That Old Flame of Mine by J. J. Cook Read Free Book Online Page A

me Stella. I’ve already heard the cabin is haunted. I don’t believe in ghosts.”
    “Flo,” John cautioned. “Don’t tell her those old stories. There’s nothing wrong that an electrician can’t fix.” His radio went off. It seemed that there was more to do tonight than arrest Boyd Jeffries. “I have to go, Stella. I’ll make sure someone comes back for you in the morning.”
    He nodded to them both, then was gone.
    Flo giggled as he left, and pulled Stella into the old house. “He’s sweet on you. And he’s a good man. You could do a lot worse. Now, let’s have some coffee and talk about Eric Gamlyn.”
    “You mean the old fire chief?” Stella asked as she and Flo sat down at a round table in the kitchen. There were coffee, juice, tea, and snacks at a sideboard. The cookies, muffins, and cinnamon rolls smelled like they’d just come out of the oven.
    “Have a cookie.” Flo put one on Stella’s plate. “They’re my own recipe—last year’s Sweet Pepper Festival winner. Chocolate and hot peppers. You won’t be able to eat just one. Sure you want soda this late? I don’t mind it, but it bothers some people.”
    Stella tasted the cookie politely. She was surprised to find it was really good. Dark chocolate—with a bite to it.
    “Eric Gamlyn was a popular man around here in the 1970s.” Flo poured herself a cup of coffee and took a cinnamon roll from the glass platter. “He was a big man—strong—Viking blood, his daddy always claimed. He worked as a lumberjack for years somewhere up north. Maybe Canada. He settled down back here after his daddy passed. He made furniture. His daddy left him a cute little house on Main Street. But Eric was a builder. He sold that place and bought that property out there where the firehouse is. He built the cabin and the firehouse almost singlehandedly. Then he started the fire brigade.”
    Stella wondered if Eric’s name should really be Paul Bunyan. As Flo rattled on about him, his exploits kept getting bigger and bigger.
    “And that’s why they killed him.” Flo put down her coffee cup and shook her head. “What a waste.”
    “I think I missed something,” Stella admitted. “I thought he was killed fighting a fire.”
    “That’s what they
wanted
us to think. Oh sure, he was in a burning building when it collapsed on him, but that wouldn’t have killed Eric. It was because the county wanted to take over the service, and there were those who were going to make some money on it. His ghost has rattled around in that old cabin ever since.”
    Stella took another cookie. Who knew peppers and chocolate could taste so good together? She really needed to find some weights to work with at the firehouse if she was going to keep eating this way. “And that’s why you think the cabin is haunted?”
    “Cross my heart and hope that lightning strikes me dead.” Flo sincerely crossed her heart with her fingers. Her dark blue eyes stared into Stella’s. “Everyone knows it. Why do you think someone hasn’t rented it or bought it after all these years? Why do you think it still looks like he just built it yesterday? I guess the council hoped you’d be a good luck charm for that. Eric left that land to the town. They haven’t been able to unload it.”
    Stella digested the ghost story as she finished nibbling on her third cookie. She wasn’t sure if Flo knew what she was talking about with her tales of the cabin being haunted—but that would certainly explain all the weird things going on up there—if she believed in that kind of thing.
    It might also explain
why
they were going on. Maybe someone wanted to buy the property now. Scare the city girl and there was money to be made.
    Stella changed the subject. “You’re right about these cookies. I think I need to go to bed before I eat all of them.”
    “Have you figured out why Tory was in that house when it caught fire?” Flo asked. “I guess what I mean is, why didn’t she get out? It doesn’t make