Kelly's Koffee Shop (A Cedar Bay Cozy Mystey Book 1) by Dianne Harman Page A

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and everything else completely burned to the ground. Mike arrested Jeff Blake
for having an illegal marijuana farm on his property and put him in the county
jail. I understand he’s trying to make bail. Mike told me he’ll be arraigned
tomorrow and then a trial date will be set or he can do some type of plea
bargain, but for now he’s in jail.”
    “You said Mike told you
that. When did you see him? You didn’t go out to the Black’s ranch did you?”
    “No,” Roxie said. “Here’s
the next part of the story. Brandon heard that Wade had been suspended from
school for having marijuana in his locker. You know how fast news spreads in
this town, particularly among school kids. Anyway, he also heard that Wade had
purchased the marijuana from one of the guards out at Black’s ranch. He told
Jeff about it and Jeff was furious. He called the guard into his office and
fired him. Evidently he was worried that someone could trace Wade’s marijuana
to his ranch. The next part is pretty hard for me to understand. Brandon told
Mike that he’d known for a long time that his dad was growing marijuana on the
ranch, but Jeff justified his actions by telling him he only sold it to medical
marijuana shops and that it was perfectly legal.”
    “Mike’s suspected that
Jeff was growing it for a long time, but couldn’t prove it. Looks like he was
right,” Kelly interrupted.
    “Yeah, but here’s what I
started to tell you. Even though he grew it and probably made a lot of money
from it, he was completely opposed to anyone using it for recreational
purposes. That’s why he fired the guard.”
    “That makes no sense at
all. You’re telling me he didn’t want kids to use it, but it was okay for him
to make a profit from it?”
    “Yep, that’s what I
understand. The guard Jeff fired died in the fire. Mike thinks he started the
fire to get back at Jeff and then the fire got out of control. Evidently he got
trapped and couldn’t get out. The county fire department has called in some
experts to see where the point of origination was and to confirm if it was
arson.”
    “Okay, but I still don’t
see why and how Mike told you all of this.”
    “I’m getting to it. Give
me a minute. When Joe came to the coffee shop, he told me Mike wanted to meet
with us about Wade and the kilo of marijuana they’d found in his locker. Sorry,
Kelly, but that was more important to me than staying at the coffee shop.”
    “No apologies needed. I
would have done the same. Well, what happened?”
    “Mike met us at our house
and asked us to get Wade. He said he wanted to talk to all of us. Today was the
first day of Wade’s suspension, so he was in his room. The four of us sat down
in the living room and Mike told us what he had learned. He said the principal
contacted him late yesterday about Wade having marijuana in his locker. Mike
also said it was kind of ironic, because he was planning on going out to the
Black ranch this morning to talk to the guard and Jeff about it. He asked Wade
if he was using drugs. Wade said no, but he had sold some of the marijuana to
other kids at the school.”
    “Well, I know it happens,
but I’m sorry Wade got involved.”
    “So am I, then Mike asked
Wade a few more questions. He wanted to know what made him start selling pot to
the students. Wade said that for the first time he was getting some attention
from the other kids. He told Mike that no one cared about him, not his mother,
his father, or me. He said it was nice to finally have someone pay attention to
him. Kelly, I couldn’t help myself. I started crying and telling him how much
Joe and I loved him and that I didn’t know why he felt that way. I guess in his
eyes I haven’t been a very good stepmother. I think all the kid wanted was to
feel accepted by us and since he didn’t feel that we accepted him, in some
crazy way I guess he thought if he sold pot to the kids, they’d accept him.
    “Anyway Mike said if Wade
promised him he would never