Free The Mournful Teddy by John J. Lamb

that still seems a little exorbitant to me.
    When I tuned back into the conversation, Cleland was saying, “I’ll be tied up the rest of this afternoon and evening. Could we meet sometime tomorrow afternoon?”
    “Certainly. When and where?” Ash asked.
    “How does three o’clock work for you?”
    “Three o’clock is fine. Where do you want to meet?”
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    “Since you live nearby, how about your home? I’d like to see where you work and it’ll give me the chance to look at some more of your bears without you having to pack them up again and bring them to the hotel.”
    “Thanks. We appreciate that.”
    “Look, I’d love to chat, but I want to get a seat before they’re all gone.” Cleland pointed in the direction of the auction enclosure. “Could you write your address down for me?”
    “Absolutely.” I took one of her business cards. “So, you’re here for the Mourning Bear auction too?”
    “Actually, it’s the main reason I came down here. Finding your wife’s work was an unexpected bonus.”
    “Thanks and good luck.”
    I finished writing down our address and handed the card back to Cleland. A moment later, she was slicing her way through the crowd toward the auction enclosure, which was rapidly filling with people. However, I noticed that although the scheduled start of bidding was only a few minutes away, there was still no sign of the Mourning Bear.
    I turned to Ash and stroked her golden hair. “Mrs.
    Lyon, I’m damned proud of you.”
    “I can’t believe it. Brad, I won first prize! This kind of thing only happens on sappy Hallmark Channel shows.”
    Ash was glowing with happiness.
    “I’m not surprised one bit. And I’ll tell you something else: She’ll make an offer on the licensing rights for Susannah tomorrow afternoon. Otherwise, she wouldn’t be coming out to our house.”
    “If you’d told me that an hour ago, I’d have said,
    ‘Brad, honey, you’ve completely lost your marbles,’ but I think you’re probably right.” Ash paused to exchange pleasantries with a woman who’d stopped to congratulate her. Once the lady moved on, Ash said, “From what some The Mournful Teddy
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    of the other designers have told me, we shouldn’t expect her to offer much money.”
    “Which is no problem because you don’t look at the teddy bears as a business.”
    “But God, wouldn’t it be amazing to walk in and see Susannah in a gift shop?”
    “Yeah, but it still might not be a bad idea to give Scotty a call when we get home, just to run it past him.” Scott Shueford was a former neighbor from San Francisco and a very skilled corporate attorney.
    “That’s a good idea. Well, I guess Susannah and I’d better get back to the table.”
    “Yeah, what with the award, we’ve probably got some customers.” I held up the camera. “I’ll be with you in a minute, but I want to go out in front and get a picture of the tent and the teddy bear show sign for the photo album.”
    Ash leaned over to give me a warm kiss on the cheek.
    “Thank you for having faith in me, Brad.”
    “My pleasure, honey.”
    As I went outside, I saw the young man from the auction company who’d given me the brochure. He was getting out of an Acura sedan and wore a preoccupied expression. I said, “Hi, there. It doesn’t look like your day’s improved.”
    He blinked, recognized me, and replied, “Not by a long shot.”
    “What’s wrong? Didn’t the bear ever arrive?”
    “No, so my boss sent me to Miss Ewell’s house over there by the mountains.” He pointed vaguely to the east.
    “What did she say?”
    “Well, I didn’t actually get to talk to her. She has this live-in nurse or something and she said that Miss Ewell was asleep and couldn’t be disturbed. But the nurse told me that Miss Ewell’s nephew picked up the bear last night around nine-thirty and was supposed to deliver it to our motel here in Harrisonburg.”
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    “And that’s the last anyone saw of