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

center of the room.
    “There’s paint in the kitchen as well,” Levi informed me.
    “Great.”
    “I’m going to go see if I can round up some more help,” Levi said.
    “What happened?” Sue Stone, one of the mothers from Scooter’s soccer team, asked as she came in through the door behind me after Levi had walked away.
    “I really have no idea. It looks like someone intentionally trashed the place.”
    “Who would do such a thing?” Sue asked.
    “Benny said he saw Duncan here earlier, which led Levi to suspect Duncan was our vandal, but I don’t see how he could be because he was at the kiddie carnival selling tickets all afternoon.”
    “No,” Sue corrected, “ I spent the afternoon at the kiddie carnival selling tickets. Someone was supposed to relieve me, but no one ever showed, so I did a double shift.”
    I frowned. “That’s odd. I was supposed to relieve you, but I ran into Duncan, who sent me to the pie toss. He said he was going to cover the ticket booth.”
    “Well, he didn’t,” Sue confirmed.
    It was beginning to sound like Duncan was the culprit after all. But why would he spend hours volunteering with the events committee and then intentionally destroy any chance we had of making a profit?
    “It looks like a line is beginning to form out front. We should probably tell everyone they’ll need to come back tomorrow,” Sue suggested. “I hate to spread the word that the house has been vandalized, though. I’m afraid that might open a whole can of worms. Maybe we can tell everyone we had a problem with the electricity. This is an old house. Most folks will buy it.”
    “That sounds like a good idea. Why don’t you go break the news to the people in line and I’ll start cleaning up?”
    Luckily, we had a fairly large staff lined up to man the event that evening and most were happy to stay to clean up when they found out the event was canceled. I wasn’t thrilled by what had occurred, but it looked like it was going to be possible to put everything back the way it had been so we would be able to resume operations the following evening.
    “Hey, Bruce, can you oversee the graveyard tomorrow night?” I asked one of the helpers who had finished what he’d been assigned to do and was getting ready to leave.
    “I thought you had someone for tomorrow.”
    “I did, but the someone I had was Duncan, and because I’m going to kill him once I track him down, I figure I’ll need to replace the shift.”
    Bruce laughed. “I hear ya. I’ll be happy to fill in.”
    I looked around the room. It seemed we would be finished in half the time I’d originally estimated it would take us.
    “Ellie called,” Levi informed me after Bruce left. “She’s on her way home with the baby and wanted me to stop to pick up some stuff.”
    “Did she say how Skye was doing?” I asked.
    “The same. Ellie is pretty worried. She said it really doesn’t look good.”
    “Is there anything Zak and I can do?”
    “Actually, there is something Zak can do. I guess your mom is going to lend Ellie an extra crib she has, and she said she had a stroller and a couple of other things as well. I don’t think it will all fit in my 4Runner, but maybe if Zak could follow me in his truck…”
    “No problem. I’m sure he’d be happy to help. Is there anything else we can do?”
    “Not really. At least not at this point. Once she gets home we’ll have some things to figure out, but it seems like for now she just really wants to get the baby settled into the boathouse.”
    “Of course. You and Zak go on ahead. I can finish up here. And don’t worry about tomorrow. I’ll find someone to cover for both you and Ellie.”
    “Thanks. That would help.”
    “And please call if you think of anything at all you need.”
    “I will.”
    I watched Levi walk across the room to speak to Zak. I couldn’t help but wonder at the fate of the baby should her mother not recover. It was such a tragic thing to have occurred. It made