“That would not be an easy tree to steal. It’s huge. It must be nine feet tall.” They had donated it from their tree farm, but by the time it had been cut and re-stood, he wasn’t sure exactly how tall it was.
“Well, they did it. Maybe with a truck.”
“I don’t think there are any cameras on the town square. I guess…normally there’s nothing to steal there.”
“Yes, I already checked. There are no cameras. And like I said, we’re not going to be able to solve anything until tomorrow morning, and how would we be able to get a tree that fast?”
Roland wasn’t worried about it. He could leave a note for the Secret Saint after he left the Christmas program practice. He could let her know that they needed to postpone the deliveries that they were planning on making tonight and instead go to the tree farm, grab a tree, and get it stood up again.
“Didn’t it already have lights on it?” Roland asked.
“They stole it, lights and all,” Mrs. Tucker said, snapping her mouth closed and looking disgusted.
“Wow. So that was probably five or six strands of lights.”
“It was ten. Ten strands of lights and a nine-foot-tall Christmas tree. Who in the world would think of stealing something like that? And what in the world would they do with it?” Mrs. Tucker sounded like the world was about to come to an end.
“Well, obviously, it was someone who wanted to spread Christmas cheer somewhere else,” Roland said. He was starting to feel a little bit better. Nothing was ever as bad as it seemed at first, and even if he was accused of stealing the money, they couldn’t prove it, and…his reputation would take a hit, because some people would never forget that he had been accused, even though no proof was ever presented. Still, God had a reason for all of this, and the best thing that he could do was to not worry about it and just trust that God was going to work it all out for his good and God’s glory. After all, he said he wanted to live for God’s glory, but…so many times he found himself wanting to live for his own. Like his reputation. He didn’t want it to be shredded, but if it happened, through no fault of his own, then God promised that He would work it out.
He had been able to reason that through in his head, and while it still bothered him, because of course he wanted to have a good reputation, he had to say that he trusted God more than he trusted himself, and he just needed to let go and believe.
“All right. The idea that someone would stoop so low as to steal a town Christmas tree is disturbing, but there’s nothing we can do about it now, and we need to work on the Christmas program.”
Nelly looked up at Roland. “Are you okay?” she asked, and his heart stirred. She was concerned about him? She had heard the accusations, she had defended him more fiercely than his family probably would, and now she was asking if he was okay. Wow. It made him feel good in a way he couldn’t explain.
“I’m fine.”
She nodded. She opened her mouth like she was going to say something else, and then she closed it. Maybe because Mrs. Tucker was standing there, or maybe because she didn’t want to get too touchy-feely with him, he wasn’t sure.
But he got the impression that she was going to say that she believed he was innocent.
The Christmas practice went well, and while there still was a bit of an undercurrent between the two of them, they got along much better than they had before. He almost enjoyed working with her. It certainly didn’t have the fun and easy camaraderie that working with his Secret Saint partner did, but it wasn’t bad. Honestly.
He left practice a little early, saying that he needed to get home to his mother, which wasn’t entirely untrue. He wrote out a note explaining what was going on and hoped that his Secret Saint partner would still check the tree for notes as he tucked it inside. They hadn’t left too many, but this was one of those things where he needed to contact her. He was pretty sure she would agree that thetree took precedence. After all, the entire town turned out for the tree lighting ceremony, and the businesses relied on the income they made to pad their bottom line and stay profitable.
There was no one around when he stopped and got out, ran to the tree, and tucked his note inside. He still didn’t see anyone as he walked back and got back in his pickup.
It was the first time they had changed plans, and hopefully his partner would go along with it.
Chapter Nineteen
Nelly’s step was light as she walked toward their meeting spot at twenty till midnight.
She had gotten the note out of the tree as she was about to put her own note in. She had been impressed. His sources were really good, although she supposed that one only had to drive down Main Street in order to see that the Christmas tree was missing.
Still, she had no idea where he lived, and if he lived out of town, for him to have figured it out in less than twelve hours was pretty amazing in her opinion.
Regardless, she was all in about skipping out on their earlier plans and focusing on the tree. After all, not only was it something to do for the town, but she loved the annual Christmas tree lighting celebration, and she didn’t want anything to mess it up.
Hopefully the police would figure out who had taken the tree and the money. Maybe the same person had done both.
And surely no one was going to accuse Roland of stealing the very tree he had donated to the town square.
That kind of cast a pall over everything for her. She couldn’t believe that the pastor would believe that Roland could do such athing, and it bothered her. She wanted to figure out some way of exonerating his name.
Interestingly, Roland didn’t seem to be too bothered by it. At least he hadn’t acted like it had while they were doing the Christmas program with the children. He had been helpful and encouraging and patient the way he always was. And he hadn’t even snipped and snapped at her like he usually did. Typically, there was an underlying tension, a push and pull back and forth, that they both made sure not to allow to erupt in front of the children, but both of them knew they wanted to. Sometimes there were angry glares and narrow eyes as well. But all of that had been missing today.
Was it because he had heard her defend him?
