The Heart of Teaberry Read online

  For example, just writing the character descriptions of the other students in her class would be helpful. She thought it was interesting that they came from all walks of life and yet had ended up together two evenings a week to talk about their interest in writing. Their ages ranged from the early twenties into the sixties. No two of them appeared to be interested in the same genre.

  Teri took her coat from the hall closet and grabbed her purse. Before opening the door to leave, she stopped and wondered where her reading glasses were. There was no way she was going to make it through the class without them. Maybe she left them on her writing desk? She turned to go down the hall and caught her reflection in the mirror. She chuckled to herself and reached to the top of her head before opening the front door.

  ***

  Mandy walked into the classroom first. She hated being first. She was never certain what to do with herself while she waited for the others to show. She thought about taking out her phone and checking her messages, but she’d done that just before leaving the house. She went to the chair she’d been sitting in for all of the other times she’d come to class. She noticed that everyone else had done the same thing. It was as though they’d picked out chairs and now they had to sit the same ones each time.

  For a fleeting moment, she considered sitting in another seat just to be different. Just to prove to herself that she could. Why not? She stood and grabbed her bag then contemplated which seat she should take. She didn’t want to sit in any of the seats someone else had picked out. She didn’t want to make them feel uncomfortable. She tried to remember exactly which seats had been taken. As she stood mentally debating it, someone else walked into the room.

  “Oh, hello,” Fern said. “I was worried that I would be the first one to arrive. I don’t know why it bothers me. It’s silly really, but since you’re here already you saved me.”

  Mandy smiled at the older woman. She wasn’t sure how old Fern was, but she knew that Fern looked old enough to be her grandmother. She guessed she was somewhere in her sixties. It would never have occurred to Mandy that the self-assured woman would have ever felt uncomfortable being the first one to arrive. Fern always seemed to know the answer to everything. Mandy was about to respond when another woman walked in.

  Fern turned to greet the new arrival. “Hello, Harriet.”

  Harriet raised her hand to her chest. “I’m so glad you two are already here. I hate being the first one to arrive.”

  Fern nodded her head. “Mandy and I were just discussing the same thing.”

  Harriet looked around. “Do you think anyone would mind if I sat in another chair? The one I’ve been using makes it hard to see everyone else when they’re talking.”

  “Maybe we could move them into a circle?” Mandy suggested hesitantly.

  “Oh, that’s a great idea. We should ask Chad about that when he comes.” Fern took the seat she’d been using and watched as Mandy did the same thing.

  “How did you two do with the assignment?” Harriet asked as she took her seat. She knew from previous discussions in class that Mandy was hoping to write children’s books and Fern was interested in period mysteries. So far, no one else in class had mentioned cozy murder mysteries, the genre she was most interested in. Although it wasn’t the only genre her book club chose when they agreed on a book to read, they did often choose those types of books to discuss. Harriet had noticed that they usually sparked the liveliest conversations.

  “I know it’s early in the semester yet. Eventually, I’m sure the assignments will begin to make more sense to me,” Fern said.

  Mandy nodded her agreement. She had hoped the same thing. She sat back in her seat and relaxed. It was nice to talk to other people who enjoyed writing.

  ***

  Harriet walked out of the room at the end of the class talking to some of the other students. She stopped in the hallway to hear Oliver’s response to a comment that Teri had made and laughed with the rest of the group. Chad was the last to step out into the hallway.

  “Harriet, do you have a moment?” Chad asked.

  Harriet waved to the others as they walked away down the hall.

  “Of course.”

  “I’d like to talk to you about some of the assignments you’ve submitted so far. You have a real talent for writing, but I don’t always have time to go in-depth with each student during the class. I was wondering if you would be interested in meeting one-on-one with me. I could stop by your place and maybe review some of the other things you’ve been working on.”

  Harriet had no idea what to say. She was flattered to hear that Chad liked her writing, she really was. But she wasn’t comfortable with inviting him into her home. After all, she barely knew him. Still, he was a writing professor and she would like to get a professional opinion on some of her work. She opted for something she hoped would be agreeable.

  “Maybe we could meet for coffee sometime?” The smile on Harriet’s face faltered when she looked over Chad’s shoulder and saw Miles Craney.

  “Harriet. What are you doing here?” Miles asked, unable to keep the surprise from his voice.

  “Oh, I have a class.” Harriet waved vaguely at Chad.

  “Let me know when you’re available for that coffee date,” Chad said before walking away.

  Harriet locked eyes with Miles. She barely noticed the other man walking up to Miles from behind him.

  “There you are. Are you ready for the entrepreneurship class?” Ross McMann checked his watch. “It’s about to start.”

  “What?” Miles turned confused eyes to Ross. “Oh, yes. Of course.”

  “It was nice to see you Miles,” Harriet said as she watched the two men walk away.

  Chapter Three

  It was a quiet neighborhood. He knew that the residents who lived there were on both ends of the spectrum. There was a mix of elderly residents who had spent their adult lives there. After raising their families, they were now living alone in their retirement years. Then there were those just starting out who were juggling jobs and young children. In both cases, it was typically lights out early in the evening. The elderly didn’t tend to be very active late at night and the young parents kept up an exhaustive schedule that required them to be moving very early each day. Mornings were the busiest when the harried parents were rushing to get the kids off to school before they left for work.

  Maybe that’s why the thieves chose the neighborhood. They knew the routine and were using it to their advantage. So far, the incidents had been taking place when no one was at home. Rhys stepped up to the next house and rang the bell. They’d been doing it all afternoon. They were trying to speak with the residents, hoping that someone had seen something no matter how irrelevant it had seemed at the time.

  It was a hectic time to get information, however. With parents of young children, Rhys wondered when there was a good time. If they came too early, the younger residents had not yet returned home from work. If they waited until after dinner to go door to door, the darkness would add an ominous cast to their questioning and parents would be frightened that their children were in danger.

  A woman Rhys guessed was in her early thirties answered the door. She was holding a small child too young for Rhys to even determine the gender. There was another child, a young girl, perhaps around the age of four, standing in the doorway behind her mother. When the child saw Rhys, she grabbed her mother’s leg and held fast, one thumb quickly making its way to her mouth.

  “Can I help you?” The woman looked a little frazzled.

  Rhys knew that he had probably interrupted their dinner. He tried smiling at the young girl. She disappeared behind her mother, but he could still see the thin arms wrapped around her mother’s leg.

  “We were wondering if you may have seen anything out of the ordinary in the neighborhood?” Rhys asked.

  He saw the first flicker of alarm in the woman’s eyes. She tightened her grip on the baby and her left hand went down to reach for her daughter.


  “What kind of things?”

  Rhys smiled to show it wasn’t life threatening. He hoped it would calm some of her fears. He watched her curl her hand around the young child’s head and press it to her hip, drawing the child in even closer.

  “We’ve had some reports of thefts here. We’re hoping to be proactive and stop them before more can happen. Sometimes just warning people to take some extra precautions can help.”

  Her eyes widened. “Someone is breaking into houses?”

  “Yes, ma’am, but mostly what they’re doing is getting in through the garages. You want to be sure that you lock the door from the garage into your house.”

  She looked confused. “How are they getting into the garage?”

  “In this case, they’re using the automatic garage door openers. Because this is an older neighborhood, some of the openers are old as well. The older units had less security and the technology is much easier to hack.”

  The fear on her face lessened. “We put a brand new one in.”

  Rhys nodded. “That will help. The newer ones don’t use a fixed code from your remote. There’s also the problem of residents leaving their cars in the driveway with the doors unlocked. The thieves are stealing the remotes and using them to get in.”

  She glanced past Rhys to the car in her drive and frowned. “I’m pretty sure my husband locks his.” She sounded less than convinced. The little one she was holding began to stir. She shifted her weight to get a better hold.

  “Good. Can you tell me if you’ve seen any unusual cars in the neighborhood?”

  She shook her head. “This time of the year we aren’t out front as much and it gets dark so early. I don’t really pay attention once we get home.”

  It was a common refrain. Rhys thanked her for her time after giving a short list of things to watch out for and went back out to the sidewalk. Ian crossed the street and joined him.

  “Anything over on your side?” Ian asked.

  “Not yet. You?” Rhys watched as a minivan turned onto the street where they were canvassing. He doubted the thieves would be driving around in a minivan around the time that many were getting home but watched it carefully anyway. The van turned into a driveway a few houses down. A young woman and three children emerged from the van a short time later.

  “Nothing yet but I think a lot of the people I’ve spoken to are guilty of leaving their cars unlocked in the drive.”

  “Yeah, I got that impression too.” Rhys turned back to face the direction he was headed. He was only about two thirds of the way down the street. There were still several more houses to stop at. “I’d better get to the next one. We want to get done before it gets too dark.”

  Ian nodded agreement and crossed back over to the other side of the street.

  Rhys rang the next doorbell. This time, it was answered by an older gentleman.

  “Good evening, sir. We’ve been speaking with the residents in the neighborhood about some recent thefts.”

  Ward wasn’t surprised. He’d heard about something like that from his neighbor three doors down. His neighbor hadn’t had too many details to share at the time though.

  “Have you had any luck finding out who’s doing it?” Ward asked. Maybe he could find out something that his neighbor didn’t know yet.

  “That’s what we’re hoping you can help us with. Have you seen anything unusual?” Rhys asked.

  “Nothing with my house, no. I have a heavy lockbolt on my front door,” Ward said proudly. He’d installed it himself several years ago, back when his wife was still alive and the kids were young enough that they still lived at home.

  Rhys nodded his appreciation of the security measure.

  “What about your garage door opener?” Rhys asked.

  Wart smiled smugly. “That’s the best investment I’ve ever made. Bought it thirty years ago and it stills runs without any problems.”

  Rhys tried not to visibly wince. He explained the security problem with the fixed codes in the remotes.

  The look on Ward’s face was, at first, one of concern. It was followed by a look of uncertainty.

  “Actually, the last time I came home from class I found the garage door open, now that you mention it. I thought it was just me forgetting to close it.” Ward looked sheepish. He’d been so excited to go to his writing class that he couldn’t remember for sure if he had closed it before he’d pulled out of his drive.

  “Did you discover anything missing?” Rhys asked.

  Ward didn’t think so, but he promised to look more closely. He didn’t really have much of anything in the garage anymore. There were boxes of old clothes and things like that. He’d given most of his tools to his son.

  Rhys ran through the checklist of best practices for security and asked Ward again if he’d seen anything unusual.

  “No, but I’ll be sure to watch out now that you’ve told me what to look for.” Ward loved his neighborhood. It’s true that many of the original residents that had been there when he’d moved in were now gone. But the young families that had taken their place all seemed like nice folks.

  Ward thanked the polite young police officer and watched him walk away before closing his door. He thought about going out to get a new garage door immediately, but he had a new writing assignment to complete.

  He decided that he would go out first thing in the morning. Of course, it might not hurt to research some of the newer options online first, so he’d know what to look for once he went to the store. He returned to his kitchen and caught sight of the pages on his table.

  He’d been jotting down notes for the new writing assignment. This one had him a little puzzled. He was sure that Chad knew what he was doing though. He’d just have to struggle through and do the best that he could.

  He got another cup of decaf coffee and sat back down at his table. After reading the instructions for the assignment one more time, he picked up his pen and began writing.

  Chapter Four

  He parked his car at the far end of the lot. He’d arrived at the jewelry store early, too upset about the situation with Harriet to remain at home. With nothing to distract him from his thoughts at home, he was driving himself insane with visions of Harriet with another man. He’d remained at home as long as he could but, finally, he’d bolted from the house. The problem now was that the entire lot hadn’t yet been plowed.

  Miles could see Jax Anderson in his truck just finishing up. He wondered why Jax was running so late today. Normally, he got Miles’s lot plowed much earlier. Perhaps something else had come up to change his routine.

  Miles unlocked the front door of the jewelry store and configured the alarm system for work hours before crossing over to the back of the store where he removed his coat. He next went to his computer and turned it on. While he waited for the welcome screen to load, he went through the regular morning routine of cleaning. It was this exact routine that had compelled him to come to the store. He was so upset about Harriet, he needed his routine to calm him.

  Miles took his time cleaning all of the glass everywhere in the store including the front door, the windows in the front of the shop, and the glass jewelry cases that displayed his stock. Once he was done cleaning, the next part of his routine involved going back to his computer and reading through the message boards for jewelers all over the world. He was stopped short when he heard the front door open. Miles glanced at the clock. It was technically before his store typically opened, but he’d been so upset when he’d arrived, he’d forgotten to lock the door behind him.

  ***

  Jax finished plowing the lot of the jewelry store and parked the truck on the far side so he wouldn’t interfere with any customers that might arrive. He typically completed this lot much earlier in his morning, but he’d changed his schedule up today because he’d finally talked himself into looking at rings for Trina. He had been debating it for quite a while now. The problem was, he wasn’t certain that Trina would say yes.

  Lately, all she had bee
n focusing on was finishing her degree at college. He’d thought they were on the same page with things during the Christmas holidays. They’d had a great time together. Trina and her daughter, Jasmine, had become his family. He couldn’t imagine life without them at this point. But, just when Jax had thought it was time to make their relationship more official, Trina had doubled down on her classes. She was currently signed up for more classes this semester than she had ever tried taking at the same time.

  Jax took a deep breath and opened the door of the jewelry store. He wasn’t sure that he was going to buy anything just yet. Her attitude lately had confused him. But maybe it wouldn’t hurt to look. He had no idea what a diamond ring cost. It wasn’t something he’d ever checked into before. Maybe while he was here, he could talk to Miles about the way Trina had shifted gears on him just when he was ready to propose. The man had probably heard every story there was. He probably had a lot of great advice to give a guy who has lost his heart.

  ***

  Rhys pulled into the jewelry store parking lot and wondered why Jax’s truck was parked at the far end. He knew that Jax usually plowed this lot earlier in the morning. It was something Rhys had taken note of when he’d working the day shift with Jerry. He parked his car in front of the store and walked toward the door. Just as he reached it, Jax came walking out. He looked preoccupied and didn’t even notice Rhys at first. Rhys stopped short of the door so Jax wouldn’t plow into him.

  Jax walked past him, a pensive looked on his face.