“Whose blue Ford is that sitting by the fence?” Nathaniel asked.

“It belongs to the young woman who sat in booth four on Christmas Eve,” Evelyn said.

“Has she been back inside today?”

“She comes in for black tea every three hours,” Evelyn said.

“She buys a six-dollar pancake plate for the little girl and sits there until the plate is scraped clean.”

Nathaniel looked at the frost clinging to the door handles of the sedan.

“Has the engine been running?” Nathaniel asked.