Campfire Catastrophe (A Traveling Town Mystery, Book 7) by Ami Diane

Author:Ami Diane [Diane, Ami]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-04-27T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

“FLO,” WINK SAID, panic seizing her voice, “why on earth is your bag smoking?”

Flo spun like a cat chasing its tail, trying to see the smoke. “I don’t—” Her eyes widened. “Quicklime!”

It took a moment for the word to register. That’s when Ella remembered the small explosives Flo had wanted to use on the backdoor, the same explosives she’d stuffed in the now smoking bag.

Without asking why in the jelly-filled donuts Flo had thought it a good idea to pack Greek fire for this excursion, Ella ripped the bag off the woman’s shoulders. She leaped for the cold storage and ripped open the door.

The bag flew through the air and landed on the shelf where a body usually lay. She slammed the thick door closed and took two leaping strides across Pauline’s lab towards the hallway. Wink was diving through the doorway, dragging Flo out by her hair.

“But my bag!” Flo’s exclamation was punctuated by a kaboom behind Ella.

The force of a train slammed into her back, sending her crashing into the other two. They landed in the hallway in a dog pile. No one moved for several seconds in the prolonged stillness that followed.

Ella realized two things. One, she’d just survived a death-defying leap from an explosion that belonged in an action movie starring Bruce Willis. Two, she was pretty sure she was deaf, except for the very loud ringing in her ears. From head to toe, her entire body felt like it had been tossed about in a blender.

“I taste purple,” she croaked out. “Is that possible?”

Groaning, she rolled over and surveyed the damage. The door for the cold storage room dangled by its top hinge, scorch marks marring the room beyond.

She coughed. “Maybe Pauline won’t notice. A little scrubbing, a new door, and it’ll be good as new.”

The last sinew of hinge gave, and the door fell with a crash that was felt rather than heard through her stuffed ears.

“What?” Wink shouted. Her mouth opened and closed as she attempted to pop her ears. “How much quicklime did you have in there?”

“What?” Flo hollered back. A spiderweb of cracks covered one lens of her glasses. “I can’t hear you.”

Ella motioned for them to massage their ears, then climbed to her feet. There was no way half the town hadn’t heard that blast. If they were discovered, Chapman would throw them in the slammer for sure this time, and, as much as she liked Craig the caveman, she had no interest in being stuck in a cell that smelled like a truck stop bathroom.

“We have to get out of here.” She wobbled, standing.

“What?” The other two said in unison.

Ella pantomimed leaving before tugging them to their feet. Sprinting through the building, they burst out the back door and into the night. As the ringing in her ears abated, she heard the clop of horse hooves coming down Main Street.

“Crap!” She shoved the others down the dark alley, away from the approaching sheriff.

Sprinting down the narrow pathway in the dark, jumping crates and dodging trash bins, Ella experienced a horrible sense of déjà vu.

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