Free Bubbles Ablaze by Sarah Strohmeyer

telephone number, it had to have been someone from this area, with access to News-Times stationery, who also would have known that Bubbles was at the Passion Peak.”
    â€œStinky could have known,” I said, after a good, clearing swallow.
    Mama wet her finger and wiped a smudge from the corner of my mouth. “How would Stinky have known?”
    I smeared away Mama’s spit. It’s disgusting when she does that. “Through Roxanne. Didn’t you tell her I was going to the Passion Peak?”
    Mama fluttered her puny eyelashes. A sure indication of guilty as charged.
    â€œI don’t know,” she said, trying to sound vague and old ladyish. “These days I can’t remember what I say or who I talk to.”
    â€œGive it up, Mama. You’re not riding any Goldwing motorcycle. I know how you gossip about me and Stiletto. You can admit it.”
    Mama opened her red lips to confess her sins, but Vilnia interrupted.
    â€œWait a minute, wait a minute.” Vilnia was waving the cake knife around. “You telling me Bubbles got the fax when she was staying at the Passion Peak on her honeymoon?”
    â€œNo,” Mama explained. “With Steve Stiletto, a news photographer. Her boyfriend.”
    â€œBubbles! I’m shocked.” Vilnia put down the knife and slid one index finger over the other, in the universal Pennsylvania sign language of warding off evil. “Oiii. Not married and—”
    â€œDidn’t you just tell me it’s America in the twenty-first century?” Mama said.
    â€œGuess it’s none of my business. Not my soul that’ll be languishing in purgatory.” Vilnia sat down and plunged a fork into her own slice of cake. We all ate silently, pondering eternal damnation and Entenmann’s.
    â€œWhat made you think of Stinky, anyway, Bubbles?” Vilnia finally asked.
    â€œBecause his Lexus was at the mine when I got there. It was gone after Stiletto and I nearly blew up in the mine.”
    Vilnia held her fork in midair. “Seems like you left out a few details, LuLu.”
    â€œI need more ginkgo.” Mama shrugged and pushed her plate away. “You got coffee?”
    â€œSure.” Vilnia got up and plucked the pot from the coffeemaker. No. No. Not more coffee! Vilnia distributed the cups and frowned as she poured, deep in thought. She replaced the pot, brought a carton of milk from the refrigerator and plunked it on the table.
    â€œIf I were you, Bubbles, I’d go home,” Vilnia said, folding her arms and sitting down again. “Go back to Lehigh.”
    â€œI can’t go home,” I said. “I need a new alternator.”
    â€œWhy should she have to go home?” Mama asked. “Bubbles needs to write a big story that will get her a full-time job at her newspaper. Looks to me like this is it. This could be her Big Break. And, anyway, she can’t leave without finding Stinky . . . or whoever it was that tried to kill her. She’ll never get a decent night’s sleep if she doesn’t.”
    Vilnia regarded both of us. “It wasn’t Stinky who tried to killyou.” She lowered her voice and we had to lean over the table to hear her. “Whoever set you up, he’s bigger than Stinky.”
    â€œBigger than Stinky!” I exclaimed, as though this were an impossibility. “Who?”
    She sighed. “Okay. You know about the casino, right?”
    â€œRight.”
    â€œWell, someone very powerful doesn’t want it to go through. He’ll stop at nothing, including murdering Mr. Price, to make sure it stops. He does not want casinos to replace coal here in Pennsylvania.”
    Mama and I looked at each other. “Who is it?” I asked.
    â€œMaybe Bud Price’s murderer. I ain’t sure.” Vilnia sat back and plucked a toothpick from the toothpick holder. “But I bet Stinky knows. Stinky discovered something in his workplace he