Phantom Quartz by Annino Barbra

Author:Annino, Barbra [Annino, Barbra]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: Mystery, Animals, Cozy, Science Fiction & Fantasy, Witches & Wizards, Thriller & Suspense, Fantasy, Supernatural, Women Sleuths, Paranormal & Urban
Publisher: Dane House LLC
Published: 2015-05-10T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 25

I screamed and lost control of the truck as it careened up and over a curb, slamming into a plastic nativity scene. I whipped my head around to see who was in the back seat, but there was no one.

What the hell?

Bea Plough, the old woman who lived across the street from Birdie and whose lawn decoration I’d just obliterated, came storming out of her house in a fit of rage.

Her hair was as tightly wound as she was, in a bun on top of her head that looked like a ball of rubber bands bound together. Her skirt was long and plaid, her sweater long and drab like her personality.

She was yelling at me, which was her specialty. That and cracking a ruler over unsuspecting children’s knuckles. Bea was a Sunday school teacher and a pious woman, although I use that term loosely. She spewed hate like other people spray fertilizer, but with more precision. Naturally, she abhorred everything about the Geraghtys, and that included me. I suppose it didn’t help that Lolly had once dated her husband Stan, who happened to be Gramps’ best friend. Nor did it help when Cinnamon and I stole her baby Jesus the year she tried to ruin my grandmother’s business by taking out a full page ad in the newspaper declaring that the Geraghty Girls House was not an inn, but a front for Satan worshipers. I should have spray painted a pentagram on her lawn then. Anyway, Birdie insisted we return the savior to the Ploughs and apologize. Bea slapped me clean across the face and Cinnamon kicked her in the shin. We were eleven and nine.

So much for amends.

Before I rolled down the window, I checked her hands for a ruler. It was all clear. Bea shouted, “You are a despicable human being, Stacy Justice! How dare you destroy my manger!”

“Bea, it was an accident. I’m very sorry.”

“Bah! It was no accident! You and your family always hated my Christmas display.”

“That’s true, but mostly because it’s cheap and tacky and screams Made in China. You know most of those folks are Buddhist, right?”

That confused her for a moment. Then she said, “I’m going to sue you!”

That was Bea’s other favorite pastime besides making coats out of puppies. She’s sued just about everyone for everything in this town, or tried to. Luckily Stan was a reasonable, peaceful man who knew his wife was as trigger happy as a blind gunslinger.

“I’ll be happy to buy you a new one, Bea. I’m tired of looking at those cows who replaced the three wise men after that blizzard five years ago. And just a tip? I’m pretty sure Mary would be appalled at being represented by a Barbie doll.”

Bea scrunched her face up and said, “I’d never put anything that you’d touched on my property.”

Stan came out of the house then and ambled over as Bea continued to berate me. He tugged his wife’s shoulders, whispered something in her ear and she backed away, playing the submissive bride.

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