stomp down the emotions I was feeling. Healthy eating? No, but as long as I could name the emotion, I was okay with it.
“I don’t know. But I’ll talk to Toby, and you need to bring your aunt into the conversation. If they’re using the people around you, there may be more misunderstandings before we find out who is doing this.” He leaned down and brushed a bit of brownie off my lips before he kissed me. “Just don’t bite Deek’s head off when he comes to work. He feels bad enough already.”
“As he should.” But I smiled to let Greg know I didn’t hold Deek responsible. On the other hand, I was getting pretty tired of the games going on. I only knew one thing. If I’d been solid in my decision not to sell the house before, now I was rock solid. No one pushed me out of my house or my town. “I’ll see you tonight maybe?”
“Probably. My investigation is stalling out. I need to take some time to think about all this. Maybe it really was just a bad timing hit-and-run.” He put a cover on his coffee cup. “Thanks.”
“No problem. Thanks for coming out and finding my sign monster.”
He chuckled. “I haven’t solved that mystery yet. But I will. I think I’ll have a chat with Alice Carroll this afternoon.”
“Find out when she’s sending out the Business-to-Business fee increase retraction letter.” I put my empty brownie plate in the sink and eyed the chocolate chip cookie in the display case.
“That will be my first question. Not.” He waved as he walked out the door. “Sorry, love, but you’re going to have to fight that battle on your own. I’m only in the crime-fighting business.”
“Extortion is a crime,” I called after him, but I saw him shake his head. Sometimes Greg could be infuriating. I took my cup and my notebook away from the cookie calling my name and sat on the couch. I couldn’t eat my way out of this problem. Even though I wanted to. I opened the notebook and made a list of what I wanted to get done today after Deek came in and relieved me.
First up, find that last divorce decree. The county had some issues with misfiling last year, when the local senior agency was setting people up to be scammed. Luckily, the computer experts got that glitch corrected, and from what I’d heard, the new director of the Senior Project was doing amazing work. Paula was a sweet woman and deserved some good news in her life.
And I wanted to stop by the real estate office where this Alice Carroll worked. I needed to get her to stop messing with me and mine before I clocked her one. Okay, so I probably wouldn’t really hit her, but I’d want to. Really, really bad. I don’t like it when people start messing with my family. Or my business.
I could do the shopping for the week and stock up on frozen meal starters because Greg was going to be working. And I didn’t usually buy treats at the store when I had easy access here at the shop.
I wasn’t going to run today, I needed to give both Emma and me the day off. But if I got these three things done, then working Sunday wouldn’t ruin my weekend. And if Greg was busy tonight, I could get the laundry done while I watched television.
Satisfied with my plan, I grabbed my laptop and started researching wife number one. Lynda Evans Gleason had been in the news since before she started high school. I guess that’s what happens when your father is a computer genius. She and her mother attended more charity events than I even thought there were charities. Sometime when she turned twenty, Frank started appearing in the photographs too. They had the longest marriage, according to the records. And they’d both walked away with what they’d owned. No joint assets, according to the overview. How could that be when they were married close to ten years?
I Googled her name, looking for an address, and got a hit. Just down Highway 1 and right on the shore. I wrote it down and decided I’d pop in there before heading to Bakerstown. Probably a dead end, but I could take her cookies from the store as a neighborly gesture. People took food when others died. And I had known Frank. At least a little.
I made notes on the next two wives.