She poured a cup of coffee and settled into the kitchen with her Bible. She turned to the concordance in the back and searched for the perfect verse:
“Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God.” Philippians 4: 6-7 NIV
Gloria bowed her head and prayed for peace – and strength – for not only Dot but for herself, her family and friends, and for guidance with the dogs, which weighed heavy on her mind.
When she lifted her head, she felt better…better prepared to handle the upcoming days and weeks. She closed her Bible and slid it back onto the curio cabinet shelf.
Gloria shoved the kitchen chair across the floor and headed to the bathroom. It was time to start her day.
Chapter 16
By the time she finished showering and dressing, she had two more messages on her answering machine. One was from Jill and the other from Ruth. Both had asked her to call them back.
Gloria started with Jill, hoping that her daughter had followed through with her promise to call the real estate agent to let her know that they definitely wanted to move forward with the purchase of 726 Pine Place and to tell her they had scheduled an inspection for the following day.
Jill picked up on the first ring. “I did it! I told Sue Camp we were moving forward with the home purchase,” she said triumphantly.
“Good!”
Jill went on. “Guess what? We are going to move forward with that house. Greg and I prayed about it together last night and feel that the Lord wants us to have that house!”
Praise the Lord! The God of all miracles was at work in the Rutherford household!
“I’m so glad, Jill. You were meant to have that house.” Now, the neighbors, Gloria wasn’t quite so sure about that. She remembered the big dog and the broken fence in the backyard…
“I called an inspection company and we’re going to do the inspection day after tomorrow,” Jill told her.
“Why not…”
“Because, if what you said was true - that someone is going to sabotage the house tonight thinking that we’re going to have an inspection tomorrow, then we want to get in there before the inspector does, just to make sure things are ship shape.”
Gloria grinned. She hadn’t thought of that. Jill was right. “That’s my girl,” Gloria said proudly.
After she hung up the phone, she thanked the Lord for her kids…all of her kids. So far the day was shaping up to be perfect. Now if they could only get a good report on Dot’s cancer…
Instead of calling Ruth back, Gloria decided that Mally and she would make a trip into town. She could kill two birds with one stone so-to-speak: check on Dot and stop by the post office to go over the plan for later that evening.
Gloria hadn’t mentioned to Paul that they were setting up surveillance equipment in the house. She knew he would not approve of the plan and didn’t want him to have to tell her not to do it when she knew that she would.
By the time Gloria made it into Belhaven, Dot’s place was in between the breakfast and dinner rush. She pulled into the post office parking lot and wandered across the street.
Through the big picture window, she could see Dot as she darted back and forth behind the lattice that separated the back of the restaurant from the seating area.
The bell chimed when Gloria stepped inside and Dot paused, pot of coffee in hand. Gloria made her way to the back and waited while Dot set the coffee pot on the warmer. “How is Odie?”
Dot rolled her eyes. “Good heavens! That dog has taken over the Jenkins’ household.”
Gloria laughed. It sounded like her own house.
Dot placed her hands on her hips. “Can you believe that Ray lets that crazy dog sit at the kitchen table while we eat breakfast and even gives him his own plate?”
That did surprise Gloria a little. Ray was a neat freak. Everything had a place and he made sure that it stayed there. Of course, running your own business, one would almost have to be organized to some extent. Dot smoothed a stray strand of hair back in place. “They’re in the back now.”
Gloria shifted her purse to her shoulder. “When is the next doctor’s appointment?” she asked.
The smile left Dot’s face and Gloria was sorry she had mentioned it.
“We have an appointment Friday. They ran some more tests and the results will be back so the doctor wanted to go over them in person,” Dot explained.
Gloria nodded. “I’ll be praying.”
She stopped in the kitchen to say hello to Ray and Odie before she gave Dot a quick hug and headed for the door.
Dot stopped her. “How is the investigation going?”
“Good,” Gloria said. “Ruth is helping me with it later today.”
Dot raised a brow. “Ruth. Don’t tell me…” She waved a hand. “Nope. I don’t want to know. I’m sure you have it all under control.”
Gloria wasn’t certain about that. She was a fly-by-the-seat-of-your-pants kind of sleuth. So far, it always seemed to work for her. One of these days, it would probably blow up in her face. She hoped that today wasn’t one of them.
Gloria turned to go and then stopped. She lowered her voice. “Andrea and Alice visited the farm yesterday.” She gave her a dark look.
“The farm? Oh! You mean the place out in the country.” Dot caught on.
“Yep. Those two have a great plan. You won’t believe what they came up with.”
Dot shoved her hands in her apron pockets. “Hopefully something that will help those poor animals.”
“Uh-huh.” A couple entered the restaurant and settled into a booth near the front.
“I’ll tell you later.” Gloria headed out the door and across the street.
Ruth was inside, waiting on Sally Keane, one of the locals. The two leaned over the counter, their heads close together. Their conversation abruptly ended when Gloria stepped inside. Sally’s eyes darted to Gloria. “I better go.” The woman grabbed her purse and made a beeline for the door.
She looked guilty as all get out and from the look on Ruth’s face; Gloria must have been the topic of conversation. She dropped her purse on the counter and turned to Ruth. There was no point in beating around the bush. “What was that all about?”
Ruth’s eyes dropped. She rubbed an imaginary spot off the counter with her thumb. “Oh…nothing much.”
“C’mon, Ruth. I know you better than that,” Gloria cajoled.
Ruth sighed. “We were just talking about how lucky you girls were to come into that pile of money.”
Gloria’s brows formed a “V.” Good ole Sally Keane was stirring the pot!
Ruth had seemed happy for the girls…all of them had. The last thing they needed was for someone – namely Sally Keane - to start making a fuss, jealous over something that Gloria, Margaret and Liz had no control over. They just happened to be in the right place at the right time.
Gloria frowned. “Let me guess. Sally thinks I should donate all the money to charity.”
Ruth shrugged. “Something like that,” she mumbled and lifted her gaze. “Listen. I think it’s wonderful and you are not a selfish person by any means, Gloria, so whatever you do with that money is your business.”
In Ruth’s mind, the subject was closed. She grabbed a sheet of clean paper and set it on the counter. Next, she grabbed a pen from the holder and slid it forward. “I need a diagram of the house,” she whispered, “so I can figure out the best place to put the you-know-what.”
Gloria grabbed the piece of paper. “Why didn’t I think of that?” She picked up the pen and began to sketch the layout of the house. When she finished, she slid it back across the counter.
Ruth slipped her reading glasses on and studied the paper. “Hmm.” She looked up. “You’re going to pick me up here at five?”
Gloria nodded. “On the dot.” She turned to go. “Thanks for doing this for me. I know how much your spy equipment means to you.”
Ruth shrugged. “You kn
ow I would do anything for you…for any of my friends.”
Gloria smiled. “I know and I appreciate it.” Without saying another word, Gloria slipped out of the post office and wandered back to her car.
She had one more stop: Margaret’s place.
Chapter 17
Margaret’s SUV was in the drive but when Gloria rang the bell, no one answered.
She made her way around the side of the garage and into the backyard. When she got to the back of the house, she found her friend settled into a patio chair with a cup of coffee and her Bible.
Gloria wandered onto the deck. “You read in the morning too.”
Margaret slipped off her reading glasses. “Until the snow flies, I like to come out here in the morning.” She gazed at the lake. “It’s peaceful.”
Mally made her way over to say “hi” and Margaret patted her head. “What brings you out this morning?” Gloria wasn’t one to show up unannounced, but after running into Sally Keane in the post office this morning, something had stuck in Gloria’s craw.
She settled into a chair across from Margaret while Mally darted toward the edge of the water to chase the ducks. “Have you heard any scuttlebutt about the money?”
Margaret closed her Bible, placed her hand on the top and sighed heavily. “You too?”
Gloria frowned. “Yeah. Apparently, Sally Keane is making her rounds, stirring up trouble. I caught her in the post office with Ruth. At first Ruth tried to deny it but she admitted that Sally had mentioned the money.”
“Huh.” Margaret didn’t seem as concerned about the gossip as Gloria. Of course, Margaret’s husband had retired a couple years back as vice president of a local bank and they already had money. Now they had more. “So you’re feeling guilty.”
“Somewhat,” Gloria admitted.
“What do you propose we do?” Margaret asked.
“I have some ideas,” Gloria said.
They talked for quite some time as they discussed how they could best help each of their friends. Gloria clapped her hands excitedly and jumped to her feet. “So we have a plan?”
The two of them had come up with good ideas: wonderful surprises for each of their friends. Now all Gloria needed to do was keep it secret long enough to put it all together!
Margaret walked Mally and Gloria to the car and waited while her friend climbed in the driver’s seat. Gloria rolled down the window. “I’m thinking of buying a truck for the winter.”
Margaret frowned. “You’re going to get rid of Annabelle?”
Gloria shook her head. “Nope. I’ll always have Annabelle but I was thinking a truck might be nice to get around in the winter on the snowy roads.”
“You need one.” Margaret had to agree. Out of all the friends, Gloria was the one that lived the farthest from town and there were days Gloria was stuck at home because the roads were impassable, at least for Annabelle.
Back in the day, Margaret used to worry about her friend driving on the treacherous roads but since cell phones came along, she didn’t worry as much. If Gloria ended up in the ditch, she could call Gus, a Belhaven local, who owned a towing and automotive shop. Still, a truck would come in handy.
“You’ll probably need it once you and Paul marry, what with moving furniture back and forth.”
Gloria scratched her chin thoughtfully. Would they be moving furniture back and forth? So many details hadn’t been settled yet.
Just take one day at a time, Gloria.
Back at the farm, Gloria rummaged around in the fridge for some lunchmeat and cheddar cheese. She grabbed two slices of bread from the package and stuck the rest in the refrigerator so it wouldn’t go bad. Perhaps after Paul and she married, she would do a better job of stocking groceries. For the past several years, her diet consisted of sandwiches and frozen dinners. It made no sense to cook a big meal for just one person.
She placed the sandwich on a plate along with a small bag of chips and headed to the living room for the noon news. Now that the weather was starting to change, she liked to keep an eye on the forecast.
The weather looked clear and the news uneventful. Gloria finished her sandwich and carried the plate back to the kitchen. She was restless. She was always restless when it was detective day and today was an important one. Gloria’s sanity was at stake!
She wondered if Ruth had finished mapping out the location of the spy equipment.
Gloria opened the dishwasher and placed the dirty plate on the bottom rack. She closed the door and turned to Mally. “Let’s head to the barn.”
It had been weeks since Gloria had been in her barn, not since her grandsons had come over for the weekend to work on their tree fort. Gloria turned her gaze to the front yard. She smiled at the color the boys had decided to paint the outside of the fort – florescent green.
Tyler and Ryan had come by the week before to finish the tree fort project. It was during that visit they decided to paint the exterior. She tried to talk them out of the bright green, but finally gave up. The three of them had gone to Nails and Knobs, the local hardware store, to purchase the paint the boys couldn’t live without.
The bright color would fade through the long winter and by spring would turn into a nice shade of green that would blend in with the leaves on the tree.
Mally raced Gloria to the barn and stood outside the door, waiting for her to unlock the padlock and push the heavy door aside.
Gloria pulled it to the side, just enough to peek through the crack. Ever since the time she had discovered someone hiding out in her barn, she was leery to go in when she was at the farm all by herself.
The coast was clear and she tugged the door the rest of the way open. Mally went in first and began sniffing around. She trotted off to the milking parlor while Gloria stood in the doorway and surveyed the contents.
There was plenty of room inside. She’d had a garage sale not long ago and sold a bunch of stuff she no longer needed and that the kids didn’t seem interested in inheriting.
She looked up at the old Massey Ferguson tractor and grinned as she remembered teaching Tyler and Ryan how to drive it.
Mally had finished her inspection and plopped down next to Gloria’s feet. Mally had never been inside the tractor, let alone ridden in it.
Gloria bent down and patted her head, still staring at the bulky machinery. “You want to go for a spin?”
“Woof!”
The decision made, Gloria headed back to the house. She grabbed the tractor keys and her jacket, and Mally and she went back into the barn.
Gloria looked from Mally to the tractor. Her pooch had to weigh nearly fifty pounds! How on earth was she going to carry her dog up the steep steps to the cab of the tractor?
“Wait here.” She climbed up the side and opened the door before she made her way back to the barn floor.
“This ought to be fun,” she muttered. “Here goes nothing.”
Gloria shoved the keys in her front pocket and lifted Mally. At first Mally wouldn’t stop wiggling, which made it difficult for Gloria to hang onto her. “Settle down or no ride,” she warned.
Mally immediately stopped moving and Gloria shifted her thick frame so that Mally’s paws hung over her shoulder and Gloria had a firm grip on her backside.
Slowly, she made her way up the side steps. When she got to the top, she stopped. “Okay. Climb in.”
Mally twisted at an angle then half hopped, half jumped into the cab, which sent Gloria reeling backward from the force of Mally’s leap.
If not for the ironclad hold she had on the side handle, Gloria would have fallen off the tractor and tumbled backwards onto the concrete floor!
She nudged Mally to the side so they could share the seat and then pulled the door shut. “You better enjoy the ride because I don’t think I can do this again,” she warned, “not without breaking a few bones.”
Gloria inserted the key in the ignition and turned it. The tractor fired on the first try.
She eased her foot off the clutch an
d pressed the gas. The tractor lurched forward and bumped off the curb.
They coasted around the drive a couple times. Mally seemed to have so much fun that Gloria decided to take the tractor for a spin out back.
She eased the clunky piece of farm equipment through the center of the empty fields, all the way to the edge of the property line.
They were on their final turn when something caught Gloria’s eye. “Look, Mally! Deer!”
At the edge of the fence line, nibbling on withered stalks of corn were several deer, including a doe. Deer were a common sight around the farm and sometimes a nuisance when they went after Gloria’s garden.
She kept deer repellant on hand and regularly sprayed the perimeter of the garden to keep them out. It worked like a charm and Gloria rarely had a problem with them eating her fruits and vegetables. It also kept the wild rabbits out, another pesky critter that loved the goodies in Gloria’s garden.
The deer were brave to be out right now. Bow season had just ended and gun season would start up in a couple weeks.
Mally leaned across the armrest, pressed her nose to the window and kept a close eye on the animals until they were out of sight.
Gloria backed the tractor into the barn, shut off the engine and opened the door. Getting Mally out of the tractor was going to be as tricky as getting her in.
Her eyes scanned the interior of the barn and stopped when she found something that might work to get Mally out without Gloria having to carry her.
Several years ago when they had chickens and a chicken coop, James had built an old ramp. “Wait here.”
Gloria scrambled out of the tractor. She dragged the ramp over to the tractor, leaned one end of the ramp against the door and placed the other end on the cement floor. “Can you come down?”
Mally looked at the ramp, placed one paw on the ramp and then pulled it back.
Gloria lifted her end of ramp until it was level with the other end, which rested on the floor of the cab. “C’mon girl,” she coaxed.
Mally put one paw, then another on the ramp as she tentatively crept along the wooden walkway. The closer she got to Gloria, the lower Gloria moved the ramp. By the time Mally got to the end, it was resting on the cement floor. They had done it!
Bully in the Burbs (Garden Girls Christian Cozy Mystery Book 8) Page 10