Mammoth Secrets Read Online Free PDF Page A

man’s startled face and his back-peddling, she was reading him the riot act. She marched into the library.
    The ragged, white-haired man knelt amid a shattered fifth of whiskey.
    “Hey, pal,” Jake said. He squatted and began to help. “Saw the whole thing. Sorry Mammoth gave you less than a warm welcome.”
    “I’m used to it.” The homeless-looking man rolled his stooped shoulders. “Can’t say I blame her, after all. Young’uns are priceless beyond measure.”
    “True.” Jake glanced to the library where more trekked in for weekly story time.
    The drifter swept the last of the glass splinters into a flyer.
    “I’m Jake Gibb. Pastor at the church.”
    “Folks call me Guthrie.” Eyes downcast, he tossed the mess into the sack. With a bitter laugh, the man stood to his full height. “Getting harder to kneel down every year that passes.”
    “Depends on who—or what—you’re kneeling to.”
    “Amen, Preacher.” Guthrie shot a wistful look at the dissipating puddle.
    Jake clapped him on the shoulder. “Have a better day, friend, and God bless.”
     
     
     
     

5
     
    Lunch rush was over and Lilah’s mind spun to the lawyer’s packet she’d stowed in the desk days ago. She had a deadline to keep, today, or the latest deal was off. Freedom meant more than pride, didn’t it? Time to just get it over with. Lilah hunted the desktop for a pen, sifted paper stacks for the packet. Menu ideas, a shopping list, the flyer from the drifter that was still not posted in the front window.
    No package.
    Lilah rifled through the desk drawers. She opened and slammed each shut. She stomped from the tiny office. The clock edged its way past four o’clock as her rubber soles squeaked through the kitchen and the now empty diner.
    Eden stood, back to her, counting out tips from the register jar into three neat stacks.
    “Where is it?” Lilah palmed the counter in between them.
    “Where’s what?” Eden jogged her right hip under her hand.
    “Don’t play me. Hand it over.” Lips clamped down choice words she’d much rather say. “I’ve got to sign and have it postmarked today or the deal’s off.”
    “Don’t worry, hon. You’re not signing that garbage.” Eden gave her shoulder a pat and turned back to sifting bills like a Vegas dealer. “I returned it to your attorney, along with some notes. Then, we’ll see.”
    “You did what?” Lilah gave her sister a firm shoulder shove.
    “I took a glance at that cockamamie offer while you were daydreaming. Made some notes, a counter offer.”
    Lilah removed her apron, tossed it in the laundry heap. “You had no right to look through my things.”
    “You need legal representation or that son of a monkey’s gonna walk all over you. I thought—”
    “Well, don’t. Don’t think. Don’t go through my mail, and don’t get into my business.” Lilah stormed toward the kitchen. “I got myself into this mess and I’ll get myself out. I don’t need help from you or anybody.” She grabbed her purse from her cubby and dug through looking for the attorney’s number. Maybe she could stop the mail, or call, or—
    “If I thought you’d a’ listened to me, I would have discussed it with you first. But I know you better than you know yourself.”
    “You don’t know me at all.” Lilah found a business card amid gum wrappers, makeup dust, and sticky change. She flipped it, scanned the gold-filigreed logo of the hair salon on Melrose. Yet another place I’ll never go again. She crumpled it and tossed it in the can.
    “Well, guess what, sis.” Eden blinked back tears. “You don’t know me so well, either.” She hot-stepped it out the front door, the bell ringing frantically in her wake.
    Great. Lilah’s hands shook as she grasped the purse in a surrogate wringing of Eden’s neck. She tossed the bag aside and watched her sister’s melodramatic display out the front window.
    Raymond ambled over to Lilah’s side, head cocked in curiosity, though he said