Stolen Dreams Read Free Page B

Stanley’s idea,”
she said.
    His mouth full, Bradley could only raise his eyebrows to
indicate his concern.
    Laughing, Mary shook her head. “He read about it in a
magazine at the barber shop,” she said, a twinkle in
her eye. “So, it must be a good idea.”
    Choking back the bite of sandwich, Bradley cleared his
throat. “A barber shop magazine?” he asked. “Well, good thing there wasn’t a
medical journal on the table; he might just want to volunteer to deliver the
baby.”
    Chuckling, Mary pulled her pickle spear out of the wax paper
and pointed it in Bradley’s direction. “It is now your official job to make
sure there are no medical journals at the barber shop,” she said.  
    “So, Stanley came up with the idea,” Bradley said. “And
Gracie actually agrees?”
    “Well, she told me how to try and gain control of my
dreams,” she replied. “I never considered that since they were my dreams, I
could be in control.”
    “What’s your plan?”   he asked.
    “Since I said the baby was a girl last night,” she said,
“this must be someone else’s nightmare and I’m just in there with them.   I need to look around and discover whose
dream I’m in and figure out why I’m there.”
    “Okay, you look around inside the dream. I’ll stay awake and
protect you and the wood floor outside your dream,” he said matter-of-factly.
    Mary chuckled. “How did I get so lucky?” she murmured.
    “Hey, I’m just protecting my interests,” he said.
    “Your interests?” she asked, confused.
    “Yeah, I asked around the station about this Casey fellow,”
he said. “If one more woman calls him the cute flooring guy, we’re putting in
carpet.”

Chapter Four

 
    About an hour after lunch, Mary’s research on lucid dreaming
was interrupted by her cell phone ringing.   After quickly glancing at the caller ID, she had a smile on her face as
she answered. “Hi, Jerry, what’s up?” she asked.
    Jerry Wiley was the editor-in-chief of the Freeport
Republic, the town’s newspaper.   Jerry
had actually been involved in one of the first murder mysteries Mary had solved
in town, and they had remained friends ever since.  
    “Hey, Mary, I need a Halloween feature,” Jerry replied.
    “Well, good for you,” Mary said, her smile widening. “I hope
you find one.”
    “I just did,” he said. “You’re it.”
    “Oh, no,” she said. “I’m not a Halloween feature. I take my
work very seriously.”
    “Yeah, I know that,” he replied. “And I’m, you know, not
looking to make light of your work. I just think it would be interesting for
folks to know about what you do.   It
could be good for business.”
    Mary shook her head. “I don’t need any help with my
business,” she replied. “But, hey, thanks for the offer.”
    She was ready to disconnect the call when Jerry added. “And
it might help someone who’s been searching for someone like you.”
    She paused for a moment and Jerry moved in for the
kill.   “You know, some poor, little widow
who everyone is saying is crazy because she thinks she hears her husband’s
voice,” he said. “Or a grieving parent who needs reassurance that there is life
beyond this one. Mary, this could be a very important story.”
    She sighed and closed her eyes. This could be good , she thought, or really, really bad .
    “When do you want to run the story?” she asked.
    She could hear the glee in Jerry’s voice when he replied.
“Actually, I wanted to send someone over this afternoon,” he said, “and run it
in tomorrow’s paper.”
    “Wait. What?” she answered. “Tomorrow’s
paper?   What’s really going on
Jerry?”
    There was a long pause and finally Jerry spoke. “Okay, the
scheduled feature was pulled at the last moment,” he said. “So, I’m using you
for fill.”
    “Oh, so much for the widows and grieving parents,” she
replied sarcastically.
    “Well, they’re still out there,” he said. “I just didn’t
care about them as much