Free Powdered Peril by Jessica Beck

and then he went back to his magazine, dismissing us completely. What was so fascinating about handguns and rifles to him, anyway? If Peter had been shot, I might consider it a clue, but anyone could have hit him in the back of the head with a piece of wood.
    This was worse than useless. We left the hardware store, and for some odd reason, Grace was smiling. She held up her hand for silence as she dug into her purse, found a notepad, and jotted something down. When she was finished, she looked up at me. “I don’t think we’re going to need Burt’s cooperation after all.”
    “Why do you say that?”
    She showed me her pad, which now had three telephone numbers written on it.
    “What’s that?”
    Grace explained, “While you were talking to Burt, I was memorizing the numbers displayed on the phone that was sitting on the counter in front of him.”
    That was news to me. No wonder she’d been so quiet at the end of the conversation. “I didn’t know anything was displayed there. How on earth did you remember all three numbers?”
    “That was what I was chanting to myself until I could write them all down. I hope they’re right.”
    I nodded. “I’m sure they are. I’m just not certain they’ll do us any good. He could have just as easily called three customers for all we know.”
    “Maybe, but I’m willing to bet that one of them gives us a clue as to where Leah is. Should I dial them up and see?”
    I stopped Grace just as she pulled her cell phone from her purse. “Hang on a second. You don’t want to do that.”
    “Why not?” she asked.
    “What if you’re right and one of those numbers can tell us where Leah is? Do you really want your name and number displayed on one of those phones?”
    She frowned as she put her phone away. “You’ve got a point, but what are we going to do? I haven’t seen a pay telephone in donkey years, so it’s going to be hard to call these numbers without them knowing who we are.”
    “I’m sure we’ll think of something,” I said.
    “I’ve got it,” Grace answered after ten seconds. “We’ll give them to Jake and have him check them out for us.”
    “I’m not sure that we should do that just yet. I’m not about to drag Jake into this without more reason than that. He’s got a case of his own he’s trying to solve, remember? We’re going to have to find another way to check these out.”
    She nodded. “Fine, but we need to come up with something quickly. When Leah ran like that, she went to the top of my suspect list; how about you?”
    “She’s definitely gotten my attention.” I hesitated, and then asked, “Was it me, or was Burt a little too happy about his niece’s absence? I got the distinct impression that she left at his request.”
    “You weren’t imagining it,” Grace said. “He was clearly trying to protect her.”
    “From me, or the police?” I asked.
    “I don’t know.”
    “Make me a copy of those numbers, would you? I’ve got an idea.”
    Grace looked puzzled as she processed my request, but then she jotted them all down and handed the list to me. “You know you’re not going to do any digging without me, right?”
    “Trust me, I’m not trying to cut you out of the loop. I just needed these written on something I can pass along to someone else.”
    “Would you care to share with me exactly who this someone else might be?”
    “I can do better than that,” I said. “You can come along, too.”
    As we parked in front of city hall, Grace asked, “You’re not going to ask George to do it, are you?”
    “No, I told him we weren’t going to involve him unless we had to. As far as I’m concerned, he and Jake are both off our list of resources. I do know someone else who might be able to help us, though.” Instead of going to George’s office upstairs, we made our way down the steps to the Board of Elections.
    If anyone could find out who those numbers belonged to, it had to be Hillary Mast.
    *   *   *
    “What can