Ghostly Graveyard (Zoe Donovan Cozy Mystery Book 17) Read Free Page A

even know the baby existed, but of course she was happy to help out.”
    I watched as a dark cloud moved across the moon, casting the parking area into darkness. I felt like the cloud had appeared in the clear sky as some sort of an omen. But then again, it could just have drifted in over the summit when I wasn’t looking.
    “How old is the baby?” I wondered.
    “Six months. According to the roommate the father is a drifter Skye hadn’t spoken to since the night Mariah was conceived. He’s totally out of the picture, and as far as Ellie could tell, Skye hadn’t maintained contact with her extended family after her parents passed.”
    I felt a sadness surround me. “I hope Skye is okay. I only met her a couple of times, but I remember her being a nice girl. And the poor baby. Babies need their mamas.”
    “Yeah.” Levi sighed. “It really is a bad situation. Did Zak make it back?”
    I closed my door and opened the trunk of the small car Zak had bought me to tool around town in. I began to sort through the pile of objects I’d begun carrying around since I’d become a mom of sorts.
    “Yeah, he’s back,” I answered as I began to gather the things I would need for the evening. “Pi is going to hang out with Jeremy after he finishes his shift at the Zoo, so Zak was going to drop him off with him and then head home to check on the animals and make sure Scooter and Alex were settled at my parents’. He should be here before long.”
    I smiled as I found the pair of cleats Scooter had sworn someone must have stolen because he was unable to find them. I really did need to clean out my trunk. I slung my backpack over my shoulder and began to walk across the parking lot toward the trail that led from the parking lot and through the graveyard to the house.
    “Fair warning,” Levi said as he fell in next to me. “I really didn’t want to be the one to tell you this, and was waiting until the last possible moment to do so, but someone broke in and trashed the place.”
    “What? Who would do such a thing?”
    “Benny said he saw Duncan here earlier, so my money is on him being the culprit.”
    I stopped walking and looked directly at Levi. “Why would Duncan trash the place?”
    “I don’t know. When I arrived and saw the mess I asked Benny what happened and he said he didn’t know for sure, but he’d been here earlier to check on the sound system and Duncan showed up while he was here. He said he left shortly after Duncan arrived because he needed to do some things before he came back for the evening, and Duncan agreed to lock up. My guess is either Duncan did the trashing or he forgot to lock up and vandals took advantage of that fact.”
    “Maybe someone broke in after Duncan left,” I said.
    “Maybe,” Levi acknowledged. “But even if that’s true he left the door open. I looked around. There’s no sign of a forced entry.”
    I looked toward the house. The haunted house and haunted graveyard were my babies. I’d been working on them for months. I couldn’t believe someone would trash the place after all my hard work.
    “How bad is it?” I asked.
    “Bad.”
    I let out a long breath and shook my head. I couldn’t believe Duncan would do such a thing, but my intuition told me that he had. I felt myself getting madder and madder as I walked toward the house. What could the man who seemed to have made it his mission to annoy and irritate me possibly hope to gain by destroying the event I’d spent weeks working on? Maybe it wasn’t as bad as Levi indicated.
    Once I stepped inside I realized Levi hadn’t been exaggerating at all. The place looked like a war zone. There were some props lying on the floor, while others had been broken beyond repair. It looked like someone had taken a baseball bat to the place. And the worst part was that someone had spread red paint all over one wall and part of the floor. It was going to take a miracle to get it out of the area rug that was on the floor in the