Hope Callaghan - Garden Girls 04 - Death by Dumplings by Hope Callaghan Page B

would almost bet that the trash smelled to high heaven!
    She grabbed a couple garbage bags and pair of latex kitchen gloves from underneath the sink before she and Mally hopped in Anabelle and headed for town.
    Main Street was pretty empty.  Except for cars in front of Kip’s Bar & Grill.  The red neon sign flashed brightly above the front door.  Kip’s wasn’t really a “grill.”  Just a bar. The food menu was limited to the kind of stuff you’d find in a convenience store: hot dogs on a rotisserie, hamburgers they bought pre-packaged and nuked-to-order frozen pizzas made the same way.
    Gloria turned right and headed down the alley.  She pulled into the small grassy lot behind the restaurant.  Dot’s van was already there.  She and Mally slid out of the car.
    Dot met her by the driver’s side door.  “Why didn’t I think of this?” she asked.
    “I didn’t, either, Dot.  Not until tonight.” Gloria replied.  “Better late than never.”
    Dot opened her purse and pulled out a flashlight.  “I figured we would want to keep a low profile.”
    Gloria nodded.  “You’re getting the hang of this sleuthing thing.”  She turned her own flashlight on.  “Especially since the killer is still on the loose.”
    Mally, Gloria and Dot stayed close to the edge of the building as they made their way over to the back door.  “Still, you really should put up some kind of light back here,” Gloria commented.
    “I know, I know. Ray and I keep telling each other that.”
    Gloria flashed her light back and forth across the rear of the restaurant’s drab gray exterior.  “Where’s the trash?”
    Dot pointed.  “Off to the side.”
    Gloria tiptoed to the side of the building and shined her light between the restaurant and the building beside it.  There were two trash cans.  A large, plastic green bin on wheels and a smaller, round metal bin.  “Which is which?” she whispered behind her.
    “The green one is regular trash and the metal one is recyclables,” Dot told her.
    “Here, hold this.” Gloria handed her flashlight to Dot and grabbed the plastic bin with the wheels.  She wheeled it to the back of the building and onto the cement pad outside the kitchen door.
    “Let’s grab the other one,” Gloria said.
    The flashlight bobbed brightly as the girls, once again, made their way around the side of the building.  Gloria grabbed both handles and tried lifting it up.  It wouldn’t budge.  “This one’s too heavy.”
    Dot squeezed past Gloria as she made her way around the other side of the metal can.  She tucked the flashlight in her front pocket and grabbed the side handle with both hands. 
    Gloria grabbed the other side and the girls half-carried, half-dragged the can down the narrow space and onto the cement pad.  They set it next to the other can. 
    Dot lifted the lid on the green bin first.  Gloria gagged as the smell of rotting vegetables and putrid fish exploded in the night air.  She turned her head to escape the smell and plugged her nose.  “That is disgusting,” she wheezed.
    Apparently, Dot was used to bad smells.  She waved a hand across her face before she pulled the flashlight from her pocket and turned it on the contents.
    She wrinkled her nose.  “I’m not so sure about digging through this.”
    Gloria took a step back.  “Yuck!  Me either!”  She shined her flashlight on the metal can.  “Let’s try this one instead.”
    She popped the top off the can and laid it on the ground beside her.  At first glance, all she saw were soda cans, flattened cardboard boxes and empty plastic milk cartons.  “Wow!  You’re a good recycler,” Gloria complimented.
    Dot smiled.  “Thanks.  I do try.  No sense in throwing perfect good recycle stuff in landfills and polluting the earth.”
    Gloria grabbed a glove from her purse and slipped it on.  She held onto the flashlight with her other hand as she pushed the contents around.  “Can you grab the garbage bag