Diane Greenwood Muir - Bellingwood 05 - Life Between the Lines by Diane Greenwood Muir Read Free Book Online Page A

do this. I could have handled it.” Then she stopped and chuckled. “Well, at least with you on the other end of the phone. You seem to be handling it for me even long distance.”
    “I’m coming home. I’ll be there late this afternoon and you better have some good food to feed me because the only stops I’m making are for gas. Snacks are gonna get me to you.”
    “I’ll cook whatever you’d like. I promise. I can’t believe you’re doing this for me. You’re a nut.”
    “I have to tell you, Polly, I can’t take any more of this.”
    “Any more of what?”
    “Any more of you having terrible things happen when I’m nowhere near.”
    “You can’t hover around me all the time.”
    “I can give it my best shot. But, I promise you this, I’m not leaving town for an extended period of time unless you’re with me. And that’s all I have to say about that!”
    She chuckled, “I love you too, Henry.”
    Doug and Billy came around the corner and into her office.
    “Henry, can I call you back in a bit? Doug and Billy are here.”
    “Sure. I love you. Talk to you later.”
    “I love you too.”
    The two young men were roommates, living in the apartment above her garage. Polly felt like they were her two younger brothers. She’d met them last fall when renovation had started on Sycamore House. They worked for an electrical contractor and had ended up as part of her family.
    “Hey Polly, was that Henry?” Doug asked.
    “I certainly hope so,” she laughed. “Who else would I be telling that I loved them?”
    “You say it all the time to everybody,” Billy deadpanned.
    Doug nodded in agreement. “We’re going over to Dad’s to get his power washer. We’ll be back.”
    “Thank you. Eliseo will organize this, but I appreciate you.”
    “If we borrow your truck, we could bring back a ladder.”
    “Uh,” she hesitated.
    “It’s only across town,” Doug laughed. “I’m a good driver. I promise.”
    Polly tossed him a key. “You hurt it, I’ll mess you up,” she said.
    “Deal.”
    They walked out of the office and she heard Billy say, “Dude! She doesn’t trust you. Maybe I should drive!”
    Polly almost stopped them. She stood up from her chair, then sat back down. “If I trust them in my house, I trust them with my truck,” she muttered. She loved her truck, but only because it had belonged to her dad. It had gone into storage after he died and was one of those things that made her think of him every time she drove it. She wasn’t sure how she would ever let it go, so she did her best to take care of it.
    She looked down at the flash drive on her desk. “Crap,” she said and looked at the time. She knew Aaron went to ten thirty church with his wife. Polly had time to call him. She didn’t want to explain why she hadn’t done so yesterday, but figured she might as well face the music.
    “Polly?” Aaron’s deep voice was a little hesitant when he answered her call.
    “No more bodies. I think one is enough for this week, don’t you?”
    “Well, that’s good news. What’s up this morning?”
    “First of all, Lila Fletcher came back early this morning. She said she’d been gone.”
    “I’ll have one of my boys stop up and talk to her. What else?”
    “Did you hear about the vandalism here?”
    “I heard it on the scanner. Talked to Ken. It sounds like he’ll do what he can. Did you need me to do something with that?”
    “No, we’ve got it. But, I’ve done something bad, even though it was totally unintentional. I’m afraid you’re going to be mad at me.”
    “I’ve been mad at you before. It doesn’t do me any good. What did you do?”
    “I kind of forgot to tell you about a flash drive that Thomas Zeller gave to me just before he died.”
    “You what?” Aaron sounded more irritated than usual.
    “I totally forgot about it until late last night when I was talking to Henry on the phone. I dropped it into the pocket of my robe and I found it there when I put it on