Page 37 of Home Town

“For the website,” he rushed to say. “I, uh, guess she’s getting into the care and handling of historical artifacts. People are interested in that kind of stuff.” He glanced at Josie and shrugged.

She nodded, impressed with his ad lib. The smooth-talking player was back, proving he’d had lots of practice in that role.

But none of that was of consequence at this moment in time.

What did matter was he hadn’t outright told his mother that the compass was missing. Which was huge since she was on the board of the historical society.

It seemed he was feeling his mother out instead. And as much as Josie wanted to continue to hate him, she was too relieved to right now.

“So, um, Mom, would the historical society ever take the founder’s compass out and like bring it to school for show-and-tell or anything like that? Or maybe bring it to a jeweler or somebody for restoration or an appraisal?”

He was quiet as he listened and Josie held her breath waiting for the answer she couldn’t hear. Currently the only sound was the pounding of her own pulse in her ear and the chugging of the ancient A/C unit in the window.

“So then, no?” Corey finally said.

He shot Josie a glance filled with what looked like the same emotions she was feeling. Mainly disappointment with a good dose of panic mixed in.

“Okay. Got it. Thanks, Mom… Mmm-hmm. See you later… Love you. Bye.”

Corey’s chest expanded beneath his T-shirt as he lowered the cell from his ear and tapped the screen to disconnect the call. Then his gaze met hers.

“School’s out for the summer but even during the school year, they bring the classes here to the archives to see the stuff rather than bringing the artifacts to the school.”

“Oh.” Her heart fell a little bit further. Not that it had all that far to fall. She was at pretty much rock bottom.

“And the appraiser already looked at the compass to evaluate it, back when it was donated, so there would be no reason for anyone to want to look at it again.” He drew in a breath and met her gaze. “At least not until the set-up for the event, when the compass was supposed to be on display for all the attendees to see inside the custom showcase a local craftsman already built. It’s stored in my mom’s garage.”

“Oh,” she said again as with every word he uttered the situation seemed more dire.

“Sorry.” He cringed.

“Don’t be. It’s not your fault.” She shook her head and met his gaze again. “You didn’t tell her.”

It was a statement, not a question even though she had plenty of questions about this particular topic. Why hadn’t he told?

Corey drew in a breath and let it out with a loud whoosh. “Nope.”

“Why not?” she asked, more than a little curious and confused.

Jaw set, he suddenly looked determined. “Because we’re going to find this thing ourselves.”

She felt her brows rise high. “How?”

“The gas station across the street has exterior security cameras. I saw them when I was over there buying the sodas. They face the street and library. So we ask to see the footage. I’m also going to check around here to see if the library has any cameras, inside or outside. That might give us some clue as to who else was in here.”

“Besides me,” Josie said miserably.

“Besides you, because I know you didn’t take it…even if you did basically accuse me.”

“I did not. I said the town might though.”

“I know. And I hate to say it, but you could be right. Which is why we’re going to do everything we can do first.”

He sounded so confident. It was almost infectious.

Enough so it sparked the tiniest glimmer of hope inside her. “Okay. Yeah. That would be good. With the cameras, we could see if anyone came and went after I did yesterday.”

“Mmm-hmm. And we’ll look at the locks. See if they look like they’ve been jimmied open or not.”

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