One Cuppa Brew: Book 1 in The Thyme for Tea Series Read Online Free PDF Page B

were born, in a horseback riding accident. Her baseball cards were always kept in a couple of shoeboxes, with her old family pictures. I know that’s not the best system, but it worked for us. We had forgotten about them, and took out the boxes when my father passed away a couple of months ago, to use in the slide show at the funeral. It was the first time my stepmother had ever seen them. I guess my father kept that in our room and only let us look when she wasn’t home. He left them specifically to us in his will, and Jamie and I, my sister, were debating about selling them. I took the cards and contacted a guy in Trenton that knows how to move them, and he told us how to find buyers on Craigslist and eBay. There is a whole underground language on these things. It’s crazy. Anyhow, he put out some feelers, and someone on Ono Island sounded like they were chomping at the bit to buy two of them, but Jamie and I decided to wait to sell. We were really interested in how much they were worth. We didn’t even tell the guy about all of them.” She stopped talking long enough to take a deep breath. “When I went to our house to get them, I couldn’t find my stepmom, or the other box of cards. The guy in Trenton called and told me from the Craigslist ads, it looked like a meet had been arranged and was going to happen tomorrow. I got the first flight I could to see what was happening.”
    “Bless your heart,” Pastor whispered.
    “So you never got a hold of your stepmother?” Andy asked.
    “No, I’ve been leaving voicemails for a few days. She hasn’t returned my calls.” The young woman answered.
    “Tell me,” Pastor interrupted, “Does your stepmother play tennis?”
    Julie began laughing, “Lois, play tennis, seriously? No, never. She wouldn’t have a clue.”
    Andy glanced at his mother, “It was my understanding that she raised you from an infant, yet you call her your stepmother. Is there a reason you don’t refer to her as your Mom?”
    Julie looked a little sheepish, “When I was a teenager it was pretty rough, and we parted ways for a long time. In my head I began feeling guilty for calling her my mother when my real mother had passed away, so I began to differentiate. It seemed to help me.”
    “So what kind of terms were you on recently?” he asked.
    “Oh, fine. We made up years ago. The funeral was tough on all of us. I haven’t heard from her much in the couple of weeks since we buried him. I’m not sure where she would go that she couldn’t return my call. I would think she’d tell me before going on a cruise or something. But why all the questions about her? Do you think she was trying to sell them without telling me and Jamie? She would never do that! But where are they then? Do you know any local baseball card collectors?”
    Andy paused; he really didn’t know what to tell her. Should he let Jason enjoy the evening with his wife, since last night had been a bust, or should he bring him in and tell him about Julie? Would they be able to identify the body tonight, or would it have to wait until tomorrow when the offices were open anyhow? Given the hour, and the fact that Julie was either the most pathological murderer he had ever met, or completely unaware that the dead woman was possibly her stepmother, he was tempted to wait until morning. One look at his mother’s face and he knew that wasn’t an option.
    Pastor put her hand on Julie’s and said gently, “Dear girl, I think it would be good for you to contact the police immediately. Perhaps the cards were stolen and someone else is trying to sell them. If that is the case, and there has been one murder already, you don’t know what lengths they will go to get those cards. And this wasn’t even the whole collection you put up for sale, you said?”
    Their visitor shook her head, “No, this was just two cards. There are two boxes. Well, there were two boxes.”
    Andy stood up and went over to the counter. “Let me call Jason, we