Page 12 of Rebel Secrets
Frogtown.Was there really a place called Frogtown near here?How did I not know that?
“Um…”
Granddad leaned to the right, and I leaned to the left so we could see each other.
“The alpaca that took a walkabout and was gone for five days and showed up three counties away?That alpaca.”
I blinked at my granddad for a few seconds while my brain processed that information, thought about it for a few more seconds, then mentally shrugged.Well, this was St.David.
“Um…”
“His name’s Master Fluffy Jack.”
“I assume you mean the alpaca.”
Will Randolph looked over the top of his wire-frame glasses at me, his white brows arched over blue eyes only slightly less bright than they’d been for as long as I could remember.At eighty, Granddad was still as sharp as the day I’d been born, twenty-nine years ago.
The only thing that’d changed since that day was that I now worked for him.Though he still said I had him wrapped around my little finger.When he looked at me like that, I wasn’t sure that was true.
“What have I taught you about making assumptions?”
I rolled my eyes, biting back a smile.“That they’re correct sometimes?”
His mouth twitched, but his expression never changed.Granddad had been a journalist for more than six decades.He’d gotten his start at the New York Times, after graduating from Hofstra, and had worked there for more than thirty years before my grandmom had died.Cancer.I don’t remember her very well, but Granddad sometimes talks about her like she’s still here.
My mom thinks it’s strange.I don’t mind.
“I think my training has been lacking with you.”
“I didn’t realize I was in training.”
Granddad gave me the look.The one most people in this town had learned to respect.Or fear, if you had something to hide.You’d be surprised how many people had something to hide in a small town.Take Sir Fluffy Jack.
“Which just means I’m better at this than I thought I was.”
He gave me a wink, and I dissolved into laughter.This was one of my most happiest places.This dusty, musty, dimly lit space with its wood-plank floors that creaked with every step and the plaster walls that had started to crack again and needed to be fixed.
It looked straight out of a movie from the fifties, like that one set in a newsroom that Granddad and I had watched a few years ago.When I’d first moved here and hadn’t known anyone and had thought I’d only be here a few weeks to help him wind down the paper and sell the building.
“So…Sir Fluffy?Where did he end up?”
Granddad’s mouth twitched into a smile.“An alpaca farm outside of Reading.No one’s sure exactly how he got there, but foul play is suspected.”
“Someone kidnapped Sir Fluffy and then released him at another farm?Was it a prank?”
“Farmer swears the damn alpaca walked off by himself.I need you to get in touch with the farmer in Berks County and get some detail to go with what our farmer told me.”
Shaking my head, I took down the number he recited.
“Thanks, Care Bear.”He pushed away from the desk.“Now, I’m going to head over to the diner for coffee.”
I waved him off, not bothering to mention the fact that I owned a bakery in the next building, and he could drink his coffee for free there.The coffee wasn’t the point.He was going to get the latest gossip from the retired people who hung around the diner all day.He called it investigative reporting.We both knew it was totally for the gossip.
But that gossip sometimes led to a juicy story.This was not exactly a juicy story.Not like the news I’d been sitting on for months.
Colonel Lawrence was going to retire at the end of the season.
Now, a few people in this town wouldn’t give a crap.Not everyone idolized the Lawrence family.Maybe idolized wasn’t the right word.
