under her breath. Out loud she’d say, “I’m so lucky to have a world-class shopper for a best friend.” Malls, online, high-end department stores, budget big boxes, thrift and charity shops—somehow Maddie managed to find that One Great Item everyone else had overlooked—and find it on sale. The day Maddie found the jumper she and Trish were in a hole-in-the-wall shop of an in-town charity that gave its profits back to the local dog-rescue community. Maddie liked to shop there because the goods tended to come from the wealthy neighborhoods up the hill and be of good quality. The store was clean, well lit, everything hung neatly on hangers. Volunteers roamed around putting back items that had slipped, or been returned to the wrong rack or wrong size area. Maddie loved the place and spent much too much of her meager salary as a barista in it. “What about this?” Trish asked, holding up a leather handbag with a well-known designer name stamped on a discreet, but not too discreet, silvery metal circle on the front.
