The Realm of the Shadows (Tropical Breeze Cozy Mystery Book 2) Read Online Free PDF Page B

kitchen was sizzling, the air was scented with grilling onions, and the thermostat was always set at about sixty-five degrees. Most women brought jackets in with them, but I hadn’t grabbed one before running over, and I shivered. Michael called to me from a booth and I headed his way. There was a woman with him, but that was all right; it was just my real estate agent, Rocky Sanders. Her office was right next-door to the diner.
    Since moving to Florida from Chicago over thirty years before, I’d had to go it alone for a long time – starting up the shelter, making a home for myself, making new friends and learning to cope with the deaths of both my parents when I was in my twenties. Now after all that time, I had somebody.
    Michael Utley was 62, just slightly older than me, and had been widowed a few years before. I was what you might technically call a spinster – married and divorced so fast, so long ago that it didn’t count. Ask me the name of my ex sometime. Uh – wait a minute – I know it – it’s on the tip of my tongue – it’s, no, guess not. Poof, he’s gone. And his fershnickin’ mother, too.
    Now I had Michael.
    I slid into the booth and smiled into his frosty blue eyes, then said hello to Rocky.
    “I’m not gonna intrude on y’all,” she said. A classic redhead with dark blue eyes, Rocky was always fizzing with energy. Today she’d dressed up her eggshell blouse with lashings of sea-green freshwater pearls. Too divine. “When Michael told me you were coming, I just thought I’d hang around and say ‘hey’ when you got here.”
    “I’m glad you did. It’s great to see you.” Since we’d signed the contract for the sale of my old house, I hadn’t seen her or talked to her. Closing had been set for the second week in October, which was fast approaching. “How’s tricks in the real estate world?”
    She lit up. “Haven’t you heard?” She leaned over the table and lowered her voice. “Lance Skinner is scouting around in the area.”
    I stared. “ The Lance Skinner? The real estate developer from hell?”
    “Now you hush! The man’s a genius. The fact that he’s looking around here is big news for all of us who own property in Tropical Breeze. There wouldn’t be any kind of word out on the street if he hadn’t already made a deal, but he hasn’t made the announcement yet. You know what this means, don’t you?”
    Yeah, I knew what it meant. Lance Skinner was a big-time deal-maker, flamboyant and deliberately obnoxious. He liked to have people hate him. He headquartered in New York, and in most folks’ opinions, should stay there. Instead, he was always forcing his way into bucolic places that didn’t want him, scooping up land under various phony names to keep the sellers from inflating their prices, then putting in some mega-development that the locals hated.
    Seeing the look on my face, Rocky reached across the table and gave my arm a little slap. “Shame on you, Taylor Verone, for being a troglodyte. This could put Tropical Breeze on the map! Think of the tourist dollars.”
    “Think of the real estate deals,” I said.
    “Oh, trust me, honey, most of the money on real estate deals will go straight into Mr. Skinner’s own pockets. But it could bring values up across the board, and that would be good for all of us. Too bad you signed a contract on your property already. In another couple of months, if the rumors are true, we might have been able to double the price.”
    “I’m happy with my deal,” I told her. “I need to get things moving over at Cadbury House, and I need that equity in the bank.”
    “Well, suit yourself. I could put out a rumor that you’ve got mold, if you want. The buyer would back out in a heartbeat.”
    “Don’t you dare!” I said.
    “Silly thing! I’m only kidding.”
    The floor waitress, DeAnn, was approaching the table, and Rocky slid out of the booth, straightening her trim, sea-green skirt. “Well, gotta go. I’ve got a