Chapter 5

Calder paused on the sidewalk and looked up at the towering oak tree. There was nothing particularly special about the tree itself, except for the fact that it was growing straight up through the interior of a small antique store, and right out through the roof. MOSSYCUP ANTIQUES, the oval sign read. The background was navy blue, the store name in raised white script, and the oak tree—a mossycup oak, he presumed—was in beautifully rendered gold relief in the background. “Founded: At the Beginning,” he murmured, reading aloud the small line of script under the store name. Hmm. The beginning of what?

He’d noticed the eccentric little place on his way into town the day before—it was hard to miss—and decided he’d stop in on his way in that morning to talk to Owen Hartley, owner of Hartley’s Hardware and the new mayor of Blueberry Cove. More importantly to Calder, he was apparently the town historian as well.

Calder’s meeting with Winstock had been pushed back from dinner the previous even