"It's insane."
Joshua nodded but grabbed a crate of what Eli believed was rhubarb.Not the most useful crop, but better than nothing.
He walked a few steps inside and froze."What the hell?"
Eli followed his gaze to the crows."Oh, they're crows."
"I see they're crows, but what are they doing in your shop?You can lose your license if you have a pest problem."
"Shh."Eli's hushing had all the crows' eyes turn his way.Eli believed Joshua stopped breathing as he took in how the crows watched them."They'reothercrows," Eli whispered close to Joshua's ear, unsure of how well crows heard.
Joshua nodded."Right."He sent Eli a terrified look, and Eli patted his shoulder.
"Let's put the crates here, and I'll get it on the shelves after we've been to the bank."Eli gestured at the area in front of the meat display."Where is the fish?"
"The crate underneath the one with the radishes.I put them on ice, but I didn't have much, so they need to get into a refrigerator."
Eli walked out of the back door and carried back both crates at the same time.There were some leafy greens next to the radishes.
Once they'd carried everything inside, Eli turned to Joshua."Do you need to check it over or do you know the price already?"
Joshua tapped his forefinger against his temple."I have it summed up, but I still haven't carried the chickens up from the boat."
Right, chickens.Eli had forgotten about the chickens."Do you need help carrying--" Before Eli could finish the sentence, the door to the shop opened and the man from the hotel walked in.Eli had believed he'd left by now.Hadn't Elijah said he'd stay for one night?
Everyone froze, and it took Eli's brain a second to piece together what the star-shaped badge and the gun at his hip meant.Sheriff.
"We're not open yet, Sheriff."
"Only doing my rounds."He gestured at the crows."What's this supposed to mean?"
Fuck."They're crows."
He reached for a notepad and a pen, and Eli looked at Joshua.Since when was anyone allowed pen and paper?
* * * *
Thano was tying his tie when there was a caw outside.He sighed.No one came to his house unless something had happened.
He went to open the door and watched as Lark shifted to be able to talk to him."There is a detective with a shiny star on his chest and a gun who threatened Eli."
Ice filled Thano's chest at the mention of a gun in the same sentence as Eli, but then he shook his head."What?"
"We went to tell Eli about the bag."
Thano nodded.He'd asked Byrd to tell Eli the bag was at Romeo's.
"When we got there, Eli hadn't arrived yet, so we waited."
Thano nodded again to get her to hurry the story along.
"When he came, Byrd told him, and he let us into the shop.We wanted to look at the shinys."
This could become a problem.Maybe it had been a bad idea for Eli to have agreed to sell the shiny to Fala.Now all crows would want something, but they didn't all have money.
"No one is stealing from Eli, right?"He gave her a stern look.
"No, we're only looking."
