Read 6 Death Takes The Blue Ribbon for Free Online

for thinking about myself when Gladys was going through her own nightmare.
    When I got home, I dropped my stuff on the couch, poured myself a Dr Pepper, and went outside with Babe and Mittens. Babe plopped down under the big shade tree, while Mittens ran around, barking at the leaves as a light breeze blew them around. I sat down in a blue and white striped lawn chair and stretched my legs out in front of me. I wondered where Mother and her new husband were on their honeymoon cruise. I thought about advertising and stories that I needed from Ellen and Bruce for next week’s editions. I made myself think about anything but Gladys and Harold, but it didn’t work. The look on Harold’s face right before he went face first into the pie kept playing over and over in my mind. Mittens walked under the chair, curled up and went to sleep.
    “Hiding out back here?” someone said. I jumped out of the chair, spilling my Dr Pepper all over my jeans. I looked up to see T.J. trying not to laugh. “Sorry about that.”
    Babe growled at him, and Mittens came out from under the chair, sniffed T.J.’s pants leg, and bit him. Apparently, my babies knew that he was in the doghouse with me, and felt the need to let him know he wasn’t welcome. “It’s alright,” I replied, bending over to pick up my cup. “What are you doing here? Aren’t you supposed to be babysitting Gladys?”
    He shook his head and stepped away from Mittens, who growled at him before returning to her place under the chair. “I don’t think she’s going anywhere tonight. I’ve got someone sitting in the driveway at her house, though. If she tries to go back to the house, he’ll send her home.”
    “Do you have someone watching the back gate?”
    “All I saw back there was a bunch of bushes and ivy.”
    “There’s a gate back there. You have to know where to look. I’d get someone back there ASAP if I were you.”
    He put down the bag he was holding, pulled out his phone and made arrangements for someone to cover the gate overnight. “Thanks for letting me know,” he said as he put his phone away.
    “No problem. So, what brings you over here?”
    He pointed at the bag on the ground that Mittens had taken an active interest in. Picking it up, he said, “I thought you might be hungry, so I brought some steaks and corn on the cob to grill, if that’s alright with you.”
    “Wow, you really took a chance, didn’t you? You just assumed that I’d want to eat with you?”
    “I know you can’t turn down a good steak. There’s dessert, too.”
    “What kind of dessert?”
    “Cherry cheesecake.”
    “Isn’t there a law against bribing a reporter?”
    “Hm, I don’t think so.”
    “You know where the grill is.”
    “I do. Want to take this stuff inside for me while I warm it up?” he said, holding out the bag.
    I watched him for a minute before going inside. It reminded me of the first day I had met him, when he brought the exact same food over to apologize for accusing me of killing my own grandfather. That was when we slowly started to become friends before we started dating. I wondered if T.J. had remembered that first day, too. Knock it off, Lizzie, I chided myself. You can’t go back to the way things were.
    Putting the cheesecake on the table for a minute, I opened the fridge and took out lettuce, celery, carrots, a cucumber and tomatoes. As I chopped up the vegetables, T.J. came inside and started prepping the steaks. It was weird having him around again, and I still wasn’t sure how I felt about him coming back to town. Maybe it would be better if he left town (and took Jake with him!) until I could sort my feelings out. Yeah, right, and maybe Santa Claus would show up on my birthday. Fat chance, in other words.
    He took the steaks out and put them on the grill. I followed him out, pulling my chair closer to him. “So, did you move back into your old apartment?”
    “No, it was rented out. Owen’s mother had a house for rent,