THE STORY SO FAR: Moving to a new town, store detective Gemma is gazumped on the rental of Keeper’s Cottage by a man whom she later sees several times in the store buying household items. She begins to wonder if he’s a shoplifter, making purchases to avert suspicion before returning for a bigger haul. When Gemma tries to apprehend a genuine shoplifter, however, she’s knocked out. The mystery man, Tom, comes to her aid and catches the thief, leaving a note asking Gemma to let him know she’s OK. Tom later asks her over to Keeper’s Cottage where an old apple tree has come down in a storm, taking half the roof with it, hence his need to replace household items. He also tells her the landlord, Victor, was odd about the repairs, sifting through the debris himself. Tom then shows Gemma a tin box containing some cryptic lines. He asks her to help him solve the puzzle…
Gemma started to laugh.
‘This has to be a wind-up,’ she said. ‘You wrote this little verse yourself, right? But as a chat-up line, it’s original, I’ll give you that!’
‘I did not!’
Tom was indignant. ‘I found it in the rafters when the roof came down.’
Gemma took a closer look. It was a small sheet of lined paper, but the writing certainly didn’t look like Tom’s. As a graphic designer, he wrote in stylish italics. These
