The Longest Yard Sale Read Free

could hear horns honking as people became impatient with the wait on Great Road. I hoped I could avoid CJ for the next few days until he got over this.
    â€œYes, of course I did,” she said. “With all this traffic, it really will be New England’s Largest Yard Sale. I wasn’t sure you could pull it off.”
    I couldn’t believe Nancy had thought I’d fail. She’d hired me, after all. But it was her political career that was on the line if something went terribly wrong.
    â€œI’ll tell CJ to get his officers out there and keep the traffic moving,” Nancy said.
    She could tell CJ that until she was blue in the face, but the truth was Great Road was a main cut-through from the 95, which connected Maine to Miami, and to the 495, which circumvented Boston. (The locals always made fun of my California speak, which had me using the word the before 95 or any other road number I referenced.) It was going to take more than a few police officers to get the road going again. I turned my back to Great Road and looked up at the church steeple reaching toward the bright blue sky. The weather was perfect. The trees were changing, the meteorologists had gotten it right, and I couldn’t ask for a better New England autumn day. I focused on all the positives.
    At some point, I’d turned down the sound on my earpiece. Nancy’s voice droned on and on, more annoying than a gnat relentlessly buzzing my ear. After a few minutes I realized she’d quit talking—that it had been a while since I’d heard her say anything. “Nancy?” I asked several times. She didn’t answer. I shrugged. I was too busy to worry about what Nancy was up to.
    Sirens began to wail. First one, then others joined, in increasingly large numbers. I couldn’t pinpoint where they were coming from or going to. Fire trucks crept out of the station a block up on Great Road, with some going left and others to the right. People quit shopping to look around. The band stopped playing.
    I smiled at people as I hurried across the common to the church. “It’s okay,” I said over and over, desperately hoping it was. I tried to reach Nancy and turned up the volume on my earpiece in case I couldn’t hear her over the crowds and the sirens. I motioned to the band and got them playing again as I scanned the crowd, looking for Nancy.
    People took that as a good sign and began to shop again. Thankfully, the sirens headed away from the town common, but that many sounding at once couldn’t be good.
    I rushed back over to Great Road, hoping to catch a glimpse of what was happening. But all I saw were long lines of traffic.
    My earpiece crackled to life. “What’s going on?” Nancy’s voice blasted my eardrum.
    For once, I was happy to hear her voice in my ear. I’d been more worried about her silence than I’d realized. “I don’t know.” I craned my neck as I looked up and down Great Road. CJ, in his chief-of-police SUV, inched along. I knew that wasn’t good. CJ pushed his Ray-Bans up on his forehead. We locked eyes for a second. From this distance, I couldn’t see the pale blue of his eyes or the way he narrowed them when he was mad. He pounded his horn and hit the siren in frustration. Traffic was slow to get out of his way. Where could they go on a narrow New England road? His glare said it all—this is your fault.
    â€œWhere are you?” I asked Nancy.
    â€œAt the church. Meet me there.”
    I plunged back into the throngs of shoppers as Nancy came around the corner next to the church. She jerked her head toward a side entrance, and I followed her in. The noise level dropped instantly.
    â€œWe might have to shut this whole thing down.”
    I stared at Nancy. “Why?”
    â€œThere’s an arsonist on the loose.”

CHAPTER 2
    I stared at her. “Why do you think that?”
    â€œI just spoke with the fire chief.