Run: 2026-07-25-01KYCPNBRFYMK6Y7VSQ8HRYN8H

The bell above the door jangled, and the smell of cinnamon thickened as the oven door swung open. "You're early. The morning buns won't be out for twenty minutes." "I didn't come for the buns." "Then you came for gossip, and that's fresher anyway." "Margaret Ellery's back door was standing wide open at six this morning. Wide open, in November." "She feeds those barn cats. Probably left it for them." "Her car was in the drive. Her porch light was still burning." "Some people forget." "Margaret Ellery has never forgotten anything in her life, including what I wore to her wedding in 1978." A pause, filled with the scrape of a tray on the counter. "You want me to say something's wrong." "I want you to tell me I'm being foolish, and you haven't, which tells me plenty." "She ordered a lemon tart on Thursday. Said she was expecting company Sunday. Paid in advance, which she never does." "Company. Did she say who?" "She said, and I remember this because it struck me odd, she said, 'Someone who owes me an apology.'" The oven timer went off, shrill in the small room, and neither of them moved to silence it. "Get your coat." "It's already on."