Chapter 13
Thirteen
C annon stayed in the healing garden until the sun started to go down.
He hadn’t eaten anything since the bread his wife had offered him earlier, but he honestly wasn’t that hungry.
He supposed it was time for him to get up and find a place to stay for the night.
Probably his truck. He could drive to a hotel somewhere, although he’d have to look on his phone to figure out where the closest one was.
And he really didn’t want to leave his wife.
It made him uncomfortable that she was there with no security protection.
She had said she wasn’t even sure she’d locked the door. That bothered him.
Thinking of that, he pulled up his foreman’s contact on his phone and gave him a call. There had been several messages from him, which Cannon had answered as succinctly as possible. Otherwise, he hadn’t had any updates on his business for two days.
“George speaking,” George answered.
“Hey there. Everything going okay?”
“Yeah. We had a few hiccups, but everything is going fine.”
“Good,” he said. Normally he would panic over the idea that there had been hiccups and want to know all about them, including what they were and how George had handled them, but right now, that was not at the top of his list of worries.
“I need to order a security system, and…” He went on to talk about the kind he wanted and the other specs.
He hadn’t scoped out the entire house, and he couldn’t secure it quite the way he wanted to, but he could do something at least to make sure that if someone came in the windows or doors downstairs, his wife would be woken up and the police called immediately.
He had no idea how long it would take the police to come to this godforsaken place, but he was guessing it would probably be a while.
“All right. I can probably have that here in a week.”
“No. I need it in Raspberry Ridge, tomorrow.”
“Tomorrow?” George said, obviously shocked that he would make such a demand.
“Yes. I need it tomorrow.” He knew it could be done. It just would cost. Which was pretty much the way anything was. He could make it happen, but he would have to pay for it. And it would just depend on how much he wanted to pay.
“Boss. That’s going to be pricey.”
“I know. I want it here tomorrow. Get it ordered, and get it overnighted. If you can’t get it overnighted, I want you to personally deliver it.”
“All right, boss. If I do this, it means the Crutchfield job is going to be going over budget and time.”
“If that has to go over budget and time, that’s fine. I want that security system here tomorrow.”
“All right, boss. If you say so.”
George still wasn’t really on board with it and didn’t understand why a small system, relative to what they usually put in, would take such precedence, especially over a job like Crutchfield, which was a six-figure job.
“I do. Thanks, George.”
He hung up, feeling a little bit better.
He wished he would have ordered it earlier that day.
He might have been able to get George to bring it out and have it here this evening yet.
That way, his wife would be safe tonight, and he would sleep a lot better.
Maybe even go to a hotel. But for today, tonight, he was going to be sleeping in front of his wife’s store.
And he’d be sleeping with one eye open .
He opened the gate and walked out of the healing garden.
He had been so far in his head that he hadn’t realized there was someone walking up from what appeared to be the path that went down to the beach, although he wasn’t sure.
He seemed to vaguely remember Lauren saying something about it when they had visited before, but they’d never been on it themselves.
It was her neighbor, the man that she’d been laughing with when Cannon had walked in the store earlier today.
He jerked his head at the man, not wanting to talk. But the guy stopped. What was his name? Matteo? Cannon wasn’t sure, but he didn’t want to have anything to do with him. He wasn’t sure where the man fit in with his wife, but wherever it was, Cannon wanted to root him out.
“Hey, man.” Matteo stopped. He was sweaty, had been jogging, and was slightly out of breath. He put his hands on his hips and walked in place a little, like he didn’t want to completely stop and have his muscles get cold.
Cannon respected the self-control and self-discipline it took to have that kind of work ethic to be in that good of shape, but it was hard for him to admit that right now, because…he was jealous of the rapport this man obviously had with his wife.
“I just want to make sure you knew that your wife and I are friends, but I saw the ring on her finger the first time we talked, and it’s not been anything more than that. She has definitely kept a straight arm on me, and I don’t mess around like that anyway.”
“Good to know,” Cannon said, not really interested in becoming buddies with this guy. They couldn’t have less in common from what he could see.
“She mentioned that you owned a business.”
“I do.”
“I was wondering if you would give me some advice. I retired recently from the military and civilian criminal investigative work, and I kind of want to chill here in town. But I’m not independently wealthy, and the shop that I inherited from my uncle, which used to be an electronics shop, and I’m turning into a bookshop, is going to need to pay for my food and other necessities.
” He kicked his legs out and stretched from side to side before he continued.
“I was wondering if you had any advice for me. Your wife seemed to indicate that your business was highly successful.”
“I built it from the ground up,” Cannon said, responding to the man’s sincere compliment. He didn’t believe it was flattery. And he also believed that the guy probably didn’t know squat about business and truly was interested in learning.
“Impressive,” the dude said. He gave a half smile. “I’m pretty disciplined, but I don’t know anything about business. If it takes hard work, I can do it. But… Knowing exactly how to advertise and market my stuff… I have no clue.”
“Are you interested in reading?” Cannon had to ask. The guy didn’t look like he’d cracked a book in his life, unless it was a police procedural or a military intelligence manual.
“I read some true crime, thrillers, psychological thrillers. That’s about everything.”
“I see. Well, my first recommendation would be for you to open a business that suited your interests.”
“I like to read. I’ve probably read ten books over the last ten years.”
Cannon managed not to laugh. The dude must have seen the twinkle in his eye though, because he stopped fidgeting for just a moment and said, “That’s not enough, is it?”
“In my opinion, I would say no. After all, if you’re going to sell books, you’ve got to know books.”
“I have to admit, I’ve gotten some romance books that have come in the mail, and I’ve been tempted to tear the covers off them. Wow.” He ran a hand through his hair, and Cannon found himself liking the guy despite himself.
“I wouldn’t rip the covers off. The cover is the first thing that people see, and I know that the old adage is you can’t judge a book by its cover, but I would guess that that’s what sells the book. Or at least draws the reader’s interest to that particular book.”
“That must be why bookstores have displays that show the covers. I kind of thought the spine would be the most important.”
“Only true readers go browse. They have to look at spines. Even libraries have displays where you see the cover. They might even have signs that draw your attention to the display before your attention is drawn to the cover. It’s all about positioning it and marketing it correctly.”
“This sounds a little more complicated than what I was thinking. I thought I’d open a bookstore, because it just didn’t seem like a whole lot of work, and I figured that I could work out in the back while people browsed.
I’d have the cash register nearby, and I’d check them out and keep doing what I needed to.
I don’t want to not stay in shape, you know? ”
Cannon nodded. He already knew the guy that well.
He probably spent a couple of hours in the gym every day.
Or a couple of hours running along the lake.
It probably wouldn’t hurt Cannon to get a little better shape.
Maybe, after he was done talking about running a bookstore, he could see if Matteo would give him a little bit of advice on how he should start getting back into shape.
Maybe that was part of Lauren’s problem, although she’d never mentioned it. Not even once.
“I suppose that would work. I think you’re right. People who want to read books aren’t really going to need you to take their hand and lead them around the store. You’re probably not going to have a lot of customer service issues either.”
“No. I’ll probably buy back books that were bought in my store, but for less, you know? I’d sell them for some amount and then buy them back for a tenth of that.”
“Yeah. That sounds good.”
“Where can I learn how to sell books?”
Cannon was quiet for a bit. Really, Matteo should ditch the whole book idea, although he didn’t know how much money Matteo already had invested.
But he’d be better off getting into something he knew a little bit about.
But how would one combine police procedure and investigations into a career in a small-town shop in Raspberry Ridge?
“Raspberry Ridge really isn’t big enough to sustain a lot of shops, although… The potential for tourism is there. But someone would have to open up a hotel or inn or something.”
“Actually, I heard the inn up on the hill right behind Raspberry Ridge is going up for sale. If that’s true, and someone buys it, we might get some tourism, and that’s what it’s going to take. ”