Read Hope Callaghan - Garden Girls 05 - Eye Spy for Free Online Page B

you?” she asked the dog.
    Andrea barreled through the door that separated the dining room from the butler’s pantry as she emerged from the kitchen.  “That’s Brutus,” she said.  “I got him from the animal shelter this morning.  The same one you got Mally from.”
    Gloria was still crouched on her knees.  “You did?  Well, aren’t you a beauty!  Wait ‘til Mally sees you!”
    Gloria looked up at Andrea.  “I thought you were going to hold off on getting a dog!”  Andrea told Gloria everything.  Even though they were just friends, Andrea considered Gloria to be more than that.  She was more of a mother-figure to Andrea.  One she didn’t have nearby since her parents lived hundreds of miles away in New York City.  Her parents didn’t care for the country and as far as Gloria knew, had yet to come and visit their daughter in Belhaven.
    “I was going to wait until the house was all done but I changed my mind,” Andrea told them.
    Gloria lifted her eyebrows, “Oh?  And why was that?”  Andrea had enough going on with the major house renovations.  She’d told Gloria more than once that as soon as the house was finished, she would adopt a dog, but taking one in now would be too much on her plate…
    Andrea rubbed the tip of her toe back and forth along the marble floor, a telltale sign to Gloria there was something Andrea wasn’t telling her.
    She rose to her feet and took a step closer to her young friend.  “What made you change your mind, dear?”
    Andrea shrugged her shoulders.  Her eyes met Gloria’s then quickly looked down. 
    Gloria pressed the issue. “Did something happen?”
    Andrea’s shoulders sagged.  She knew Gloria well enough to know that she would hound her until a confession was forthcoming.  Andrea took a deep breath.  “Someone was in the house last night,” she confessed.
    Ruth gasped.  Her hand flew to her throat.  “Were you home at the time?”
    Andrea nodded sheepishly.  “I was upstairs, peeling some old wallpaper from one of the spare bedroom walls.  I heard a muffled noise.  It sounded like it was coming from the library,” she explained.
    “Then what happened?” Gloria prompted.
    “I ran to my bedroom and grabbed the gun I keep in the nightstand beside the bed.”
    Andrea had gotten the gun at Gloria’s insistence.  Ever since a dead body was found in the shed out back, Gloria worried about Andrea’s safety and the wisdom of her living in the big, old house by herself.  So Andrea and Gloria struck a deal: Gloria wouldn’t badger her young friend about living in the house alone if Andrea took a gun safety course and then bought one to keep with her.
    Andrea lived up to her end of the bargain. She promptly took the course and bought a gun that was designed specifically for women.  After she bought the gun, Andrea set up a small target practice in her backyard. She was even able to talk Gloria into doing a little shooting practice right after she got it. 
    Gloria herself was surprised at how lightweight the gun was and how easy it was to shoot.
    For her Christmas gift, Andrea gave Gloria the exact same one.  Gloria kept it in the nightstand beside her bed, too.  Except hers wasn’t loaded.  She was too worried that one of her grandsons would come over and she would forget to put the gun up and that they would find it. 
    Paul had promised to bring her a special case that was hard to unlock.  At least, hard to unlock for young boys, and then she could keep the gun loaded. 
    “By the time I grabbed the gun and made my way downstairs, whoever had been inside was gone.  They were in such a hurry to get out of here, they left the back door wide open.”
    Brutus flopped down at Andrea’s feet.  He seemed to be attached to her.  “I asked the woman at the shelter to recommend a dog.  A good watch dog.”
    Gloria knew a little bit about dogs.  She started her research right after her daughter, Jill, brought Mally to her house and