Troubled Treats Read Online Free PDF

come to mind.”
    “Who worked for him in his electrical contracting business?” I asked.
    “Bob Greene and Jim Burr.  Sully often said that if he didn’t keep an eye on the two of them, they’d walk out with his kitchen sink.”
    “That doesn’t make any sense.  If he didn’t trust them, why did he hire them in the first place?” I asked as Gabby delivered an elegant china coffee cup to me, brimming with freshly brewed tea.
    “What choice did he have?  If he waited for someone with the level of honesty he had, he said that he’d have to work alone for the rest of his life, and he was beginning to feel the aches and pains he’d earned from a lifetime of physical labor.”
    I made a mental note to talk to Bob Greene and Jim Burr at my earliest opportunity, but there had to be more than two names on Gabby’s mind.  Unfortunately, the only way I was going to get any more information out of her was by threatening to walk away.  I took a sip of tea, nodded, and then returned my cup to its saucer as I stood.  “Thanks for the tea and the information,” I said as I headed back toward the front of the shop.
    “Sit back down, Suzanne.  We haven’t even begun to scratch the surface yet,” Gabby ordered.
    It was a command that I had no problem obeying.  “Do you mean there’s more?”
    “Oh, yes.  I’m willing to bet that you wouldn’t have considered Carl Descent.”
    The name surprised me, but I tried not to show it.  “Why would Carl want to kill Sully?”
    “He tried to buy the building when it came up for sale, but your mother scooped it up with a last-second offer.”
    “I still don’t understand what that had to do with Sully.”
    “Evidently Descent wanted to take the building down to the ground, brick by brick, and it offended Sully to think that a piece of our history was going to be destroyed.  He put in a good word for her with the former owner, and that was one of the main reasons the man chose to sell the place to your mother instead of the developer.  Weren’t you aware of any of that?”
    “I’m the first to admit that I don’t know much about my mother’s business,” I conceded.  “You’re not implying that she did anything wrong, are you?”
    “Heavens, no,” Gabby said quickly.  She knew that even she couldn’t get away with saying anything disparaging about my mother in front of me.  Momma and I had our fair share of squabbles, but no one was allowed to say one bad word about her as far as I was concerned, and I knew that she felt the same way about me.  “It was all perfectly legal and aboveboard.  Besides Sully’s recommendation, the owner wanted a parcel of land your mother owned, so she included it in her offer.  Even though it seemed as though her bid wasn’t the highest, it was the one the seller took.  That aggravated Carl to no end, and he vowed to stop the project, no matter what it took.”
    “Even murder?” I asked incredulously.  “That’s hard to believe.”
    Gabby just shrugged.  “I wouldn’t put it past him.  The man’s unbalanced, if you ask me.”  Almost as an afterthought, she added, “The building is haunted, you know.”
    “I’ve heard the stories about strange lights there at night and odd noises coming from upstairs like everyone else in town has,” I admitted.  “You don’t believe that there are actually ghosts inhabiting the place, do you?”
    “Don’t be so quick to scoff, Suzanne,” Gabby said.  “There are more things happening in our world that defy explanation than you can imagine.”
    “So, do you think that ghosts had something to do with Sully’s murder?”
    “I’m just saying that it might not be a bad idea to keep an open mind,” Gabby said.  This was getting strange, even for a conversation with Gabby, and that was saying something.
    “Let’s put a pin in that, shall we?  Are there any other folks who might make your list?”
    Gabby frowned, and then she answered, “Well, Shirley Edam has