Glory Be!. Ron/Janet Benrey

Чтение книги онлайн.

СКАЧАТЬ style="font-size:15px;">      Rafe knocked on the Captain’s back door.

      “Who’s there?” asked a voice deep inside the kitchen.

      “Rafe Neilson.”

      A hesitation. “Rafe Neilson from the choir?”

      “The same—but today I’m Rafe Neilson from the police.”

      Another hesitation. “Hang on.”

      Emma’s face appeared at the window in the door. She peered at him for a moment then opened the door halfway.

      “I didn’t know you were a policeman.”

      “My identification card is at home with my badge and my wallet. You’ll have to accept my word that I’m the deputy chief.”

      She opened the door fully. He stepped inside the kitchen.

      “Let’s say I believe you,” she said. “Now what?”

      “I need to talk with you about the report you made to Officer Ringgold.”

      She shook her head. “Sorry, I can’t spare a moment right now. My guests expect to be served breakfast beginning at seven-thirty. It’s twenty to seven and my housekeeper is setting up the dining room, which means that I have forty minutes to finish ten chores and change my clothes. Come back in two hours.”

      Rafe felt a twinge of sympathy for Emma. She was liberally dusted in flour that had settled beyond the borders of the large chef’s apron she wore. She looked as frazzled as she sounded.

      “What if I help you prepare breakfast?” he said. “We can talk while we work together.”

      “Do you know the difference between boysenberry conserve and boysenberry preserves?”

      “I have to admit that I don’t.”

      “Then come back in two hours. I don’t let amateurs work in my kitchen.”

      Before Rafe could respond, the cell phone clipped to Emma’s belt beeped.

      “It’s about time he returned my call,” she murmured angrily as she flipped the phone open. “This is Emma.”

      Rafe listened intently to her half of the conversation. She didn’t seem to object.

      “Good morning, Mr. Yeager. Thanks for getting back to me so quickly….

      “Yes, Peggy Lyons explained that she’s your niece….

      “I agree—she’s a doll….

      “That’s precisely what I said to the police—not all practical jokes are funny….

      “No—it weighs less than that. I looked up the weight of the Beetle on the Internet. The convertible is about three thousand pounds. Your whole team working together should have no problem….

      “Uh-huh…That’s why I contacted you. Peggy tells me that you coach twenty-five of the strongest young men in the county….

      “Sure! The deal I propose is simple. I want that car off my porch as soon as possible. If your men help me this morning, I’ll donate two couples’ getaway weekends at the Captain that you can auction off to raise money for the team….

      “Three weekends?

      “I understand—it’s a worthy cause. But three weekends represents an enormous sum….

      “Very well—three weekends….

      “We’ll be ready when you are….

      “Fine. I’ll expect you in twenty minutes!”

      Rafe swallowed a grin. Tom Yeager was a tough man to best in a bargain. Emma hooked the phone on her belt; she made no effort to hide her annoyance. “Do I have to explain the expensive negotiation you just overheard?” she asked.

      “You rented our high school football team at a cost of three complimentary weekends.”

      “Whoever pulled this stunt cost me a small fortune. I’d sure love to see the perpetrators in handcuffs by the end of the day.”

      “You just hired the…ah…perpetrators to move the car off the porch.”

      “I what?”

      “This is a small town. We don’t have multiple collections of guys who are strong enough—and foolish enough—to tote a Volkswagen around.”

      “Rats! Why didn’t I think of that before I made the deal?”

      “The Glory Gremlins start football practice at 6:00 a.m. on Wednesday mornings. If some of them were inclined to move a car…”

      “The team could do it on the way to the high school.” Emma looked at Rafe with a confused frown. “But why me? I’ve never done anything to them.”

      “You read the note. Several of those kids are members of Glory Community Church.”

      “I read it, but it made no sense. I have absolutely nothing to do with the contemporary service at church.”

      Rafe tried not to show the astonishment he felt. Did Emma live in an isolation bubble? Her very lack of involvement with the contemporary service made her a target. Emma had been a member of the church for nearly a year. How could she be so oblivious to the ongoing turmoil at Glory Community?

      A toilet flushed somewhere overhead. Emma jumped. “Oh, boy! My guests are getting up. I have to finish breakfast. Get out of my kitchen. Now!”

      Rafe chose not to argue. He left without further comment and retraced the flagstone path to the front of the Captain, where a tall, big-bellied man in a blue, hooded sweatshirt was standing on the front lawn gazing up at the silver Beetle. His carefully trimmed gray beard made a perfect frame for the delighted smile on his face. As Rafe approached, the man said, “Tradition is a beautiful thing. I helped pull the same stunt forty years ago at the University of Maine. Of course, Volkswagen cars were smaller back then. We needed only a dozen seniors to carry a black Beetle to the chancellor’s terrace. He…was…frosted!”

      “Are you a guest at The Scottish Captain?” Rafe asked.

      The man nodded. “The North Carolina Department of Tourism is shuttling a dozen travel writers around the state. Three of us are at the Captain, but I’m the only early riser. I was going for a prebreakfast walk around Glory, but a levitated Volkswagen seems so much more interesting. I wonder if we’re witnessing the start of a new trend—the rediscovery of a decades-old practical joke?”

      “Did you happen to see who did it?”

      The man’s smile didn’t waver. “Elves. A giant flock of wee Scottish elves. Or possibly wood sprites. It’s so hard to tell the difference—Officer.”

      “Is it that obvious?”

      “The black notebook clutched in your hand gave you away. I used СКАЧАТЬ