Garage Sale Diamonds (Garage Sale Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page B

a sensible skill to learn. He thinks isolated living on the fifteen acres means I should know how to protect myself if it’s ever necessary. Turns out I’m a pretty good shot with a pistol.” She groped in her purse, withdrew and unrolled a target showing a silhouetted human form perforated with holes centered about the head and chest.
    Jennifer remembered Hannah as a little girl, holding up her latest proud triumph: a Girl Scout badge, a report card with straight A’s, a tennis trophy…and now this.
    “Impressive, Hannah. What a many-talented gal you are!”
    She grinned at her mother’s approval. “Before we go, I almost forgot to ask—any family news?”
    Jennifer thought. “Your sister Becca comes home from Virginia Tech for Thanksgiving break on Saturday. She invited Tina McKenzie to join us for the family event on Thursday.”
    “How’s Tina recovering after her awful experience with Ruger Yates?”
    “Plastic surgery repaired her outer wounds and counseling’s working on her inner ones. I guess we’ll learn more when we see her at Thanksgiving.”
    “And my brothers?”
    “Kaela and Owain are about to take a needed business-and-pleasure long weekend get-away. Guess who’s babysitting their three kiddos while they’re gone?
    “Mom, you’re a saint.”
    “Back to Thanksgiving, Dylan’s family and four kiddies are coming as well as Mike and Bethany. And we’ve invited Adam’s mother, Sally Iverson, and his new dad, Greg Bromley. And, of course, we’ll extend an invitation to poor Tony Donnegan.  How about you and Adam?”
    “Absolutely. What can we bring?”
    “Appreciate the offer, Honey, but if I shop for one item I might as well get them all. One of these days, I may ask you children to take over, but not yet. Coming home should be a relaxing treat for you with your busy lives.”
    “Mom, you make coming home something very special.” She stood and hugged her mom. “Now, let’s go get your car.”
    They left the restaurant arm in arm.
    9
    Thursday, 2:32 PM
    Dressed in shabby, filthy clothes, Ahmed accepted the exhaustion from the tormenting hardships along the way. He balanced it with the exhilarating thought that he’d reach his final destination today.
    The difficulties during these past dangerous, miserable months swam through his mind as he recalled how one designated accomplice after another handed him off to the next, moving him invisibly from the Middle-East toward his pre-arranged destination in North America.
    Before leaving his country, he’d felt a surprising personal hesitation when the Great Leader ordered him to shave his luxuriant natural beard and crop his hair. He understood the need to disguise identifiable Middle-Eastern characteristics for this mission. Compared to the excruciating training to endure torture if captured, this simple cosmetic gesture was nothing. Yet, relinquishing these cultural signs of masculinity dismayed him even though he admitted sadly that Allah’s path for him excluded any expectation of a woman in his life. He needed no handsome beard to signal his maleness. Still, he needed respect among his male peers with whom the beard showed both his dedication to Allah and his virility. Fortunately, he’d been told to wait until the night before departing on his mission to remove his beard. The further he traveled from his homeland, the less this lack of facial hair set him apart from others.
    Instructions to let the beard stubble reappear while he traveled to the U.S.A. created an unkempt-look which, together with his dirty, worn travel clothes, achieved a decrepit appearance signaling potential human predators this wasn’t a man worth harassing. Tolerating the filth served its critical purpose even though Ahmed’s religion reinforced his personal preference for cleanliness. He chafed at this disgusting daily desecration, although the ruse served his mission well.
    First a series of small boats, then freighters, moved him down waterways from the