Page 15 of Kate and Clara's Curious Cornish Craft Shop
‘Okay, what’s up?’ Sebastian demands, putting his satchel down on the desk.
‘What do you mean?’
‘You just agreed to an Irish coffee at 11 o’clock in the morning? You barely drink alcohol at the best of times, let alone whiskey in your morning coffee!’
‘Did I? Sorry, I’m a bit distracted this morning, that’s all.’
‘May I enquire as to why?’
‘It’s a bit strange actually. Look, put your bag upstairs, and I’ll tell you all about it.’
‘Sounds intriguing!’
Sebastian makes us both our usual coffees from the machine I have in the flat, and returns downstairs to where I’m still standing by the shop counter.
‘So, boss, what’s up?’ he asks, sipping on his frothy cappuccino.
‘This,’ I say, lifting the blue embroidered felt from underneath the counter and sliding it across to him.
‘That’s pretty,’ Sebastian says, lifting it up to look at it. ‘Who did it?’
I nod towards the machine, which is now on a shelf behind us.
‘I don’t understand! Oh, did you get the machine to work in the end and you made this on it. That’s fantastic!’
‘No,Ididn’t do it.’
‘But you said the machine did? Who was using it then?’
‘That’s the thing – I don’t know! I wondered if it might be you, but by the look on your face it clearly wasn’t.’
Sebastian’s brow furrows. ‘Er … no, definitely not me. What’s going on? You’re making no sense at all!’
‘Last night before I closed up the shop I spent a while cleaning the sewing machine. I tried to get it working but it was having none of it – completely jammed up, it was – so I left it on the counter thinking I might change the window display today to include it because it had scrubbed up so well.’
‘Uh-huh…’ Sebastian says, keenly watching me while he sips his coffee.
‘When I came down here this morning to open up everything was completely normal. The sewing machine was still on the desk where I had left it,butit had this in it!’ I pick up the felt again. ‘And it was still attached to the coloured thread on top on the spool.’
‘How very odd! How did it get there?’
‘That is exactly what I’ve been trying to figure out.’
‘Maybe someone placed it there?’ Sebastian suggests.
‘That was my initial thought, but firstly, who would want to do that and why? And secondly, how did they get in here to put it there? The shop was locked up overnight, there was only Molly and me upstairs, and this morning there was no sign of a break-in. And even if there had been, why would someone break in just to put some embroidery in an old sewing machine?’
‘Hmm.’ Sebastian puts his finger on his chin in a thoughtful manner. ‘Have you checked with Molly? She’s not playing a joke on you?’
‘Yup, I texted her first thing. She knows nothing about it. I tried to play it down a bit as I don’t want her thinking someone has been in here while we’ve been asleep upstairs.’
‘Understandable. It has to be someone with a key then.’
‘The only people who have keys to the shop are you, Anita and me. Why would Anita do it? It makes no sense.’
‘Let’s assume for a moment it’snotAnita.’
‘I very much doubt it is.’
