sleigh bells and an antique Alaskan dairy postcard featuring Alaskans milking a reindeer. “I know the shop isn’t open yet for business, but I’ll take these. I’ll settle up after I check out the rest of the shop.”
She was amused to see him “shopping” as if he were a customer and not her police protection. “Are you kidding? After all you’ve done for me? They’re yours.”
“Thanks, but—”
“No buts, they’re yours.” No way was she making him pay for them after all he’d done for her.
“Thanks.”
She took them from him and set them in her office so no one would think they were for sale.
Josh began climbing the stairs to the attic, the steps creaking, and then he walked around the large attic room and finally called down, “All clear.”
“Coming!” She was glad no one had been in the shop, waiting for her to open. She turned on all her Christmas lights and her Christmas music, then hurried to the stairs and heard the clicking of keys—or in this case, lockpicks—opening a lock on one of the antique trunks.
She entered the attic room and found Josh with a padlock in hand, heading for the other trunk to unlock it. She hated seeing where the bullets had clipped the metal bands and sunk into the metal. Maybe someone in the pack could restore the trunks and she could sell them.
Light was filtering through the big windows in the attic, and she was glad the guys had replaced her window. And it was perfectly clean! Which meant she needed to clean the others too. She looked around the room. It was huge, and it would be perfect for fixing up and using as an additional salesroom—something whimsical and fun. A German-crafted goat pull toy was standing in one corner, peeking over a box. Made of goat skin and real goat hair, it would fetch around $600.
Brooke hoped she’d find a treasure trove of valuable objects that would help make up for the ordeal she’d suffered. She was determined to go through all this stuff to sell it, but even now, she was trembling a little, the scene flashing through her mind, remembering the deafening sound of bullets being fired and hitting wood, cardboard, and metal. And the bite of the bullets as they sliced through her skin and fur.
Trying to shake loose the raw memories, she waited for Josh to finish so they could see what was in the trunks at the same time. Then she pulled her phone out of her pocket to document the contents before they began rifling through them.
She lifted the lid of the steamer trunk first. Everything smelled musty, like the trunk hadn’t been opened in years. The men had obviously only thought that since the trunks were locked, something valuable had to be inside. Something that they were looking for.
“Did you want me to remove the items since you appear ready to catalog them with your phone?” Josh asked.
“That would be great. Thanks, Josh. I bet you never expected to be helping with something like this on your days off.”
“No, but this is more in line with what I normally do—police work—so it works for me.” He brought out each item from the steamer trunk and the other.
She took pictures and added notes. “I still can’t believe anyone would wait this long to look for the items if they knew that something valuable was inside the trunks.”
“What if they only just found out your great-aunt had something of value in the shop? Or the house? And now they’re searching for it.”
“That could be. Though they did mention boxes, and that makes me think they were waiting for something to arrive here that had been shipped.”
“Like more cocaine?”
“Maybe.” She didn’t want to admit she had considered there might be more boxes of cocaine coming and she could still be in a world of danger. Anyone who was helping her out would be too.
Josh pulled out an old Santa suit and a little girl’s hat and muff and coat that appeared to be from the 1930s. Oh, how cute!
“Anything of value in