Ghost of a Gamble (Granny Apples Mystery) by Sue Ann Jaffarian Read Free Book Online Page A

above the kitchen counter, or any of the others. Our house is set up just like Dolly’s but he never gives our kitchen lights a second thought.”
    “Maybe it’s because they don’t have a name,” Emma suggested with a wink. “Maybe if you called the light Rover or Kitty, he’d fall in love with it like he did with Lenny.”
    Suzanne laughed and bent down to straighten Nicholas’s cap. “Now there’s a thought.”

• CHAPTER SIX •

    A S ambivalent as Emma was about Las Vegas, she’d never cared for Fremont Street. It was old school Vegas, which was exactly why many tourists loved it. The casinos were louder and smokier. The stores were schlockier and the inhabitants gaudier. It was a mecca for hard-drinking, hard-partying patrons with its cheaper drinks and food. At night it wasn’t uncommon to see go-go dancers outside clubs and street performers that looked right out of a circus side show.
    In the 1990s, in a bid to attract more tourists to downtown from the fancier Strip, a roof or canopy had been constructed over several blocks of Fremont Street that had been closed to traffic. Every night a spectacular light show was displayed on the underside of the canopy. Emma, in all the times she’d been to Las Vegas, had never seen it. Usually when she visited Fremont Street, which was rare, it was for a short time and during daylight. Phil, upon learning that, had insisted they take in the show the last time they were in town. It had been fun and the light show well worth seeing, but both preferred the Strip with its glamour, big-name shows, and fine restaurants.
    Emma parked in a nearby parking structure and made her way to Fremont Street. Dolly had said The Raven’s Craft was directly across from The Golden Nugget. Above Emma came giggles, shouts, and screams of delight. She looked up to see people flying—fairies dressed in shorts and sneakers. They were traveling along the zip line nestled under the canopy. She’d wanted to do the zip line when she and Phil were here, but Phil, with his fear of heights, just couldn’t muster up the courage to do it. Maybe this trip she’d do it, even if she had to experience it alone.
    She located The Raven’s Craft exactly where Dolly had said it would be. The sign above the door had two shop names:
The Raven’s Craft
and
Crafty Beads
. It was a storefront with a slightly split personality. In the store window was a large placard advertising fortune-telling services by Madam Dolly with posted rates for fifteen-minute, thirty-minute, and sixty-minute sessions.
    Stepping inside, Emma found herself in a cheerful shop that sold handmade jewelry, as well as beads, stones, and supplies for those wanting to make their own trinkets. Along the walls were locked display cases of jewelry with a small photo pinned near each grouping. At the main counter a young woman with multicolored hair and a nose ring was sorting beads on a tray. She looked up and greeted Emma with a smile through lips slicked dark purple. She appeared to be the only one in the shop.
    “Can I help you?” the girl asked.
    “I’m looking for The Raven’s Craft,” Emma said, approaching the counter. She glanced around. In spite of the sign outside, the bead shop was evident, but the fortune-telling business was not. “Is Dolly here?”
    “Are you Emma?”
    Emma looked at her with surprise, wondering if the girl was a psychic herself. “Yes, I am.”
    “Dolly called a few minutes ago and said you might be in. She said to tell you she was running late and to apologize for her.”
    “Did she say when she might arrive?”
    The girl stopped pawing at the beads in the tray and consulted a scrap of paper. “Maybe around six thirty. She said if you have other plans, she’d understand and you could meet her tomorrow at her place.”
    “Thanks,” Emma said, thinking things must have gone well with Milo’s presentation and Dolly’s interest in it. They were probably still at dinner
    Emma walked around the