The man in question was a long-lost relative her husband never mentioned. He’d been released from prison- where he’d spent the last twelve years because of racketeering charges- a few days before arriving at the shop.
Her husband was well aware of his past with this man, and he didn’t want his wife to meet him yet. He wasn’t prepared to have that particular man at his shop at that moment in time either. Trying to avoid trouble her husband asked the man to meet him somewhere else so they could talk, but the man had other plans.