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If you’ve been following Trish’s series, here’s your next installment.
Sabotage Yes or No Part Seven
By Trish Hubschman

Tracy Gayle

“Whose idea was it for you to drive down to Baltimore after work the other day?” I asked Dean Sollars. I was on video on Deputy King’s cell phone. Artie and Cole were in the patient’s room. I think Gwen Callahan was also connected to the phone from a different line outside the hospital room. Dean looked much better today. He was sitting up in bed. The nurse had told us he had slept well the night before and had eaten his entire breakfast that morning.
“Hmm, let me see now,” he murmured. “Rich asked me some time last week to look at a jobsite he was interested in excavating in Baltimore. I didn’t have any time right then. Your old man’s building project is keeping me darn busy of late.” He was staring at me on the phone and smiling. He was talking about Danny. I had to press my lips tightly together to keep from chuckling. ”Well, since we were calling it an early day Wednesday or Thursday, I forget what day we’re on now, I told Rich we’d do it then.”
“Did you call your wife and fill her in on your plans?” That question came from Gwen Callahan. I was stupefied by it. I saw no pertinence to the situation at hand. I think the two deputies felt the same way I did.
“Nope,” he replied. “I planned to fill her in when I got home, which wasn’t supposed to be much later than I usually got in. Okay, it didn’t work out that way, but I meant well. I didn’t want to worry her and Julie would have worried if I told her I was going down to Baltimore.” “That’s Julie.”
I’m sure he was right about that, but I had a feeling there was more to it. I couldn’t’ place my finger on it though. The barrage of questions continued, much the same ones as were asked yesterday. The door to my sitting room/office opened. I turned in my chair to see Danny. Liz was right. He was gorgeous. He wore a black suit and tie, which was loosened. His blonde hair was pulled back and secured at the nape of his neck. He looked exhausted. I waved him into the room. He plopped down on the sofa beside my desk.
“Danny just came in,” I announced to the people at the hospital. Greetings went around.
“I had a meeting with Jared McAllister this morning,” Danny said. “The Century End building project will continue full steam ahead.” There should have been excitement or something in his tone, but there wasn’t. “My band’s going on tour week after next, so Jared will be overseeing the whole show.”
“What about me?” Dean Sollars asked. “I want to come back to work.”
Danny shook his head. “You’re on paid medical leave till further notice, Dean,” Danny said. “Richard Highland is going to fill in for you temporarily. When your doctor says you’re ready to come back, let McAllister know. In the meantime, relax and get better.” Danny rose from the sofa. “I’m going upstairs to change my clothes and get more comfortable. Wife here tells me we have an appointment to see a banker this afternoon.”
I was smiling and shaking my head. “I’ve got to go too. Let’s keep in touch.”” I signed off and jumped out of my chair to follow Danny. He had already left the room.

. .
Edna had lunch set up in the dining rom when Danny and I came downstairs thirty minutes later. Danny and I helped ourselves to sandwiches, salad and coffee and sat down at the table. It was only the two of us.
“Ther might a perfectly reasonable explanation for what’s happening,” I said.
Danny gave me the most disbelieving look I’ve ever see. It almost made me laugh. He put his sandwich down. “Sweetheart, your ghost on the scene theory doesn’t fly anymore. An apparition didn’t put Dean Sollars in the hospital.”
I was quick to shake my head. “I didn’t mean it literally when I said it the first time and I don’t mean it that way now,” I replied. There was determination in my voice. “Someone is digging up the past and using it to scare others. I don’t know why anyone would do that or who it is, but I’m sure that’s the key in this.” I Told him about my conversation that morning at breakfast with his daughter and the nanny scurrying from the room.
Danny stared at me a long time. “Where’s Liz?” he finally asked. I shrugged. He called Edna and asked her the same question.
“I think I saw her with her husband a while ago. I’ll go look for her and send her in.” She left the room.
A few minutes later, a harried looking, slightly overweight Elizabeth Tide stood in the doorway. “Yeah, what? I was watching Mike and Danielle play blocks in the living room.” She came over and plopped herself down in a chair at the table.
I took a deep breath. “Honey, have you spoken or been speaking to Julie Sollars. She’s the wife of the foreman on your dad’s building jobs.”
Danny put his coffee cup down. “Do you even know the woman?” He asked his daughter.
Liz turned to Danny. She gave him a dirty look before answering. “Of course, I know her, Dad. Gina and I met her in the mall a few days ago.” She turned to me then. “Gina had to race off to go after Danielle. I was just totally bent out of shape.” She paused, waiting for Danny or I to interrupt. When neither of us said anything, she went on. “Anyway, I was leaning on a clothes rack and this woman came over and introduced herself as Julie Sollars. Said she knew my father and he was a lovely man.” She turned to Danny again. He still said nothing. She shrugged. “The three of us went to lunch after that.”
“What did you talk about?” Danny asked.
Liz sniffed. She was indignant at the interrogation. “We talked about what girls talk about, Dad. Doesn’t interest guys.”
I could see a vein in Danny’s temple throbbing. He counted to five. “Let’s try this again. Did she say anything about Century End or the building project?” he asked.
Liz nodded. “Lot of stuff I already knew, but she creeped me out. Went on and on about people dying and ghosts.”
Danny and I exchanged glances. “Did she mention her husband, Dean?” I shot in.
Liz shook her head. “I don’t think so.”
“How about Richard Highland?” Danny asked.
“I don’t even know who he is,” she fired back.
“He’s Dusty Heartland’s younger brother,” I told her. “How about Gabe Heartland?”
“Nope and nope. Now, it’s my turn, why the questions?’
Before Danny or I could respond, Mike Carson came into the dining room. He was carrying his daughter who was banging her hand down on his shoulder. “I think I found your new drummer, Danny,” Mike said and Danielle squealed. He handed the baby to her grandfather.
Sitting on Danny’s knee, Danielle started slapping the table. “Yeah, and I think she’ll do better than the drum machine.”
Everybody laughed.
Dann and I left for our appointment with Dusty Heartland right after lunch.

To be continued….
Gayle’s Tales: Tracy Gayle Mysteries
by Trish Hubschman
Copyright December 23, 2022
The book is for sale from Smashwords (e-book only) and from Amazon in e-book ($3.99), paperback ($8.50), and hardcover ($16.50).
175 pages in print.

Full details of this book and Trish’s four Tracy Gayle mystery novels are on her website here.

Synopsis:

Gayle’s Tales is a collection of Tracy Gayle mystery short stories.

Everyone’s favorite couple, Tracy and Danny, are still going strong, romantically and professionally, rocking and rolling and solving crimes.

Tracy has to locate missing persons who vanished decades earlier.

She gets tangled in murder investigations she hadn’t anticipated.

She digs into a coal mining town that’s been uninhabited for 40 years and discovers secrets and skeletons.

In the end, she brings long–lost family members and friends back into each other’s arms and lives.

Through all this, she and Danny are planning their wedding extravaganza at the Plaza Hotel in New York City.

Tracy narrates her own adventures in these tales, as she does in the books.

About the author
Trish Hubschman is the author of the Tracy Gayle mystery series: Tidalwave, Stiff Competition, Ratings Game, Uneasy Tides, and Gayle’s Tales.
Trish is a graduate of Long Island University’s Southampton Campus and has a bachelor’s degree in English-writing. She is deaf-blind and lives in South Carolina with her husband, Kevin, and their dog, Henry.

Visit Trish on her Website here.