A Ghost in Time (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page B

beating so hard, I could barely breathe.  
    “Oh Mele, we have to have a good long talk about your mother. I don’t want to get into it now. This isn’t a good time and I’m not ready. But soon. Very soon, I will tell you all I know. I promise.” She kissed my cheek and looked at me lovingly. “Can you wait?”
    I nodded, but there was a lump in my throat. I’d been waiting all my life. I supposed I could wait a little longer.  
    But I was getting impatient. No one ever wanted to tell me the truth about my mother.

Chapter Five

    As we walked up to the city hall building, you could feel the ominous electricity in the air. There were obviously people hoping for a showdown of sorts. What exactly that would mean for us wasn’t clear, but I didn’t like it. The meeting room was actually just a large office with extra chairs and it was crowded that afternoon. I saw other growers, people I knew, but most of them turned away and wouldn’t meet my eyes. I couldn’t believe so many people could have turned against Bebe so quickly. This was nuts.  
    “Don’t any of these people have jobs to go to?” I muttered to Bebe, but she didn’t smile. Her knuckles were white as she gripped the back of the chair they’d given her. I had to go sit on the other side of the dais, so I left her there and found my way to my own seat.  
    The clerk was a middle-aged lady named Martha. She wore those glasses you can look over the top of and seemed to know what she was doing. After she settled everyone down, she read names off a sheet. It turned out half of them were regular meeting groupies and she wanted to weed them out from the get-go.  
    “You have no pertinent business here and you know it,” she said, scolding them like an old fashioned librarian. “There’s not enough room for everyone as it is. So go out and hang around the fountain if you don’t have any place better to be.”
    They grumbled, but they did what she said.  
    “Hey, you’re good,” I told her as she stood next to my chair.  
    She smiled at me. “Oh, they’re all a bunch of good old guys and gals and when there’s room, I let them stay for the hearings and meetings. But today, we don’t have time for that.”
    Why they would want to stay was the question in my mind. Councilman Hank Tanner chaired the meeting, and it dragged on with old business and new business and even some monkey business as far as I could see. I was about to fall asleep.  
    And then the clerk called for our portion of the agenda, and the buzz began to build. One by one, growers came up to make their complaints and suggestions for the Spring Competition. I took notes and tried to ignore the occasional dig at Bebe. There seemed to be a lot of jealousy with this bunch. By now the placid council meeting had turned into a room seething with muttering people, all seemingly preparing to march off and burn something down.
    And then came the attack on me.  
    “She’s a spy for Miyaki Farms,” a tall man said once he took the microphone, pointing right at me. He had the look of a cobra about to strike, all coiled anger and venom. “It’s not fair and we won’t stand for it.”
    “Sit down, Nate,” Hank told him wearily. Poor guy--he’d thought he’d rounded up the local growers for a peace conference, something to quiet the wars that were raging in the valley, but so far, peace looked further away than ever.  
    “She doesn’t work for Miyake Farms. She works for us. The Town Council. And she’s not a spy.”
    I chewed on my lip, feeling awkward. If I were in Nate’s place, I would probably feel a lot like he did. After all, I did live at Miyaki Farms. Bebe Miyake was my aunt. I must look partisan as hell to him. Who could blame him?
    But at the same time, I did work for the Town Council and therefore for all the people—and I was in charge of the competition. There was no changing that. I tried to think of a way to calm the raging distrust I could see in the faces of Nate