She put her purse on the counter and unwrapped the present. When she opened the box and looked inside, she stood for a moment, staring at the contents.

“What is it?” Grady asked.

She reached into the box and held up crudely torn strips of white eyelet.

“It used to be a dress,” she told him. She dropped it back into the box. She looked up at Grady. “I think I know who broke into my shop. There was a woman in Bling the other day who came in and tried on this dress. She wasn’t sure if she wanted it or not, so I put it in the back to hold it in case she came back.”

“Get Hal on the phone,” Grady told her. “Tell him what you just told me.”

She did, and Hal arrived within minutes of her call.

She wasn’t as happy to see Maggie as she was to see Hal.

“Are you riding shotgun in the cruiser these days?” she asked her mother, who trailed into the house with Hal.

“Don’t be a smart-ass,” Maggie replied. “I have the right to worry about my daughter.”

“Don’t start with me.” Vanessa had led them into the kitchen.

Hal went straight to the box. “Ness, I’m assuming you opened this. Grady, did you touch it?”

“No. I doubt you’ll find any prints on there except Vanessa’s,” Grady told him.

“This was here when you came back from your walk?” Hal asked.

Vanessa nodded. “We came in through the front door-”

“Which I’m assuming was locked?”

“Yes.”

“Any idea how someone could have gotten in?” Hal asked her.

“Back door,” Grady said. “The lock was picked. Expertly done, I might add.”

Grady walked through the small back entry and pointed to the door. “An amateur would have taken out the lower glass pane and turned the latch. The door was unlocked as you see it when we came in, but it wasn’t obvious until we started looking after Ness found the box.”

“So tell me again about this woman you mentioned on the phone. When she was in the shop, what she looked like, any conversations you might have had with her.” Hal took out a pad and pen.

Vanessa ran through the woman’s visit to the store.

“She said her name was Candice,” she told him as she finished up, “but that’s probably not her real name. Oh, and Steffie saw her coming out of Sips yesterday when she-Stef-was on her way to the Inn for the wedding.”

“How did Steffie know who she was?” Hal asked.

“Stef was there the other day in the shop when ‘Candice’ came in.”

“I’m going to want to stop down and have a chat with Steffie, then, see if she can add anything to what you told me.” Hal folded the notepad and tucked it into the inside pocket of his jacket.

“She might. I went into the back of the shop for a moment while Stef was there, so they might have had some conversation,” Vanessa recalled. Then, thinking about how considerate she’d been to her would-be customer, she began to steam. “You know, I felt sorry for her. She just looked so… I don’t know, unhappy or downtrodden.”

“Like she was having a bad day?” Maggie asked.

“More like she was having a bad life. I offered to hold the dress for her-and I did, it was still on the hold rack in my office yesterday. And I even offered to give her a nice discount on the price because I felt sorry for her.”

“Why?” Grady stuck his hands in his pants pockets and leaned against the wall.

“Because the dress was a little on the pricey side, and I thought it might make it easier to make the sale.” Vanessa stared at Grady for a moment, then added, “Oh, all right, it was because she wasn’t dressed well and she looked like someone who didn’t have a lot of nice things and she said the dress had looked nice on her when she tried it on. She sort of lit up a little when she brought it back out of the dressing room. I wanted her to have it, okay?”

“Let’s assume for a minute that she was the person who broke into your shop last night,” Grady offered. “If she liked the dress all that much, why wouldn’t she have just taken it with her? Why destroy something she really wanted?”

“That’s the odd part, that she’d take the dress only to rip it to shreds. Why would someone break in, take the dress, destroy it, and then wrap it up and give it back to me? She’d have to know that I’d make the association to her right away.”

“No woman in her right mind would do that,” Maggie thought aloud. “That’d be like painting a big sign on her back: ‘I Did It.’”

“Well, she may have been involved, but I don’t think she was behind it,” Grady said. “I don’t think she was the person who broke into the shop and beat up on the car.”

“Those instincts of yours again, eh?” Vanessa asked, and Grady nodded.

Hal pulled on rubber gloves and replaced the lid on the box.

“Ness, do you have a paper bag?” he asked.

She nodded and got one from the pantry.

“Here you go.” She handed it to him.

He tucked the ribbon into the bag.

“Guess that’s it for now.” He picked up the box and the bag. “I’m going to take this down to the station and see if I can lift some prints. I’ll send someone down this afternoon to see what we can lift from that back door and the table.”

“I’ll bet you don’t find any.” Vanessa followed him from the room. “I’ll bet she wore gloves when she wrapped that box.”

“Was she wearing gloves when she tried on the dress?” Grady asked.

“Of course not… Oh.” Vanessa followed his thought. “Can you get prints off of fabric?”

“Depends.” Hal walked out onto the porch. “We’ll see what we can find.”

“I’ll bet there are prints on that price tag,” Maggie said when she reached the front door. “I never saw a woman yet who picked up something in a fancy store and didn’t sneak a peek at the price.”

“She did. She looked at the tag.” In spite of herself, Vanessa was impressed that Maggie had thought of it. “And she looked at some other things. A pair of shorts… madras plaid. They’re probably still in the shop. There’s only one pair like them. Red, blue, yellow, green, and white plaid, Hal.”

“I’ll stop and look for them. Sue down at the station is real good with lifting prints. If we’re lucky, we’ll find prints on the tag and dress that match prints from the box. And then if we’re really lucky, we’ll find them on record somewhere,” Hal said over his shoulder as he walked toward his car. “I’m going to send Sue over, see what she can get from the door and the table. We’ll get back to you, Ness.”

He stopped midway down the path and turned around. “In the meantime, I’d feel a lot better if you’d stay over at my place.”

“Why can’t you just park a police car in front of my house all night?” She frowned. “I hate that someone could drive me out of my house and I don’t even know why.”

“Well, it’s going to be easier to figure out the why once we figure out the who.” Hal continued walking to his car. “Regardless, you shouldn’t be staying here alone.”

“Vanessa, maybe I could-” Maggie began but Vanessa cut her off.

“Thanks anyway, but no.”

Vanessa waved good-bye and watched Hal and Maggie get into the car and drive away.

Vanessa went down the steps and picked up a few dead tulips she’d missed the day before. She could feel Grady’s eyes on her.

“What?” she asked.

“Hal’s right. The least you can do is have someone stay here with you,” he reasoned. “I guess it’s out of the question that you take Maggie up on her offer.”

She glared at him. “What do you think?”

“I think that narrows the field,” he muttered.

“What?”

He shook his head. “Nothing.”

“I am so mad at this woman.” Vanessa began to rail. “This ‘Candice.’ Who the hell is she and why is she doing these things? What could I have done to her that she’d want to destroy my business and scare me?”

“Let’s finish this discussion inside.” He held the door for her, and she followed him into the living room, sat when he did.

“Maybe it’s someone you’ve had words with.”