Chapter
3
Sophie jolted out of bed. “What?” Then she
smelled smoke through her open window. She rushed out of bed and to the window
where Gingersnap was watching intently.
“Another fire?” Sophie opened the window a
bit more to get a better look. Through the dark she could see someone climb
into a van. She wasn’t sure but it sure looked like Mr. Grant. Gingersnap let
out a low growl when he saw the van.
Sophie closed the window as the smoke got
thicker and now they could hear sirens. The van sped off just before the
firetrucks got there. Sophie patted Gingersnap’s head. “That van looked
familiar didn’t it? I’m wondering about the new garden shop owner. Maybe he is
up to no good.” Gingersnap let out a mew. “You think so to?”
Sophie picked up Gingersnap and brought
him back to the bed. There was too much noise outside now to go back to sleep.
He curled up beside her and snuggled down. By the time the trucks cleared out
it the sun was starting to come up. Sophie could see pink rays showing through
the haze of smoke that still hung in the air. She could not figure out what Mr.
Grant was up to and where was Mr. Fiefer? The more she thought about all this,
the more anxious she got about this large order that Mr. Grant had placed. Gingersnap
was now gently snoring but Sophie was very good at sliding herself off the bed
without too much complaint from the big orange guy.
She went downstairs to her office and dug
out the order from Mr. Grant. As she was reading through it, James came in the
back door. Sophie glanced up at the clock. It was 5:30 am, time to start the
breads up. He got quite a surprise when he saw her. “What are you doing up so
early?”
Sophie sighed. “We had some excitement in
the middle of the night. It appears our dubious Mr. Grant came back to the tool
shop and perhaps set another fire.”
“Really, I wonder if the authorities have
any clue about any of this.” He tapped his chin. “You know when he made that
order, I was a little suspicious to what he was wanting in the first place. Do
you think that he is going to do something with the garden shop?”
Sophie’s eyes went wide. “You don’t think
he is some arsonist do you?”
James shrugged as he got his apron on ready
to start the breads. “I would keep an eye on him. Is that the order from him?”
“Yes, it is. I was going over it and I was
actually considering phoning him about it.”
James nodded. “Good, before I start
cutting out templates for these cookies, it would be good to know where we
stand with our Mr. Grant.”
“Oh, I agree. I will contact him this
afternoon.”
James nodded and headed to the kitchen to
get started on the breads. Sophie continued to go over the order form to see if
there was anything about the delivery.
Gingersnap stretched out and got up and
walked over to the nightstand and then from there to the dresser to a quick
leap over to the windowsill. He looked out over the whole back alley and saw
the old tool shed that was still smouldering here and there. All the trucks
were gone now. The sun was up and the day was started already. Neighbours were
looking over the damage and talking to one another. Something caught
Gingersnaps attention. It was something shiny that the sun was catching.
Gingersnap had to know what it was. He hopped down and went downstairs to the
back door. Sophie was in the kitchen with James. He slipped out his cat door
and went padding across the back alley to the old tool shop. The neighbours
were still talking away about what had happened. Gingersnap spied the shiny
object and ran over to it. It was a piece of metal that was once a part of a
furniture piece. Gingersnap sniffed it and backed off. It smelled like smoke. Then
he heard something in the rubble. He wasn’t too sure if it was just the people
talking or if there was something in the rubble. He continues on his searching
and then he heard the noise again. His ears perked. Gingersnap surveyed the
entire area and could not see much of anything but broken bits of charred wood
and tools that were scattered about blackened from the smoke.
Everything was once again quiet. The
people talking had come around the burnt wall to see what Gingersnap was doing.
“Be careful be boy, this isn’t a good place to go exploring for a cat.”
Gingersnap looked up at the lady who spoke
to him. It was the flower shop owner next to their bake shop. Gingersnap liked
Marley. She grew cat nip in the back yard because she liked cats and had a cat
of her own, Molly who was a grey tabby girl.
Suddenly something from the corner made
noise. They all looked in the corner where they could see movement. A hand
popped up.
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