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seen my scarecrow, and the clothing isn’t unique or anything.”
    “Well, I’ve taken up enough of your time.” Cooper handed her her card. “If you should think of something or if someone as to come in here and seem really focused on your display, let me know.”
    “I will.”
    Later, Cooper replayed that conversation. She felt the young woman was telling the truth. It had been a shot in the dark, but that’s what she did. Lots of shots in the dark, lots of scraps of paper, old receipts, chewing gum wrappers, computer records, ifshe could get them. The endless gathering of data, most of it useless. But it only takes one perfect clue to point you in the right direction.
    After being sent home, Harry drove leisurely through Dillwyn, then west through Scottsville on Route 6. At Route 151 she turned right, right again on Route 250 to head home to Crozet. The late afternoon sun’s magical light enhanced every field and stone wall, even those raggedy few gas stations on the way.
    Tuesday, October 15, was just a gorgeous day, the kind that makes one forget the suffocating heat of summer or the soon-to-come frigid winter days.
    Hester Martin’s stand stood up ahead, decorated even more lavishly than usual. Two farm trucks were unloading produce and there stood Hester, in witch’s costume, directing the men. Next to Hester a well-groomed black mini schnauzer kept an eye on the men.
    Laughing, Harry parked in the lot.
    “Woo woo,” Harry called out as she got out of the car.
    Hester turned and picked up her broom, to shake at her.
    The deliveryman closest to Hester ducked.
    “Olin, don’t you dare drop one apple,” she admonished the man.
    Jake, in the bed of his truck, leaned over with another wooden crate of plump green apples. “You fly with that broom, Hester?”
    “I’ve got my pilot’s license,” she sassed. Then, to Harry, she said, “Girl, you just go on and pick out whatever you want. I can’t leave these boys for one minute. They need constant supervision. Heidi is helping.” Hester indicated the schnauzer. “She belongs to my old friend Cindy Walters, who’s around here somewhere.”
    Jake rolled his eyes, saying nothing.
    The other fellow on the ground, Greg Perez, carefully carried pumpkins to a pile he was building. No point in having Hester cuss him out, plus she might give him a big tip.
    Inside the other truck, his partner, Stafford Schikel, groaned as he lifted another major pumpkin. “Hester, these are the best pumpkins you’ve ever seen.”
    “Big,” she replied simply. “Did you cheat and put grow dust on them?”
    “No. You know we do everything organic. We lose a lot to worms, birds, and rats because of it and you.” He grinned. “You only buy organic.”
    “You charge me enough.” She hadn’t put her broom back.
    “You want organic pumpkins, you pay.”
    “Yeah. Yeah.” She pushed her pointed hat a bit to the side. “You know I go by your fields, I get out and smell everything. I run my fingers over the skins.”
    “We know.”
    She’d told them this ad infinitum.
    Olin picked up another apple crate and asked, “Ever find anything?”
    “Not at either of your farms, but let us never forget the owner of the organic store in Charlottesville who got busted for lying. His stuff was no different than Food Lion’s.”
    Greg couldn’t help but tweak her. “Food Lion is a good company, and, Hester, not everybody can afford organic produce. It is more expensive.”
    “You are what you eat,” she forcefully replied. “If you care about your body, you eat right. No processed foods. No foods that have suffered chemical sprays. That’s that.”
    Harry joined the conversation. “Well, I am eating this fresh lettuce and I will buy one of your super pumpkins. Think I’ll make a big jack-o’-lantern.” She smiled.
    “Fellas, excuse me.” Hester walked back inside to the cash register.
    Lolly Currie quickly put down her e-book reader.
    “Now, girl,” said Hester to