The Stuffing of Nightmares (The Mysteries of Bell & Whitehouse Book 7) Read Online Free PDF

darling?”
    “Yes—yes, of course,” he said, surfacing from his pondering.
    “What’s on your mind?” she asked, wondering if he suspected.
    He flashed her a quick smile, his new dentures glittering brightly. “Just business, darling,” he said. “Nothing for you to worry about.”
    “Then I won’t,” she said pacifically. She never did bother about Grover’s business. That was his department. Her department was to make sure that their social life was in order, and that the household was running smoothly.
    She hooked her arm through his, and they stepped through the sliding door onto the terrace. Time for breakfast, and a new and glorious day.

Chapter 8
    M abel Stokely was washing the dishes and placing them in the drying rack, thinking dark thoughts. She was a full-figured woman in her late fifties, with black-framed glasses and a dignified manner. She was thinking about the letter that had arrived that morning, the missive from the bank that they were about to foreclose on the mortgage if the Stokelys didn’t fork over fifty thousand dollars within the next couple of days. The long and steady stream of letters had started to arrive a month ago, each one more threatening than the last. Until then, she hadn’t a clue they were behind on their mortgage. They’d always paid on time, but a visit to Armstrong & Tillich had revealed that a great portion of the money had ended up in a different account.
    The previous bank manager’s account.
    Neil Domino had been in charge of Armstrong & Tillich for decades, until he was arrested for the murder of a number of people and now spent the remainder of his life in prison. Apparently killing people hadn’t been his only crime. Before he went away for life, he’d skimmed several accounts and appropriated the money. And one of those unfortunates were the Stokelys.
    She and Mark had argued that since it was obviously not their fault that the money they paid into their mortgage had been stolen, they couldn’t be held accountable, and, more importantly, couldn’t be considered in default.
    But apparently sound logic wasn’t one of the hallmarks of Armstrong & Tillich. The new manager insisted they were as much to blame as the former manager. They should have done a better job monitoring their account.
    That was simply ludicrous, of course, only now they were about to lose their house, and even the lawyer they’d hired said the process of righting this wrong could take months, at which point they’d already be evicted and forced to move in with their daughter Natalie and her fiancé.
    Only a few more years and the house would have been paid off. And now this…
    She muttered a few choice curse words under her breath, aimed at Armstrong & Tillich. The worst part was that the new manager was an old high school friend of Mabel’s, and she would have expected that she would have set the record straight just for old time’s sake. But no. She had to do things by the book, eager as she was to make regional manager and show her higher-ups that she was as tough as they came.
    Mabel slammed another plate onto the drying rack and plunged her dishcloth into the soapy water, then dumped another couple of plates into the sink. Doing the dishes usually helped to clear her mind, but today it only served to infuriate her even more. She scrubbed and scrubbed until she was afraid she was going to make a hole in her late mother’s china, her cheeks burning red.
    Then she noticed her husband Mark had sidled up to her.
    “Are you all right, hon?” he asked, worry lacing his voice.
    “No, I’m not all right,” she snapped, throwing down the dishcloth, the soapy water splashing up and hitting her in the eye. “Dammit!” she cried.
    Mark took a dish towel and dried her face, wiping her graying locks from her brow. She was in the habit of dying her hair, but with the stress of the last couple of weeks she hadn’t had time to go to Rita.
    Well, her appearance was the least of her