Graham Quartet - Part 16

Good Morning Friday Fiction Fans!
Did any of you rush off this morning to get that door-buster from that one shop before they were gone? Are you planning on heading out to the stores for some frantic, crazy Black Friday shopping? Or are you doing your shopping online? I probably won't buy anything today and I certainly won't head out to the stores, though I have gone to JoAnns many years to add one extra thing to our Christmas village. This year I didn't need to since our village is already quite full and some friends were getting rid of their village so I purchased their "Music Shop" earlier.

I hope you all had a wonderful Thanksgiving and didn't eat too much. :) We had our Thanksgiving dinner on Wednesday, so my brother and his family could have Thanksgiving with my sis-in-law's family. My grandparents are down and we had four generations around the table. Yesterday was a quiet day at home. My sister, Grandpa and I went for an hour walk in the afternoon and enjoyed the lovely day.

Today is going to be busy. My grandparents are still here and Grandpa, Mom and S are going to head over later this morning to help my brother pull orders for Light of Faith's Black Friday sales. Dad is going to be trying to get my brother's vehicle fixed and Grandma and I will be here. I'll be "undecorating" this morning. Then Mom is going to bring the kiddos over and things will be lively! Grandparents will leave early afternoon and we'll send the kiddos home for naps. Then late afternoon we'll all head over to help pull more orders. (So if you ordered from Light of Faith today, I might pull your order. But don't worry, I won't tell everyone what you got. :) )

I was only able to get two nights of writing in and I worked on the Graham Quartet. Boy, is this story getting exciting! I know I won't be able to write again until next week, but I'm really hoping to get a lot written next week.
Speaking of next week, Sunday is the first day of December and that means that Christmas is coming! It also means that I should have something posted on my blog everyday in the month until Christmas. You never know what I might have up. It may be a craft, it may be a story, a song, a Christmas book review, anything. So I hope you'll be coming by each day to see what's up.

But, before we get to the story, I wanted to let you know that  . . .

"TRIPLE CREEK RANCH - UNBROKEN" Book one in the Triple Creek Ranch series, is now available! You can order it on my "Rebekah's Books" page and get a special 25% off! Also, starting tomorrow, three of my books "The Unexpected Request," "Pirates of Rocky Crag Bay" and "The Lower Lights" are going to be on sale on Amazon. Tomorrow will be the best deal. :) I hope you can take advantage of these sales and enjoy some new books to read!

And now I'll give you what you've been waiting for all week:

    Elsa nodded emphatically. “Positive. Mr. Decktrah told me those crates were going to Martin Vanderbilt and he wondered if he was related to the Vanderbilts who were so rich. This isn’t the first time Mr. Vanderbilt has gotten shipments from the furniture factory either.” And she repeated nearly word for word her conversation with the station master.
    Drawing a long, deep breath as though he had scarcely dared to breathe before, Guy Fox leaned back in his chair and stretched his legs out, wincing slightly as his injured leg moved. “I knew they’d be moving fast,” he muttered.
    “Should Selena and I tell you what we found out, sir?” Matt asked as the silence lengthened.
    “What?” Guy jerked himself erect. “You have information too? Then out with it?” His voice was quick.
    “Selena and I went to the hardware and while I was picking something up for Dad, I overheard Mr. Hinken tell someone that I didn’t know, that Siam would soon be up and running again and the other man replied, ‘Good ‘cause we can’t pass ‘em off here. Too risky.’ Then Mr. Hinken told him to shut up. He sounded rather nervous too, I thought.”
    “Did he see you?” Guy asked.
    “Mr. Hinken? No, I don’t think so. I couldn’t see him. He was in the next aisle, but I recognized his voice and saw him through a hole in a box that was sitting on the shelf. Then Selena picked up something the stranger dropped after he left the store.”
    “Did you follow him?” Guy asked.
    Matt shrugged. “It was hard not to, as we were leaving about the same time he was. Show Guy what you picked up, Selena.”
    Without a word Selena handed a folded piece of paper to Guy.
    Guy glanced searchingly at Matt before he unfolded the paper and looked down at it. If the FBI agent was surprised, his face showed no sign. “Has anyone read this paper?” he asked quietly.
    “Just the two of us.”
    “Are you sure that man dropped it?”
    Selena nodded. “He was pulling gloves from his pocket and I saw the paper fall. I didn’t say anything because it looked like trash, and I was going to just pick it up and throw it away—”
    “I saw it fall too,” Matt interrupted, “and had her open it. That’s when we thought you should see it.”
    For a minute Guy sat in thought. At last he spoke. “Elsa, Tim, I might as well tell you that this looks like a small part of a Communist propaganda paper.”
    Tim’s eyes grew large. “What is Communist propaganda doing here? Where did it come from? Who is the man?”
    “Hang on, Tim,” it was Guy’s voice that interrupted Tim’s flow of questions. “Matt, Selena, do either of you have any idea who the man is?” he looked from Matt to Selena.
    They both shook their heads.
    “Would you recognize him if you saw him again?”
    Glancing over at his younger sister, Matt hesitated a moment. “I think we could. I didn’t get a good look at him when he was talking with Mr. Hinken, but Selena saw him a little later and we both saw the back of him when he left.”
    Guy looked at the paper in silence.
    “Matt,” Elsa said softly, “it’s starting to grow dark.”
    At that Guy looked up quickly. “You’re right. You four should head home. Thanks for coming out. None of you have any evidence on you about what you learned today, do you?”
    “No, we gave it all to you.”
    “Good. You have a flashlight?”
    Matt nodded and pulled one from his pocket.
    “Then head directly back to your house. Don’t talk about what you saw or heard today. Don’t even breathe a word about it on the way home. Understand?” When the Quartet nodded, he went on in lower tones, “I’m not quite sure where everything you found fits in, but I think things are really starting to move and I want your promise that you will be extra careful from now on? Will you promise?”
    Four brown heads nodded solemnly.
    Sighing, the FBI agent nodded. “Okay, then get out of here.”

    The Quartet had gathered in their corner of the library after supper was over and the kitchen cleaned up. They had been a little late, but their parents had waited for them and asked no questions. Mr. Graham had told his wife, “I’m not sure what all is going on, but I think the fewer people who know, the better. Matt knows I’m here if they need to talk, but right now I’m going to just trust them. He and Elsa have good, sensible heads on their shoulders and I don’t think we need to worry. Guy doesn’t seem like one who would risk the lives of some children to get what he’s after.”
    For several minutes the four Graham siblings sat in silent thought. At last Matt spoke up. “Well, what are we going to do tomorrow?”
    “You three still have school, remember?” Elsa remarked. “Tomorrow is only Thursday.”
    “I know. I meant after school. We can’t just hang around the same places everyday or someone is going to notice.”
    “Yeah, probably the wrong people too.” Tim had lowered his voice to a whisper. “And they’ll tell Aaron Burr and he’ll come and—” he made a motion with his finger across his throat.
    Selena shivered.
    “Stop it, Tim,” Matt ordered sternly. “This is not a joke. If we start talking and thinking like that, we won’t be any help to Guy because we’ll scare ourselves silly.”
    Tim dropped his head. A rebuke like that from his brother always sobered him up, for he admired Matt and looked up to him. “I’m sorry,” he murmured. “I guess I wasn’t thinking.”
    Matt reached over and squeezed his brother’s arm. “All right.”
    Softly Selena said, “We could just go directly to the seat of the trouble and see if we can get a tour of the furniture factory.”

Do you think they should visit the furniture factory?

Why or why not?

Do you think you know what's going on?