“Gloria! You’ve gotta get out of there!”
Chapter 26
Margaret yelled into the phone. At that precise moment, the back storeroom window shattered, spraying shards of glass across the floor. “Ping! Ping!”
“Someone is shooting at us!” Brian yelled.
Things moved fast after that. Lucy scampered across the floor and out of the room. Brian grabbed Gloria under both arms and dragged her from the room.
He pulled her into the front of the store before pulling the door shut behind them.
“What’s going on?” A tall, dark-haired man raced down the center aisle to the back of the store.
“Someone was shooting at us through the back window,” Gloria gasped as she rolled over and pushed herself to her feet.
Lucy, who had darted out first, fumbled inside her purse and pulled out her handgun. She tiptoed to the back door and grasped the door handle, keeping a tight grip on her weapon.
“Be careful Lucy.” Brian started to follow behind and then abruptly stopped. “Hey! I remember. I remember you!”
“Do you remember me?” Gloria asked.
“Not…yet Ginger,” he admitted.
The young man ducked down and hid behind the counter. Gloria wondered if he was Mark Clawson, the last applicant. Her eyes narrowed and she watched as he peeked over the edge of the counter. Had he shot at them through the window and then decided to run inside and become some sort of “hero?”
He looked innocent enough.
Gloria’s phone beeped. It was Margaret. “Are you guys okay?”
“Yes,” Gloria let out the breath she’d been holding. “What about you?”
“I’m fine,” Margaret said. “The person who shot at the hardware store, they took off.”
Gloria turned to Lucy. “Let’s step outside while they chat.” The women exited through the front door and Gloria began to pace up and down the sidewalk. Perhaps it had been Kate Adelson. She seemed ticked off Brian had rebuffed her advances.
A figure darted out from behind the burned out Masonic Temple and ran across the street. It was Margaret. “Someone shot out the side window.”
“Yeah. There are shards of glass everywhere but no one got hit,” Lucy said.
Gloria stopped pacing and turned to Margaret. “Did you see who fired the shots?”
“I’m sorry Gloria. I was looking down at my phone. The battery was getting low and I was trying to figure out how much time I had left. When I looked up, I caught a glimpse of a vehicle stopped in the road next to the hardware store.” Margaret laced her fingers together. “I didn’t see a person, but I did see the back of a red sports car as it sped away.”
Gloria began to pace again. “There’s something, some small clue nagging at the back of my mind.”
The dark-haired man, who had raced inside right after the gunman shot out the store windows, emerged from the hardware store. He stopped to talk to the girls. “I think I’m cursed.” He glanced back at the hardware store door.
“I wouldn’t blame Mr. Sellers for not hiring me. From the look on his face, he thinks I was the one who shot out the window. I get the feeling he thinks I’m some sort of stalker madman.” While the young man talked, his words were like a lightning bolt that ignited Gloria’s mind.
She reached out to touch his arm. “That’s it! I know who’s behind all this and I’m convinced beyond a shadow of a doubt it’s not you!”
Gloria raced up the steps and burst through the front door of the hardware store. “I know who attacked you and who shot at the back of the store!”
Her words tumbled out as she continued. “The car that Margaret spotted. I would bet a million bucks it’s parked down at the grocery store,” she said.
Lucy hovered in the doorway listening.
Gloria spun around. “Tell Mark that Brian will be in touch and then lock the front door.”
“Let’s go!” Brian grabbed his keys and headed to the back. Lucy locked the front door and the women hurried down the center aisle. Brian, Lucy and Gloria, along with Margaret, who met them out back, hopped into his pick-up truck.
“Circle around the block so we can see the back of the Quik Stop,” Gloria said.
Brian stomped on the gas, raced to the stop sign, careened around the corner and hit the gas again. They reached the back of the corner grocery seconds later.
There, parked next to Sally Keane’s beat-up four-door sedan, was a bright red sports car.
“It was Dylan Wells, Sally Keane’s brother?” Lucy guessed.
“I’m calling the cops,” Brian pulled his cell phone from his front pocket and dialed 911. “Yes. This is Brian Sellers. We have an armed robbery suspect and gunman cornered. We need police right away.” He rattled off the address before reaching for the driver’s side door handle.
“I’m going to punch his lights out!”
“I don’t think…” Gloria’s voice trailed off.
Brian shoved the driver’s side door open. In his haste, he didn’t notice the utility pole next to the driver’s side door. The door whacked the pole with brute force, swung back and hit Brian in the side of the head.
“Uh!” Brian grabbed his head, tumbled out of the truck and crumpled to the ground.
Gloria vaulted over the center console and into the driver’s seat. She stuck her head out the door. Brian was lying on the edge of the road, his eyes closed.
“Oh my gosh! Brian! Brian!” Gloria scrambled out of the vehicle, dropped to her knees and grabbed Brian’s hand. “Brian. Can you hear me?”
By now, Lucy and Margaret had jumped out of the back of the vehicle and hovered over his still body.
Gloria touched his cheek and leaned close to Brian’s face. “Brian, can you hear me?”
Brian let out a low moan. His eyes fluttered and then opened. He reached up and touched his forehead. “Gloria? What happened?”
Chapter 27
The police showed up in a caravan of cop cars, lights flashing, and arrested Dylan Wells for armed robbery and attempted murder. After the arrest, Gloria drove Brian, who complained of a bad headache, back to his house.
She waited until Alice, who had not gone in to work, arrived to keep an eye on him.
Gloria wondered if perhaps the second bump to Brian’s head caused his amnesia to disappear. Alice, thrilled that Brian’s memory had returned, swore up and down her special soup had finally worked its magic.
The girls gathered at Dot’s Restaurant shortly after the arrest and Brian was safely at home resting. “How did you know it was Sally’s brother?” Dot poured each of the girls a cup of coffee and set the empty pot in the center of the table.
“Well, I knew there was some clue, hovering in the back of my mind, something Mark Clawson said that caused the light bulb to go on. He said something to the effect Brian must have thought he was cursed or some sort of stalker.”
Gloria sipped her coffee and gazed at Ruth over the rim. “Then I remembered how Ruth had said that Dylan was obsessed with Kate Edelson, who worked with his sister, Sally, at the grocery store. Kate was all over Brian in the hardware store. My theory is somehow, Dylan found out Kate was infatuated with Brian, so he decided to attack Brian and make it look like a robbery.”
“But money was missing from the cash register,” Margaret pointed out.
“Yes, but not Brian’s wallet.” Gloria pointed out. “Why would someone rob Brian and not take his wallet, including any cash, credit cards, etc.? It didn’t add up.”
“Ah.” Rose crossed her arms and leaned back in the chair. “Brian’s memory is back, thanks to my special memory potion.”
“Or the second bump on the noggin,” Lucy said.
“Or Alice’s spicy soup,” Ruth added.
“Or all of the above,” Dot finished.
“What about Andrea? Shouldn’t we call her?” Lucy asked.
Gloria grinned. “Brian asked if he could make the call.”
“Aww.” The girls became misty-eyed at the th
ought of Brian calling his beloved to let her know his memory had returned and to find out when she was coming home.
“Well, I better get going.” Gloria eased out of the chair, grabbed her purse and limped around the side of the table.
“What’s wrong?” Dot asked. “Why are you limping?”
“I’m getting old,” Gloria joked. “Rolling around on the hardware store floor and then running back and forth didn’t help, either.”
Rose hopped out of her chair, pushing it back. “Well, Gloria, this is your lucky day. I have just the cure for that!” She held up an index finger. “Don’t go anywhere. I’ll be right back!”
The end.
The Series Continues…Book 14 Coming Soon!
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Recipe: Chicken Tortilla Casserole
Ingredients:
2 Tablespoons chicken broth or water
8 ounce carton of sour cream or plain yogurt
10 ¾ ounce can cream of mushroom soup
16 ounce jar mild, medium or hot chunky salsa*
12 flour tortillas cut into strips
4 cups diced and cooked chicken or turkey
4 cups shredded cheddar cheese
Directions:
-Preheat oven to 350 degrees.
-Grease 9”x13” baking dish.
-Spoon water or broth into dish.
-In bowl, mix sour cream, mushroom soup and salsa.
-Layer 1/3 of the tortilla strips, 1/3 of chicken, 1/3 of soup mixture and 1/3 of cheese. Repeat two times.
-Bake at 350 degrees for 40 minutes.
-Let stand 10 – 15 minutes before serving.
*To add some extra heat, substitute ¼ of the salsa with Texas Pete.
Forget Me Knot (Garden Girls Christian Cozy Mystery Series Book 13) Page 14