Where's Hansel and Gretel's Gingerbread House?: A Gabby Grimm Fairy Tale Mystery #2 by Sara M. Barton

going to be our source.”
    “Which means you reported my call to you, and
your boss called my boss, because you wanted us to interfere with
the FBI’s investigation?”
    “I know I crossed the line with Annette. I
shouldn’t have...”
    “Slept with her?”
    “It wasn’t like that. She’s a nice woman. I
didn’t want her to be forced into becoming an informant.”
    “You compromised her by sleeping with her.
Your bosses wanted to keep using her as an informant because she
was suspected of being a willing participant in Frist’s criminal
activities. What part of all this makes you a hero, pal?”
    “When I realized she was innocent, I tried to
get her out of it. What more can I do? I’m between a rock and a
hard place!”
    “Oh, I think you’ve got a ways to go before
that happens. You obviously still have room to wiggle your sorry
ass. You’re about to find out how much tighter that squeeze can
get, pal, if you don’t start telling me the whole truth!”
    “Deputy, give me a break here. You owe
me.”
    “How do you figure that?”
    “Albany. The Mobil station.”
    “You fired those shots?”
    “I had to,” he insisted. “I couldn’t let
those punks kill Annette over small change. They were a couple of
crack heads bent on robbing the convenience store for cash to buy
drugs.”
    “Why did you steal the gingerbread house?” I
wanted to know.
    “My bosses heard that it was an exact replica
of the 1423 model. The Assistant United States Attorney thought it
would make a great courtroom display. Annette would be known as the
gingerbread lady who brought down the condo king with her
baking.”
    “So you arranged not only for a replacement,
but for that sergeant to call me and let me know it had been
found?”
    “I had to, Gabby. If I just stole it, you’d
waste time looking for it and people would pay too much attention
to it. Annette would just be in even deeper. As we speak, Assistant
US Attorney Rita Maloney is asking a judge for a warrant to seize
it.”
    “And you want them to have the duplicate
gingerbread house, not the original?”
    “I do. I want them to think Annette doesn’t
bring anything to the table.”
    “How are you going to clean up this big mess
on Aisle Four?” I demanded. “How do you repair the damage to
Nettie’s reputation and still make the case?”
    “Ah, that’s the problem,” he admitted. “I
still need to make the case. Frist is a bad guy.”
    “No kidding. You know that the building isn’t
structurally sound, right?”
    “Talk to me.” As soon as he said that, I knew
he was in. I went over the conversation I had had with my
cousin.
    “If I had to guess,
Whatever-Your-Name-Really-Is,” I started to say. He cut me off.
    “Jondahl. Will Jondahl.”
    “Okay, Jondahl. If I had to guess, I’d say
that Frist is onto you. He told Nettie he doesn’t want her to see
the showcase unit until the decorator is finished with the place.
He’s trying to buy time. Maybe he suspects she will recognize the
differences in what the blueprints called for and what construction
was actually done. And to my mind, that can only mean one thing.
He’s got to destroy the condos before Nettie can see them.”
    “An explosion would do it, right?” Even as he
said that, I could see the potential. What were the pitfalls?
    “Sure. But he’s risking public safety. If he
blows up the building, it’s likely to result in a massive loss of
life.”
    “Not really,” said the now enthusiastic FBI
agent. “The 1423 location is in an area of vacant old factories
that are in disrepair. Phase One, which is just being completed, is
in the center of the complex. The buildings of Phases Two and Three
surround it. That means they could safely blow up the first
building, collect the insurance money, and keep their investors
happy by rebuilding Phase One. Frist keeps the money he stole from
Phase One of the project and uses the insurance money to start
again, and no one is supposed to be the