Read Online The Case of the Angry Auctioneer (Auction House Mystery Series Book 1) by Sherry Blakeley - Free Book Online Page B

trickled down Jasper’s side. She fought to stay focused.
    Esteban’s wife Kelly gave her a triumphant grin from where she stood across the table. She waved a bidder card. “You got ten!” she shouted. Covering for absentee bidders was her main job at the auction and she took it seriously. Her red hair was already sleek with sweat. While she had been a little bitchy toward Jasper ever since she joined the auction house, Jasper herself had come to admire Kelly’s strong work ethic.
    “Now 20,20,20. Twenty back to you, Kelly. Want back in?”
    Kelly drew the card across her throat in a slashing motion.
    “Don’t cut me. I’ll take 20!” Jimmy said.
    Kelly made a vinegar face. She nodded.
    “Sold! Twenty dollars! Number 87. Bid left.”
    Even though Kelly worked for Biggs Auction, when she stood-in for absentee bidders, she applied her innate ferocity to try to get them the best deal possible.
    Ted grabbed the meat grinder from Esteban’s hand and shoved it at Jasper. “87,” he said in her ear. “Tag it in the back!” She clutched the meat grinder to her bosom. He gave her a small shove. She lost her footing, and stumbled in to the farting man who let out another big whoopee in her face.
    “Ooh-ee! Carl’s trying to scare us off again,” a short man in overalls said.
    A little space opened up around Carl the farter and Jasper escaped. She excused her way through the milling bidders. She got a strong whiff of cigarette smoke, maybe the same kind favored by her downstairs neighbors. She had no idea that auctions could be so odiferous.
    Folks not interested in items on the first tables were either seated in the folding chairs or looking over things they would bid on later. She thought she spotted Mary Clippert and her father Ray in the audience but she was in too much of a hurry to double check. When it came down to it, all the auction goers were turning into one Big Blurry Bidder.
    “How much?” Grace yelled her question from up on the auction block where she sat at a keyboard clerking the sale. A seasoned auction worker, Grace kept her straw-like hair cut the same way Jasper remembered her wearing it 25 years ago – bangs and a chin length pageboy. Grace was a heavy smoker and she had permanent pucker marks around her mouth. She was tough on the outside, but Jasper knew from experience that Grace was a soft-hearted women who would do anything for the people she loved.
    Jimmy kept going. “Who’ll start me off on the old phone for fifty?”
    Blond-haired Tony raised an oak wall phone for the crowd to see.
    “I need the amount for the last item!” Grace yelled.
    Jasper turned and yelled, “She needs to know how much!”
    “How much, Jimmy?” another, familiar woman’s voice asked from the other side of the block.
    “The girls are ganging up on you, Jimmy!” one of the auction-goers heckled.
    “Twenty, Grace, twenty. The rest of you – butt out! Where was I?”
    “I’ll give you ten bucks!” the heckler told Jimmy.
    “Like hell you will!” Jimmy said. “I’ve got 20 bid right behind you. Now 30-ta-30, 30, 30, I have 30!” His tongue rolled over the numbers. “And now 40!” Jimmy was off and running again.
    Jasper ducked behind the auction block. A handsome wheat-haired man checking out the art work gave her a quick smile and stepped out of her way. Jasper came face to face with her twin sister Cookie.
    Jasper clenched her lips so she wouldn’t squeal out loud. She set the meat grinder down on the steps leading up to the block. The twins danced into each other’s arms. Jasper hadn’t been hugged with such familiar sweetness for a good long time. They broke out of the hug and giggled at each other.
    Cookie, actually an inch shorter than Jasper, looked taller. She was 10 pounds heavier than Jasper who had always envied her sister’s curves. Cookie wore a blue ruffled jacket, jeans, and knee-high boots. Her chin-length hair had gotten shorter and blonder than Jasper remembered. “You look