The Man Who Can't Let Go novel · Chapter 18 of 24

Chapter 18: Tuesdays

The winter board was Friday week, Abel was still suspended, and Greta's threat sat in the shop like weather.

Virginia spent the days refusing to let it in.

On Tuesday, at four o'clock, the shop bell rang.

Virginia was behind the counter with a box of drawer pulls and a pencil behind her ear.

Tobias stood in the doorway with his hands in his coat pockets.

"I'd like a wrench," he said gravely.

"You live upstairs."

"I know. It's Tuesday."

She put the pencil down.

"Which one?"

"The ten-inch adjustable. The one on the second hook."

She took it down and set it on the counter between them.

It was a plain steel wrench, a little scuffed, and she turned it over once and saw a small scratch near the jaw.

She knew that scratch.

She had made it herself, at sixteen, dropping it down the cellar steps.

"Dad," she called toward the back. "How many wrenches has this man bought?"

Harvey came out of the stockroom with his glasses on his forehead.

"A hundred and fifty-six," he said. "Give or take a holiday."

"A hundred and fifty-six."

"Same wrench," Harvey said, and hung it back on the second hook.

"He buys it Tuesday, I ring it up, and Tuesday night I put it back."

"I figured he needed the receipt more than the wrench."

Tobias had gone red to the ears.

"You knew," he said.

"Son, I'm a hardware man," Harvey said. "I know when a person needs a hinge and when a person needs a reason to come in."

He took his glasses off his head.

"I'm going to the bank before it closes. Don't break anything."

The bell rang again behind him.

Virginia stood very still with her palms flat on the counter.

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