The door clicked shut on its latch behind her as she ran down the garden path and across the gravel yard and into the street, asking the very first person she saw, ‘Have you seen Jamie Beaton out today? You know? The new Special Constable?’ She was determined to keep moving until she found him.
10
It was the first Saturday of July and the shed hunkered down among the town houses in the wide green valley beneath great fluffy clouds, bright white against a jolly blue summer sky. Inside the repairers were waiting – and waiting – for their clients to come.
‘We may have to face facts,’ said Sachin, at once bemused at how people so quickly dropped the repair shop and café like a stone, while simultaneously rubbing his hands together at the thought of potentially getting his weekends back and how much his golf would improve because of it. ‘The folk have spoken with their feet.’
‘Nonsense,’ snapped Senga from behind a towering cairn of fresh chocolate-dipped rock buns on the café counter. ‘They’ll come back for the cakes, if they won’t come for the repairing.’
Even though Senga’s delicious rock buns were unmatched in the whole National Park area, nobody seemed very convinced. Nevertheless, they kept their eyes fixed on the doors, willing the morning rush to begin.
‘Peaches and Willie couldn’t contend with their families’ disapproval,’ Roz said, next to their two empty seats behind the sewing machines.
‘Ally not coming either?’ Sachin wanted to know, gesturing to her vacant workbench.
McIntyre and Roz exchanged glances. ‘I’m not sure where she is,’ Roz replied. ‘She’s been in her own wee world since that job interview yesterday. Barely said a word to us when we did catch a glimpse of her late last night.’
‘Came home with her face shoved in her phone,’ joined her husband. ‘And was out of the house before breakfast this morning.’
‘She’ll have a lot on her mind,’ said the youngest Gifford sister. ‘Moving to Switzerland and everything.’
‘She didn’t seem as confident as you about her prospects there, but thank you, Rhona,’ said McIntyre, making Senga jab at her sister with her elbow for making assumptions.
‘It wasn’t a success, I gather, poor thing,’ said her mum, putting the subject to rest.
‘Think I’ll stocktake the paint stripper and varnishes,’ said McIntyre diplomatically.
‘I’ll help,’ said Cary Anderson, hopping from his stool, while the rest of the room fell to thumb-twiddling and long sighs in the silence of the shed.
At twenty past ten, the postie arrived, making everyone jump to attention.
‘Naebody in yet?’ he said as McIntyre signed for the order of metalworking supplies he’d been unable to cancel after realising demand for repairs had dried right up.
‘Very astute!’ tutted Senga with the look of a woman ready to launch a rock bun at the man for stating the obvious.
‘I’m sure things will pick up, eventually,’ McIntyre smiled placidly, handing back his digital signature.
‘It’ll be the village meeting that’s keeping them,’ the postie said, making his way back to the door.
‘Eh? What meeting’s this?’ asked Sachin.
‘The polis man’s emergency meeting at the school hall,’ he said, before disappearing into the courtyard, leaving the repairers exchanging bemused comments.
‘Why haven’t I heard about this emergency meeting?’ Senga demanded.
Cary Anderson shrugged blankly. He hadn’t heard about it either.
Roz was already on her phone. ‘I’ll look in the community pages on Facebook. Maybe someone’s set up a Saturday event that’s taking our clients? Maybe they’re not staying away on purpose?’
‘But a police event?’ Senga said. ‘What could it possibly be?’
‘I don’t see any mention of a meeting,’ said Sachin, also on his phone. ‘I’ll ring home, see if Aamaya knows anything about it.’
Before his call could connect, voices rose outside the shed in a growing hum. McIntyre was up and at the door in an instant. Footsteps approached and, in a blink, he was swept back into the repair shop by a chattering crowd, headed by none other than Ally and Jamie.
‘You’re not leaving, are you?’ Ally asked her dad with a grin as they were pushed right inside and up to the café corner by the moving bodies still spilling in.
A great gang of people, some of whom had never set foot in the shed were here, some from the neighbouring villages, and some familiar faces too: Aamaya Roy was here, delivering a kiss to her delighted husband, plus there was Joy from the laundrette and nosey Tony from the hop-on, hop-off tour buses with his cousin, Jean. The school cleaner was here too. Adding to their number was Reverend Meikle, Pauline from the Post Office, Dr Millen the GP, Ozan the barber, Esma from the chippy with her elderly mum in tow, and so many others, all bubbling with excitement and urgency.
