Hope Callaghan - Garden Girls 07 - Missing Milt by Hope Callaghan Page A

anything at all, call me.  Please.”
    Fran slipped the pad in her apron pocket.  “Will do.”
    Luckily, Lucy was doing a great job of entertaining the gentleman, all of whom were still at the table.  She was waving her hands in the air.  “…and then I came down with a whoosh and landed flat on my back.  When I opened my eyes, I was staring straight up at the bluest skies.  At first, I thought I had died.”
    Gloria tapped her shoulder.  Lucy swung around.  “Oh, there you are.”
    One of the men eyed Gloria curiously.  “Your friend here was telling us about her first skydiving adventure.” He pointed to the men around the table.  “We were just talking about trying it ourselves.”
    The man on the other side of the table spoke up. He looked to be the youngest of the bunch with only a smattering of gray in his hair.  “You never can be too sure how long we’ll be here on earth so we decided to try something adventurous.”
    “Lucy, here, is quite the daredevil.” Gloria cleared her throat and changed the subject.  “My sister lives over in Dreamwood.  They have an interesting situation on their hands what with that Milt Tilton missing.”
    “Yeah, he’s our morning coffee partner.” The man paused. His eyes narrowed.  “Say, you look familiar. He lifted an index finger and pointed it at Gloria.  “I caught a glimpse of you on the evening news!”
    “Yeah!” The guy seated next to Gloria nodded. “I saw her, too.”
    Gloria’s face reddened.  Lucy jumped in.  “Some of the residents at Dreamwood asked Gloria here to see what she could find out about Milt’s disappearance.”
    “Ahh.” Several of the men nodded.  Then they clammed up.
    Gloria shifted her purse on her shoulder. “Did Milt say anything about odd occurrences or weird phone calls?”
    All of them shook their head. No one spoke. 
    Gloria tried again. “What about people he may have known that didn’t like him?”
    Chirp. Chirp. There was only the sound of silence.
    Gloria was striking out so Lucy tried to help.  “Listen, your friend is missing.  Aren’t any of you concerned for his well-being?”
    Finally, the man closest to Lucy spoke up.  “Well, he did mention someone was peeping into his house days before he disappeared.”
    Gloria’s brows formed a V.  Clyde Ward had said the exact same thing.  “Were there any business dealings that might have gone bad?”
    “Naw.” The young man in the back spoke up.  “He did say some crazy lady was stalking him.” He whacked the arm of the man next to him.  “What was her name?  Janet…Janice…”
    The man on Lucy’s left snapped his fingers.  “Francine, I think.”
    Gloria shifted her foot.  They were talking about Frances!
    The men didn’t seem to be able to offer any additional information.  Gloria thanked them for what they did tell her and the girls headed toward the front entrance. 
    Lucy grabbed her keys and unlocked the doors of the jeep. She started to slide into the driver’s seat. 
    “Excuse me!”
    Gloria spun around.  One of the men that had been sitting at the table hurried over to the jeep.  He stopped next to Lucy.  “Most of the other guys didn’t know this, but Milt, he had a few dealings on the side.  You know…a small gambling habit.”
    The man turned to look behind him.  “Between you and me, he mentioned owing some money and he didn’t know how he was gonna come up with the cash.”
    Gloria dropped her purse on the passenger seat and stared over the top of the jeep.  This was taking an interesting turn! 
    The man went on.  “I gave him the name of a good quickie loan place.” He shrugged.  “Not sure if he took me up on it but he seemed pretty concerned about some mafia-types coming to track him down and break his legs – or worse.”
    “Do you recall the name of the place you suggested?” Gloria asked.
    “Sure.  Integrity Loans.  They’re up there in Lakeville.” The man turned to Lucy.  “Tell