Jewels in the Juniper - Dale Mayer Page 0,61
was fitter and toned.
Still, once she was dressed, she picked Thaddeus up off his roost, with him squawking gently in her ear as they walked downstairs. Goliath was once again occupying his own perch on one of the bottom risers to her stairs, staring at her, his tail flicking, as if to say, Don’t even bother asking me to move because I ain’t going to.
She grabbed the banister and hopped over his step, but that left Mugs a step above. Goliath howled and Mugs barked, as she turned to watch the two face-off. She groaned. “Come on, Mugs. Just jump over him, like I did.”
Mugs looked at her, then looked at Goliath, and did a half-hearted jump with his back legs catching Goliath in the belly, as they both slipped down the stairs onto the floor. Howling, Goliath jumped up and raced away.
Doreen laughed at their antics but headed straight for the coffeepot. She needed it today more than anything. She couldn’t quite understand what message that early morning question was trying to prod from her brain. But, as she leaned against the counter and waited for a cup of coffee, she reminded herself how she hadn’t been to the library on this case. And she really should go see just what information was available on the store and the family. There should be archives of newspaper articles, if nothing else. They were terrible to search for though.
She’d have to go through paper by paper, but still Kelowna only had the one major paper. Of course now everything was digital, so there were a couple competing new sites, but back then, forty years ago, there was only the one. Any major news from here would also have been picked up and noted in the Vancouver Sun paper.
As soon as the coffee was done, she poured herself a cup, nudged open the rear kitchen door, and stepped out onto the deck.
Goliath raced out and headed toward the same plants he’d been interested in yesterday.
She frowned at that. “What is it about Heidi’s plants that bugs you?” she asked. “Is it just that they are different?”
Mugs barked at her several times, as he wandered through and lifted his leg on one in particular. She scolded him for it because a urine burn like that could kill a young transplant.
She raced over and watered it, trying to rinse it off and to thin down the urine. Mugs walked back to the grass with an offended air.
Goliath, on the other hand, wove through each of the transplants, marking each of them with his fur. She didn’t understand that at all.
Knowing she couldn’t go to the library without real food first, she headed inside and made some toast. As soon as the animals came in for their food, she would lock the doors and head out. She’d wasted enough time already that the library should be open when she finished eating.
Sure enough, by the time she was done and had the kitchen cleaned up and her second coffee down, she fed the animals so she could slip out easily. She grabbed her purse and headed toward the garage, locking all three animals in the house and resetting the security system. She backed down the driveway and headed to the large library only a few minutes away. As she pulled in to park, the parking lot was empty. However, the parking lot for the huge fitness center in the same area was overwhelmingly stuffed.
She groaned, muttering to the air around her, “Like I need that with my gardening projects.” Turning her back on the big fitness center looming before her, she headed into the library and smiled at the librarian.
This librarian, younger than the one Doreen often saw in the evening, looked up with a smile. “Aren’t you out bright and early this morning?”
Doreen just nodded and smiled, then headed to the back corner, where the microfiche was kept. She settled down to work, determining the years she needed to search through. It was not the easiest task, but she had a cup of coffee with her, even though it technically wasn’t allowed. It was a travel mug that closed completely, so she had kept it in her bag the whole way, but she took it out now and placed it on the table beside her, slowly working through the newspapers with her notepad at the ready.
She found several articles about Aretha’s marriage, about the burglary, followed by the fire, and the bankruptcy. They all had