Insects, Ivy, & Investigations
Author: Tonya Kappes Narrated Byjohanna Parker
Date: 2022-01-11 00:00:00+00:00
Description: Welcome to Normal, Kentucky where NOTHING is normal. Alicia Becker shows up at the screen door of The Milkery beaten, bruised, and claims to be one of Mary Elizabeth Moberly's foster children. Mae West's suspicion of why Alicia is there turns to an investigation after Alicia is found on a nearby hiking trail standing over the lifeless body of Craig Sutton. Who is Craig Sutton? Craig Sutton is Alicia Becker's con-ex-boyfriend. Mae and the Laundry Club Ladies can't help but wonder if Craig's death was self-defense, though Alicia swears she didn't kill him. Or was Alicia set up? Grab your bug spr
Publisher: Tantor Audio

Insects, Ivy, & Investigation

A Camper and Criminals Cozy Mystery Book 17

Tonya Kappes

Contents

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Chapter 1

Chapter 2

Chapter 3

Chapter 4

Chapter 5

Chapter 6

Chapter 7

Chapter 8

Chapter 9

Chapter 10

Chapter 11

Chapter 12

Chapter 13

Chapter 14

Chapter 15

Chapter 16

Chapter 17

Chapter 18

Chapter 19

Recipes and Camp/ing/er Hacks

Alicia Becker’s Homemade Dog Treats

Hack #1

Omelets in a Bag

Hack #2

Foil-Wrapped Campfire Hot Dogs

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PREVIEW

There was a loud whistle that rang out, catching our attention.

“Is that Queenie?” I asked, putting my hands up over my brows to shield the sun from my eyes when I noticed everyone was near the tree line where the trailhead was located.

“Over here!” she yelled, and as she came into focus, I could see that Betts was there as well as Mary Elizabeth.

“What on earth?” Hank groaned, slipping his fancy sunglasses off his head and sticking one of the earpieces in the neckline of his shirt, letting them dangle there.

“I have no idea.” Suddenly, I had the worst vision. “Oh gosh.” I shoved past him as the vision played in my head. “Mary Elizabeth is here. Do you think Craig got to Alicia?”

I hurried across the front of the old motel with Hank on my heels, both of us doing that walking-running sort of hustle as we made our way across the lawn.

“Craig?” Hank asked.

“Yeah. I haven’t had time to tell you, but we saw Craig here, at the diner, but he didn’t see us. I knew he was in town, but Alicia told me not to say anything.” Then Alicia’s words rang in my ears, the words she told me and Mary Elizabeth.

“He told me if I ever left him, he’d kill me. That is, if I don’t get to him first.”

“He told her he was going to kill her if she left him again. He had to know where she was if he was here.” My eyes flashed as soon as my friends came into focus, and there stood Alicia Becker right next to them.

I stopped walking when we got to them, and Hank continued over to where Tex and Coke were standing near some of the fallen brush that had yet to be cleaned up from the winter freeze and a pair of shoes that appeared to be attached to a person buried under a pile of twigs, leaves, and dried-up foliage, like someone had been trying to cover up the body.

Chapter 1

There were times when I had wished Mary Elizabeth Moberly had another foster girl when I was living with her. “Living with her” was the key—not after I grew up, got married, got divorced, almost went to jail, and inherited a run-down campground. Not only had I gotten the campground up and running with its income in the black, but I also helped the economy in Normal, Kentucky, thrive with the help of some friends. That was twelve years after I’d left Mary Elizabeth.

So when a woman with stringy, greasy black hair and matching black-and-blue bruises around both eyes stood in the doorway of the Milkery, the bed-and-breakfast Mary Elizabeth owned in Normal, claiming to be Mary Elizabeth’s other foster daughter, you could call me a little leery.

That’s what a life of uncertainty did to me. It made me leery of everyone who crossed my path, and I wasn’t claiming that to be a good trait. It wasn’t. In fact, it was an awful one.

Many times at night, I begged to wake up the next day with an attitude of “everyone is kindhearted until they prove me wrong.” But life had not done that to me, making me a wee bit hard-hearted, as they say in Kentucky, and people had to prove they were kind and good.

After my now-dead ex-husband, Paul West, had proved to me that words were just words and actions did speak louder than those words, it put my guard up about just why someone, after all of these years, would try to come back into someone else’s life.

Let’s take Alicia Becker, for instance. Yep, she was the skinny chick that had waltzed right on up to the screen door of the Milkery with a face that someone had had the pleasure of knocking around on and who proclaimed she was Mary Elizabeth’s long-lost foster daughter.

“Really, Mae?” I questioned myself and beat the steering wheel with the palm of my hand on my way back to Happy Trails Campground. “You are questioning what Mary Elizabeth did when you up and climbed out the bedroom window as soon as the clock struck the actual time you were born on your eighteenth birthday?”

So, I talked to myself. I did that a lot growing up due to there being no other girls in Mary Elizabeth’s home. It was also due to the fact that my pride got in my way a lot, and I never really wanted to dump my problems on anyone. I was a fix-it girl. Today, I was bound and determined to fix this Alicia character and find out what she wanted.

I snorted and gripped the wheel, glancing over at Fifi, my miniature poodle and constant companion.

“What do you think?” I asked her. She wagged her tail before she got up and looked out the window as I took the right turn to head up the long drive to the campground where we lived and that I owned, located deep in the Daniel Boone National Forest.

Fifi propped herself up on her hind legs and pawed at the passenger-side window, her way of telling me to roll it down so she could stick her nose out for some fresh air.

“We could use some fresh air.” I hit the automatic window buttons on the side of my door handle to make all four windows in the old Ford Focus roll down.

I sucked in a few deep breaths and slowly drove up toward the campground. The warm sunny day had dried out the gravel drive, making the gravel spit up under the tires and ping off the bottom of my car, a common sound around these parts. It was expensive to get blacktop, and with the campground so far off the main road, it wasn’t cost-effective. But that was the least of my problems.

“Alicia Becker,” I groaned under my breath and drove straight past the campground office with my eyes set on Bobby Ray Bond’s bungalow that was on the far side of the huge lake that was located in the middle of Happy Trails Campground.

“Where you goin’?” Dottie Swaggert was sitting in one of the chairs located outside the office with it reclined back on its two hind legs, her skinny legs dangling and smoke billowing out of her mouth like a freight train. “May-bell-ine!” she hollered again and wobbled the chair down to all fours. “Hey!”

I threw my hand out the window to let her know that I saw her and that I’d be back since it was time for me to relieve her from work. Dottie was my office manager, and she had worked the early shift at the campground office this morning while I went to visit Mary Elizabeth.

We had been having a good time too. We were baking and laughing like a mother and daughter like to do together. It was going great. I cherished those times, probably because I spent the better part of the past two years making up to her for being such a pill when I was a teenager and she actually took me in after my family died in a horrific house fire.

I liked to use the excuse that my attitude had been from teenage angst, but in reality, I was mad and confused and just plain angry.

Today had been a good day. Until Alicia Becker had shown up.

“Come on.” I pulled right behind Bobby Ray’s truck on the concrete pad next to the bungalow where I let him live for free, and I threw the car in park. “You can run around.”

Fifi jumped over the console and waited on my lap for me to open my door. She bolted out of the car and headed straight for the lake, where the ducks where minding their own business. That just ticked Fifi off to no end, and she had to ruin it by jumping in.

I liked to think, for the poor ducks, that Fifi thought she was one of them or they were her friends. But that wasn’t the truth. The truth of the matter was Fifi took pleasure in swimming toward them, chasing them while her yippy bark caused them to scatter in all directions.

“That’s gonna cost me a bath.” My eyes narrowed when I noticed the dog’s white fur was already taking on a little bit of the moss that looked to have formed on top of the lake.

I made a mental note to see Henry Bryant, Happy Trails’s handyman, about the irrigation in the lake and to make sure it was working properly. I’d spent too much money on it for it to be messed up, and it was only a few years old. Besides, the campground was full now that spring had sprung, and the guests sure didn’t pay for a mucky lake to laze around in.

Seeing Henry was going to have to wait.

I slammed the car door and stalked up to Bobby’s door, giving it a hard knock before I turned the knob and walked in—something I normally did.

“Bobby Ray, who is—” My mouth closed and my eyes grew big when I saw Bobby Ray bent down on one knee with a little box opened in front of Abby Fawn. Abby’s shoulders dropped, and Bobby Ray hung his head. I gulped. “Alicia Becker?”

Chapter 2

I closed my eyes and took a step backward, easing out of the bungalow and slowly closing the door.

I squeezed my eyes shut harder when I heard heavy, angry-sounding footsteps making their way toward the door before it flung open. Bobby Ray, my foster brother and Mary Elizabeth’s foster son, stood like a big bear, equipped with a snarl on his face.

“You’ve done gone and ruined the moment for both of us now, so you might’s well come on in.” His twangy accent held a smidgen of anger. He swung the door open, and Abby Fawn, who just so happened to be one of my best friends, stood behind him, admiring the big fat diamond on her finger.

The diamond I’d given him to make into a ring because Bobby Ray didn’t have two cents to rub together, and I loved him and Abby to death. Both of them were hardworking and in love, so it didn’t matter that they didn’t have a dime to their name. I knew they’d make it.

“I’m sorry. I should’ve knocked.” Not that we ever knocked on each other’s doors—we didn’t. He even had a key to my camper, so he darn well came in whenever he wanted to. I was fine with it.

“Can you believe it?” Abby squealed and ran over to me to show me the ring he’d gone and had a jeweler set the diamond in. “He said it’s a perfect diamond. Those are rare,” Abby gushed.

“I love it. Congratulations.” I smiled and hugged her, knowing that they were already engaged but without a ring, though she didn’t know I knew because Bobby Ray was the one who actually had told me a week or so ago.

I couldn’t recall the exact day, but I had had that loose diamond in my storage container that was sent here by Stanley, Paul’s lawyer, after Paul went to jail. I had not packed it, but after going through some of the boxes Stanley had sent, I had come to realize Stanley had planted a few things in there, no doubt to make it a little more comfortable for me. It appeared to have been one of the diamonds Paul had gotten me when we’d gone on a trip to the Swiss Alps. I had thought it was seized by the government after Paul was hauled off to federal prison after he’d taken the entire country for a wild ride on a little Ponzi scheme.

Needless to say, Paul was no longer among the living, and I had no problem getting rid of that part of my history, diamond included.

Plus, seeing how happy it made Bobby Ray, since he did help me escape out of the bedroom window on my birthday, made all the difference in the world to me.

Only, I’d ruined the big moment. Yeah, they might’ve been engaged, but not with a ring and a gorgeous diamond.

“This is beautiful.” I held Abby’s hand in mine and noticed the setting was simple and exactly what Abby would love. “You did good, Bobby Ray. Welcome to the family, sis.”

“Oh, I’ve always wanted a sister.” Abby threw her arms around me, and we hugged tighter.

“Me, too, until Alicia Becker strolled through Mary Elizabeth’s door with what appears to be a two-for-one black eye.” I shot my stare at Bobby Ray from over top of Abby’s shoulder as she rocked back and forth with me still in her arms.

“Alicia Becker is here?” Bobby Ray’s reaction was one of shock and awe. He ran his hand along the top of his growing bald spot and shook his head in disbelief. “I’m shocked she’s still alive.”

“Wait.” I uncurled myself from my future sister-in-law’s grip. “Are you telling me that she is a real person that Mary Elizabeth took in? And not some yee-who that saw Mary Elizabeth is doing well and is here to mooch off her?” I marched over to him. “She’s pretty beat-up, and she refused to call for Jerry Truman,” I said, mentioning the sheriff by name. “And she didn’t want me to call Hank.” I threw my hands up in the air and twirled around to look at Abby, realizing I’d totally and completely ruined the moment yet again by rambling on about Alicia Becker.

“But don’t worry about that. You two kids have fun! Celebrate!” I brought my hands to my mouth. “I have to throw an engagement party. Here. At the campground. It will be so great. The weather is wonderful. It’s a perfect time of the year. We have to. Everyone in Normal will be invited.”

The more I talked, the more I could see Abby’s face getting brighter and brighter with the idea.

“And we can have Violet Rhinehammer do a piece in the Normal Gazette on the society page.” My jaw dropped at the fun ideas coming my way. “And a swan. I can rent a swan for the lake.”

“Umm.” Bobby Ray stepped in. “Aren’t we getting a little ahead of ourselves here? We just got engaged.”

“Don’t give me that bull-malarkey.” My head jerked toward him. “This is something Abby and every girl has planned as soon as they come out of their mama’s womb, so don’t sit there and say it’s a little early.”

“I’d love it,” Abby squealed and bounced on the tips of her toes. “I have to get started now.” She pulled her phone out of her pocket and rushed over to Bobby Ray. “Selfie time.”

Abby Fawn was quicker than a teenager with her phone. Before I could even take my next breath, she’d already taken their engagement selfie, put it on social media, and hashtagged the heck out of it.

“It’s out there now that Bobby Ray is no longer the most eligible bachelor in Normal, Kentucky.” Abby went back to admiring her ring before she started to take photos of it.

In the meantime, while she was occupied, Bobby Ray came back over to me.

“Tell me exactly what Alicia said.” His tone set off my natural instincts, which were pretty good. In fact, I felt like my intuition was one of my better qualities. “Don’t leave out anything.”

Mmmkay, I thought to myself before I really questioned him, I’ll play along. After all, if this Alicia was here to scam Mary Elizabeth, I was going to be the one to stop her in her tracks before she got started.

“What is it you have on her?” I asked Bobby Ray after I gave him a general recap of what had happened.

“Nothing. She was just always trouble. I mean, more-than-you trouble. Mary Elizabeth spent a lot of money getting her out of jail, sending her to rehab. She stole things. I mean, you just raised holy hell. This girl, well”—he shuffled his feet—“she was just bad news all the way around. And she was already hooked up with the wrong crowd before she got placed in Mary Elizabeth’s home. But how did she find Mary Elizabeth?”

There were so many questions I had about this whole situation, but Bobby Ray’s question trumped mine.

“I have no idea.” I sucked in a deep breath. My heart started to beat a little faster at the thought of this woman showing up and taking Mary Elizabeth to the bank if she was here to get money. “But you telling me that she was always in and out of major trouble really does make me mad. Do you think she’s here for money?”

“If she didn’t want to call the cops, why else is she here? Unless she really does want to get away from Craig.”

“Who’s Craig?” I asked with a vested interest. “She never mentioned a Craig.”

Bobby Ray looked back to see who was calling Abby.

“It’s Betts.” She smiled so big before she answered it. “Can you believe it?” she screamed into the phone. “Mm-hmm, and Mae is going to throw us an engagement party.”

Bobby Ray turned to look at me.

“I’ll deal with that in a minute. Right now, I need to know exactly who Alicia is and what she could possibly be doing here.” I shifted my weight and put my hands on my hips.

“She came to live with us after Mary Elizabeth gave up on you coming back or even getting into contact with us. They had drove Kenny Jolly’s mama crazy about where you went because they’d gotten word someone had seen him coming back from the bus stop after letting you out.” Bobby Ray mentioned Kenny, who was a young man from high school who was in my past who had given me a lift to the bus station after Bobby Ray wouldn’t.

I was grateful to Bobby Ray because he was the one who gave me the money for the ticket and a little extra. I couldn’t be mad at him when he had told me he was going to have no part of the shenanigans of leaving on a bus and never coming back.

“Keep going.” I hurried him along.

“She had parents, but I think they were drinkers. Maybe her mama got into some trouble and put in the local jail. If I recall, her daddy didn’t want her, so she came to Mary Elizabeth in a bad way. You know.” He tapped his temple. “Kinda messed up in the head.”

“What ever happened to her?” I asked.

“She was a fistful of trouble for Mary Elizabeth, but she was also like a stray. Mary Elizabeth, of course, helped.” I smiled at Bobby Ray’s compliment of Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth never turned anyone or any animal away. Not even a fly. She would say that everything and everyone had a mama.

“Alicia was around fifteen, and she wouldn’t bother sneaking out. She’d just walk out the front door with Mary Elizabeth barking after her. She would simply give Mary Elizabeth the finger and keep walking.” A big sigh escaped him. “Mary Elizabeth almost had her fill after Alicia came home from school one day, though she didn’t go to school much. Ended up the nurse had called Mary Elizabeth because Alicia was five months pregnant and sick or something.”

My eyes rounded. I obviously was a little shocked because I’d not been privy to this gossip.

“Don’t look so shocked. She wasn’t the first kid in Mary Elizabeth’s care that got pregnant.” He shrugged. “I just had to work extra hours to cover all the mouths.”

“So did Alicia have the baby? I guess the baby would be, like, eleven years old.” I quickly calculated the math in my head.

“She sure is.” Bobby Ray nodded. “Mary Elizabeth went to see her when you were in Perrysburg to investigate your family’s death. Barbara, Doris Jean’s daughter, is Alicia’s baby.”

“Wait.” I shook my head like I was trying to sort through all the memories and thoughts so they’d fall into place. “What?”

“Yeah. Mary Elizabeth drove down there, remember?” He gave me a hard look.

I was having trouble concentrating.

“She never mentioned anything about seeing anyone or a child.” I gulped.

“She did. Apparently, Alicia’s daughter went into foster care. Mary Elizabeth sent money to the foster mother every month to pay for things like grammar school, etiquette lessons, and…” He rattled off a litany of classes that I was familiar with because Mary Elizabeth had had me go to them too. “Doris Jean had been volunteering for community service at the time. She was of legal age, so she wanted to adopt the baby. You know Mary Elizabeth. She told the case worker she’d sponsor Doris Jean.”

“I guess she is going to save one lost child at a time and beat the Southern manners book into them,” he teased, but in truth, it was not false.

“Alicia never cleaned up and got her daughter back?” I asked. “Even after the adoption?”

“Nope. Alicia never asked and didn’t want the baby. She ran off. In the middle of the night.” His words made my legs go spongy.

Alicia sounded exactly like me. My heart fell. Poor Mary Elizabeth. She didn’t deserve that at all.

“Craig gave Mary Elizabeth a lot of trouble. After Mary Elizabeth tracked Alicia down at some scummy drug house in the woods, Craig drew a gun on Mary Elizabeth.” I put my hand up to stop him from talking, but he continued. “That’s when I tracked down Craig, because he was a regular at the shop, always looking for cars to fix up and that sort of stuff.”

Bobby Ray was the world’s best mechanic, in my opinion. He’d gone to trade school for it and had worked in a local garage when I was growing up. He was always so kind to everyone, and it sounded like he was kind to this Craig fellow.

Bobby Ray gnawed on his lip. I could tell he was getting angry at remembering the story. He was taking deep breaths and looking away as he finished telling me what happened. “I told him I had a free muffler for that beat-up piece-of-junk car he drove, and he came to pick it up. I beat the living snot out of him. Whipped him good.”

He stopped, licked his lips, and ran his hand over his nose and mouth before he looked down it at me.

“Oh. My. Gosh.” I felt like I was going to be sick. The thought of someone doing that terrified me, but the idea that Alicia put Mary Elizabeth in danger didn’t sit well either. “What if she’s putting Mary Elizabeth in danger right now?”

“I don’t know. I’ll go over there before I go to the garage. I’m sure Joel will understand.” He was talking about Joel Grassel, the owner of Grassel’s Garage, where he worked.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Nothing. I hadn’t even thought about him, because they never came back. So when Alicia turned up here, I think we were so shocked. She always brings trouble.” The edges of his lips turned down along with the corners of his eyes.

“But you said Mary Elizabeth still funds the child.” I had no idea she did this.

“Mary Elizabeth funds all the kids she’s had. Don’t you know that?” he questioned me.

“No. I had no idea.” I sucked in a deep breath. “So she saw Barbara when we were in Perrysburg. No wonder she talked with Doris Jean so much while we were there.”

“Yep.” Bobby Ray rocked back on the heels of his shoes. “Most of the money she makes at the Milkery goes to Barbara now.”

“Bobby Ray.” My jaw dropped in disbelief. “Why didn’t you tell me?”

“How quickly do you think you can get the party together?” Abby sneaked up behind us and hooked her arm around Bobby Ray’s arm.

“You’ve stepped in it now.” He shook his head, making me wonder if he was referring to agreeing to throw an engagement party for Abby or the whole mess Mary Elizabeth seemed to have created.

“Stop it,” Abby teased and playfully smacked his arm. “We want to get married as soon as possible.”

“It appears that I’ve got an engagement party to plan with my soon-to-be sister-in-law, and you’ve got someone to go question.” I left unsaid that it was his job to go see why Alicia was here.

“Why me?” He shrugged. “She’s the long-lost sister you always bemoaned about all those years. You go get to know her. I’ve got to get to work.”

Famous last words. I was good at that and great at letting them come back and bite me in the you-know-what.

Chapter 3

Going to see Bobby Ray—technically, bolting through the bungalow door to confront him—actually didn’t do anything for me. I had walked away with more questions about Alicia Becker than I had before.

“So, this is why you didn’t stop at the office?” Dottie asked with her lit cigarette dangling from her mouth. The smoke curled up around her nose and shot past her eyes, making her squint so she didn’t get it in them.

She’d been walking down to the bungalows when I met her halfway.

I looked at her phone with Abby’s social media pulled up and the photo of her and Bobby Ray’s engagement announcement.

“Nope. Not at all,” I told her. “But the lovebirds are in there saying goodbye before Bobby Ray has to get to the garage, so you can hurry on up and go congratulate them. I’ll be at the office. Come find me.”

It wasn’t like Dottie would be going anywhere. She, too, lived in the campground full-time, and even when she wasn’t working the office, she was still always up there.

Instead of bolting back up to the office, where I was more than likely going to be bored to tears because the usual weekdays were nothing but sitting there in case someone needed something, I decided to walk around the lake to make sure all the high-dollar-paying customers were happy and situated for the week ahead.

Sunday was our check-in day. We did get some campers who’d come on various weekdays, but mainly they pulled in on Sundays, towing their big rigs, small campers, or even overland vehicles or tents to enjoy a week at the park.

Happy Trails Campground offered a full-service hookup, making it a rare find while camping and something we loved to promote. It helped keep us busy practically year-round, even in the cold weather.

The lake was a nice draw, and the camping lots around it were gobbled up fast. In fact, with the help of Abby’s amazing marketing and social media skills, we had a year-long wait list for these spots, so it was very important for me to make sure campers were happy and left a raving review.

“Good afternoon,” I greeted one family who had a huge C-class camper that held a small army of kids. “I hope you take advantage of Red Fox Trail.” I pointed over to the trailhead that led down to the waterway. “Our local kayaking champion, Alvin Deters, is giving kayaking lessons in about two hours. You can sign up in the hospitality center, and be sure to grab a sweet treat from our local Cookie Crumble Bakery.”

I’d made sure to include local small businesses in my marketing campaign when I brought the run-down campground back to life. Not only did using local products and featuring their businesses help them; it helped me. They responded by promoting the campground, bringing business to Happy Trails and life back into me.

As I walked along the lake, I noticed a few of the guests had already used up most of the firewood we provided for them for their fire rings. I picked up a few pieces of stray trash along the shore and the beach of the lake before I walked down the small pier, where I stood at the edge and whistled for Fifi.

She paddled over to the shore and met me near the tiki hut, where I found Henry Bryant, the handyman, filling up the ice chest with ice.

“Hey there, Mae,” he greeted me with a wide-open grin, his two front teeth missing. “It’s gonna be a gorgeous week. Record-breaking temperatures.”

“That’s great. Much welcomed after the awful winter we had.” I didn’t want to even remember the snowfall and ice we’d gotten over the last few months. That type of weather wasn’t great on campers. I’d had to make sure the waterlines in my camper stayed nice and insulated, or I’d have been in heck of a trouble. Fixing busted lines wasn’t cheap. “I’ll make a list of campsites that need a refill on wood if you want to come by the office later.”

“Will do.” He took off his hat, exposing his scraggly hair, and used the sleeve of his dirty plaid shirt to wipe the sweat that’d formed on his brow.

My phone rang on my way up to the office.

“Hey, Betts,” I greeted Betts Hager, another one of my and Abby’s good friends. “I heard you called Abby. Isn’t it great?”

“Are you sure it’s great? I mean, they’ve not been dating that long, and I don’t know. I really wish they get to couples counseling at the church before they get married.” Betts just couldn’t turn off the preacher’s-wife part that she’d played for so long before her ex-preacher ex-husband had turned convict and begun spending his nights in a local federal prison.

“I guess it’s true, what Mary Elizabeth says about love.” I hated to repeat it because Hank and I had been dating much longer than Abby and Bobby Ray, like a year longer, and we were no closer to getting married than Dottie Swaggert and Henry Bryant. “She says you know when you know, so why wait?”

“I’m not saying they wait. I’m just saying it was fast, and why hurry?” There was some concern in her voice, but I didn’t give it any more thought.

“There is a hurry to get this engagement party planned.” I did love a good campground party.

So much that I hosted one every month, and this month’s could be about spring and love. Why not?

Even though it wasn’t my engagement, I couldn’t help but be filled and overcome with joy for the two of them.

I stopped at the front door of the office and looked around me. Betts was chirping in my ear, but the birds were singing the song of sunshine and happiness, telling me the warmer weather was much welcome.

The trees that surrounded the campground were in full bloom with their vibrant, almost-lime-green shades mixed in with yellow tones. They would become a nice deep green for the summer months, which would lead into the gorgeous burnt oranges and reds that would take us into fall. But for now, I enjoyed the freshly budded trees and the tulips around the circumference of the campground.

They stood next to each other all around, so pleasing to the eyes. The blue, pink, purple, yellow, and orange tulips stood out and swayed in the light spring breeze that flittered along the ground of the campground, bringing a fresh smell with it.

I loved all four seasons that came to Kentucky, and each one brought a different look and feel to the Daniel Boone National Forest. Every season, I would say it was my favorite, and this year was no different.

“I’d like for everyone to help out with the party. I think Abby deserves the best.” I didn’t want Betts to play the good-Bible-girl card right now, even though she was the one who always brought a sense of calm to our friend group of five.

“I think she deserves the best, too, but I think they need to get to know each other a little better.” Betts sighed. “Like kids. Do they want kids? What about money? Do they even know what the other makes?”

Like kids… That hung in my head, and I zoned out on what she was saying after that. Kids. That was an issue. Just recently, I’d found out that Hank didn’t entertain the idea of having children. Not with me, anyway. Or so it seemed.

I hadn’t even figured I’d have kids and really did write them off, but once again, Mary Elizabeth’s words haunted me.

“When you find the right man, Maybelline, you’ll forget all about that feeling of not wanting children, and you’ll want a messful.”

Messful? Maybe not a messful, but maybe one. With Hank.

“Earth to Mae.” Dottie was standing in front of me, waving her skinny arms. Her bright-red hair was curled tight up to her head. “What on earth are you daydreaming ’bout now? Your own wedding as Mrs. Hank Sharp?”

“Not by a long shot.” I twisted around and looked at the wipe-off board Hank had recently used to solve a murder case. He had used the campground office because there was some instability with his current office situation. It was nice having him here with me and watching his process, though I did think my and Dottie’s sleuthing skills were so much better.

“Dottie, I think I have us a case.” I got up from the office chair, walked over to the whiteboard, and picked up the eraser to clean it off.

“There’s been a murder?” She jerked back.

My stomach lurched at the thought of this Alicia Becker putting Mary Elizabeth at risk.

“Not yet.” I didn’t even think of the immediate danger she might be in. I did think about this Craig guy and if he did this to her.

“Then what’ve you got circulating up in that curly head of hair of yours?” She walked over and picked up one of the dry-erase markers. “’Cause I’m game. It gets boring ’round here when there’s nothing to do but watch the Kentucky bluegrass grow.”

“It seems someone from Mary Elizabeth’s past has cropped up, and not in a good way either.” I told Dottie about Alicia Becker showing up in all her bruised glory as well as what Bobby Ray had told me about her past. “I want to find out everything about this Alicia, Craig, and where the child is, plus how much money Mary Elizabeth is giving to the child.”

“I reckon the bride-to-be is a little too preoccupied to even think of helping.” Dottie was talking about Abby Fawn, since Abby was the best at getting access to people’s past history and digging up dirt on them.

Other than being my soon-to-be foster-sister-in-law and one of my best friends, Abby was the head librarian at the Normal Library, where she had access to all sorts of databases that weren’t searchable by the common person such as me.

“Right.” I bit my lip. “And I’m not sure how we are going to find any dirt, but I can call Jami Mackenzie.” I honestly thought that the last time I saw Jami, when I helped her deliver her twins, was going to be the last time I ever talked to her.

Not that it was over the babies or my ability to deliver, but the fact I’d exposed her nanny and husband as murderers, sending Jami’s life into a full spiral as she became a new mother.

“Oh gawd, not that girl. And what is goin’ on with the mayor’s race? I’m not sure she’ll even take your call.” Dottie was right.

Long story short, Jami was married to the mayor of Perrysburg, who was the brother of Courtney Mackenzie, the mayor of Normal, who was in the process of reelection in the fall. I wasn’t so sure I was backing her to be mayor again, since it’d been recently brought to my attention that she was the mastermind behind moving the sheriff’s department from the courthouse so she could make room for more offices that were needed because the population for Normal was growing at a rapid speed.

It was that she didn’t consider or care about what had to be cut that made me mad. Her little plan meant that the sheriff’s department had to find a new home, which wasn’t in the budget unless something was cut. That something, or rather someone, was Detective Hank Sharp. Since he was the only detective in the department and we used park rangers for a lot of the activity in and around the Daniel Boone National Park, it would be easy to eliminate his position and give one of the already-on-salary sheriff’s deputies Hank’s salary.

This was why Hank had been working out of Happy Trails Campground’s offices.

“Well.” Dottie popped the lid off the marker and wrote down Alicia’s name. Under it, she made bullet points with something different written by each one. “We need background information. We need child’s information.” She turned and pointed the marker at me. “What was that childcare worker’s name that you got in contact with in Perrysburg?”

“Oh!” I snapped my fingers at her amazing idea. “Inez Marsh, the social worker. I can call her to see what ever happened to the little girl.”

“Then since you have a conscience and all, I can call the foster mom and check up on the little girl and ask about the money Mary Elizabeth sends.” Dottie was a sneaky one.

“Dottie Swaggert, I think this is a start, and I’m so glad you are on my side.”

“The very idea of someone taking advantage of people I care about don’t sit well with my insides.” Dottie circled Alicia’s name. “And right now, this here girl isn’t sitting well with my insides. But first, I need to call all the gals to come to the Laundry Club to plan out this big engagement party you promised Abby.”

I took a step back and folded my arms as I reread Alicia’s name a couple of times. Dottie was in the background, saying out loud what she was texting our girlfriends, but I’d blocked it out of my mind. I was too focused on Alicia.

You’re not going to get away with whatever it is you’re here for, I said to myself and vowed to get this cleared up quickly so Bobby Ray and Abby could have their dream wedding without the likes of Alicia Becker and her baggage ruining it. I had a few things up my sleeve, and I was going to have to call in those favors.

I was a grudge holder when it came to the people I loved. And I loved Mary Elizabeth, Bobby Ray, and Abby Fawn.

Chapter 4

The day dragged on as I finished out the workday in the Happy Trails Campground office. I wasn’t very good at just sitting there all day and not having a thing to do. Henry had taken care of all the firewood needs, and the days had gotten longer with the time change from daylight savings, which meant that fires didn’t really get going until eight or so at night.

Most of the guests were out on the trails or taking advantage of Alvin Deters’s kayaking lessons down off Red Fox Trail. In the distance and down the trail, I could see that the timers on the lights we’d installed for dusk had turned on. It was so pretty here at night.

The sun was starting to push back down behind the trees, creating the orange glow with purples hues that made the sunset so lovely. There wasn’t a bad spot in the campground. The sunrise was just as gorgeous as the sunset. But once the sun hit the tops of the trees, I knew without looking at the clock it was time to close the office, which was a much-welcomed time of day for me since Dottie had arranged for us to get together with our group of friends to discuss and plan Abby’s engagement party.

I’d planned to delegate most of it so I could get on with the investigation into Alicia Becker’s past.

“Are you hungry?” I asked Fifi, who had danced her way over to the door once she noticed I’d gone through the routine of closing the office. “You’re so smart.”

I opened the door, and she darted out. I closed the door and locked it behind me, giving the knob a good shake to see if it was locked.

“Hey!” My heart nearly leapt out of my chest when Hank startled me. “You scared me half to death.”

“I didn’t mean to, but your mind is somewhere else.” He took my hand and brought it up to his mouth, kissing the back of it. “What’s going on?” His mesmerizing green eyes lowered as he tried to assess the situation up in my head.

“Listen, I’m not one of your investigations,” I teased and swung our clasped hands between us. “I’m planning an engagement party for Abby and Bobby Ray.”

In the distance, Chester, Hank’s dog, and Fifi were running around the campground, smelling every blade of grass they could and doing their business on it. At least Chester was gentleman enough not to tinkle on Fifi, which did happen sometimes.

“I heard they were engaged. Granny told me.” He squeezed my hand. “You’re good with that, right?” he asked.

“Sure. Why wouldn’t I be?” I asked then told myself that I was a strong, independent woman who didn’t need to be married again. I certainly didn’t need to take any part in raising children. I swallowed that bitter pill down hard, but who was I fooling? I was welcoming the chance to spend any of what space was left in my head to investigate and be busy with Alicia Becker.

“I don’t know. You seemed awfully distant when I mentioned that I was glad we didn’t have any kids.” He caught that feeling? I was shocked since it did happen a few weeks ago.

“Speaking of kids…” I wasn’t able to put myself out there with him just yet because I was not sure how I felt about kids. I just knew when he did say that about kids, it somewhat stung my heart and made me question if he was the one for me. I’d clearly felt like he was, but we seemed so far apart at the moment. “You’re not going to believe what happened this morning when I went to Mary Elizabeth’s.”

“I’m hoping you brought back some of her yummy biscuits.” He smiled and stopped, bringing me closer to him, then wrapped me up in his arms, turning us to face the sunset. He rested his chin on my head.

“No. But my long-lost foster sister showed up beat-up.”

“And just when I thought we were going to have a few moments to enjoy this gorgeous sunset.” He sighed and dropped his arms, releasing me from him.

“What?” I turned to look up at him. “We can’t talk and enjoy the sunset?”

“‘Enjoy’ and ‘beat-up long-lost foster sister’ just don’t seem to go together.” He stuck his hands in his jeans pocket. “Go on, tell me.”

“I’ll tell you while I go get ready.” I grabbed his hand and tugged him along with me.

“Where are you going? I thought we could fry up some bologna over the fire on the skillet and walk around to greet the campers.” He never wanted to do such a thing.

“Okay. What’s going on?” I stopped this time and stood in front of him so I could get a good look at his face.

“I don’t know. I guess I’m thinking more and more about Jerry’s offer.” His jaw was set, his facial features firm.

“You’re actually thinking about resigning from the department to be your own private investigator?”

“Yeah. You don’t sound so sure, though, and I really want you to be sure too.” Why on earth did he want to include me in his life plans when he hadn’t even considered if I ever wanted children? I wasn’t even sure I did, but what if we did get married, and then I wanted kids?

My head starting spinning down that rabbit hole.

“Hello?” He bent down and looked me in the eyes. “Where are you tonight?”

“What if I am your first client? You can test the waters with me.” I could really use his help to take this Alicia business off my plate. “I want you to find out everything you can about Alicia Becker, my long-lost foster sister, who showed up with a couple black eyes and some bruises.” I lifted a finger. “Who is hiding something, by the way, because she wouldn’t even let me call you about it.”

“Who is the abuser?” Hank took a vested interest, which told me that he was interested.

So I took the next few minutes, while I got Fifi fed then dressed to go meet the gals, to get Hank caught up on exactly what I knew about Alicia and what Bobby Ray had told me about her.

Chapter 5

Downtown Normal was a short drive from the campground. It was a small Southern town in the heart of the Daniel Boone National Forest that catered to the tourists. The main street was one way on each side of the grassy median that ran down the middle. The area wasn’t just a small divider; it was a large grassy area with huge standing oak trees that towered over picnic tables for tourists to enjoy as well as an amphitheater where the local theater troupe performed. Local bands performed there, too, including Blue Ethel and the Adolescent Farm Boys, one of my favorite bands, with Ethel Biddle as the lead singer.

Ethel was the owner of Smelly Dog, the dog salon and spa that was right across from the grassy median and just down a few shop cottages from the Laundry Club, the laundromat Betts Hager owned.

It wasn’t just any old place to do laundry. When she opened it, she made sure that it, too, catered to the hiker or camper by having various comfortable spots for the tourists to wait as they did their laundry. In fact, it was such a great gathering spot, my friends and I had made it a common place for us to meet, which dubbed us the Laundry Club Ladies.

When I pulled my car up in front of the laundromat, I knew I was a bit early. Dottie and I got out of my car and ran across the street, through the grassy median, and across to the other side of the street. We made our way over to Thrifty Nickel to see if Buck had the set of pewter dishes Bobby Ray had been eyeballing. I knew it would be a perfect gift for him and Abby.

“While you go in there, I’m gonna take a smoke break,” Dottie informed me and sat down on one of the benches on the sidewalk.

“Don’t get too comfortable. I’ll be right back,” I told her.

“Are you breathing?” She snickered and unsnapped the top of her cigarette case, taking out her lighter and a cigarette. “You can talk to a maple tree and be there for hours.”

I laughed and took a look around downtown.

The shops were freestanding cottage-style homes with small courtyards between them, and today, I could see that Gert Hobson, the owner of Trails Coffee, had taken advantage of the warming weather by already putting out the café tables in her side yard. Her idea worked too. All of the tables were filled, from what I could see when I stood in front of the Thrifty Nickel thrift shop. The display Buck had in the window was too cute not to stop and look at, which was another thing I loved about the quaint shops in downtown. Each shop had a display window they changed up for seasons and holidays. Each of them catered to the Daniel Boone National Park, not only offering ways to enjoy the park during the various seasons and holidays but also advertising that their particular shop had exactly what you needed.

“I love the picnic display,” I called out to Buck when I opened the door of the thrift shop. “The foldable utensils will go over great with the college kids wanting to backpack and tent camp.” I looked back at him.

He was an older man, in his sixties, with a head full of coal-black hair. He had such a gentle heart and was eager to help anyone. He was tall and slender, making his age show a little more over the years I’d known him. Buck had gotten a little more humpbacked and slower.

“I’m looking for that set of pewter dishes you had out a couple of weeks ago.” I looked around while I told him why I was there, because he always had so many interesting things that I just might want to buy myself something.

Every wall in the thrift shop was exposed brick that was original, and the hardwood floors were original too. Most of the time, he had really nice oriental rugs everywhere, but today, it looked as though he were low on stock.

“Let me take a look up in the loft. I think I might’ve put them up there next to the ladies’ clothing because it’s the women who would probably buy them.” He moved around the counter in the middle of the store toward the stairs that led up to the secondhand clothing area, another place I loved to go when I came here.

“You’ve sold a lot of your antique pieces and artwork,” I noticed since he generally had large pieces on display.

“Yeah. It’s been hard keeping inventory in since the bad winter we had, but I’m guessing stuff will start rolling in as the yard sales start to pick up.” His voice trailed off as he disappeared up the steps, leaving me there to look around a bit before he came back. “Yep, they’re up there. You can go grab them if you want.”

“Do you mind holding them for me up there? I can pay now.” I took the cash out of my purse. “I don’t have time to get them now. I just wanted to make sure you didn’t sell them.”

“No problem.” He rang me up and handed me the receipt. “How’s Mary Elizabeth and them?”

“All good. Everyone’s good. You?” I asked, sticking the receipt in my purse.

“We’re above ground.” He grinned. “That’s a plus.”

“Yes, it is.” I looked past him at the clock on the wall. “Is your time right?” I asked. Since it was a secondhand store, some items didn’t work at their peaks.

“Yep.” He glanced back. “On the dot.”

“I’ve got to run. I’ll be by to grab the dishes later.” I hurried out of the store and into Trails Coffee, along with Dottie, to grab the Laundry Club Ladies and myself some fresh coffee and to just say hello to my friend Gert.

“Hey, Mae. Hi, Dottie,” Gert Hobson greeted us from behind the counter. “Y’all are here late. Dottie, I’ve not seen you in a while. How are you?”

“Honey, I’m hunky-dory. How you been?” She walked along the counter to look at the few sweet treats Gert offered to her customers.

“Busy. That’s good.” Gert looked back over her shoulder at the time.

“Well, we’re here because we’re meeting with some of the gals over at Betts’s place and wanted to tell you first that we are hosting an engagement party at Happy Trails for Abby and Bobby Ray.” My news brought a frown to her face. “What?”

“Nothing.” I could see she forced a smile. “I thought you were going to say you and Hank.”

This time, I forced myself to laugh.

“Yep. I said the same thing. Wonder what that boy is thinkin’?” Dottie also felt like Hank and I should be hitched. I kept my mouth shut.

“No.” I shook my head. “I’m so excited for them. And I wanted to make sure I can count on you to supply the party with some delicious coffee. Of course, I’ll pay for it.”

“You know I will, and maybe I can come up with a little sweet coffee blend since Bobby Ray likes a little coffee with his French vanilla creamer.” She laughed then smiled, this time genuine.

“He does love sweet coffee.” I tried to joke along with her, but I couldn’t stop imagining how she looked when she was disappointed it was them and not me. “I’m not sure when the party will be, but I’m thinking in a couple of days, because Abby wants to get married pretty quickly.”

“Really? What’s the rush?” she asked and pointed to the little chalkboard menu next to the register with today’s coffee blend.

“We’ll take five coffees.” Dottie held up five fingers.

“Four. Me, you, Betts, and Queenie. Abby isn’t coming.” I counted out the names on my fingers.

“I called Mary Elizabeth. Maybe six if Dawn comes. I forgot ’bout her.” She looked back at Gert.

“Five, then.” I pinched a smile and gave Gert the go-ahead. When she turned around to make the fancy lattes, I turned back to Dottie. “Did you talk to Mary Elizabeth?”

“I did. I asked her about A-lee-cia.” Dottie dragged out her name in her Southern twang.

“Oh dear God.” I rolled my eyes. “She won’t like that one bit.”

“Nope. She didn’t. She wanted to know what all you said about it, because she figured the less people that knew about this girl’s whereabouts was the best for all people involved.” Dottie took her cigarette case out of her pocket and snapped it open. She tapped out one from inside and stuck it in the corner of her mouth. “Before I let her throw a big ole duck fit, I told her that A-lee-cia was a lost cause and reminded her that she can’t make a silk purse out of a sow’s jowl.” Dottie dug down in her pocketbook for her lighter.

“Five coffees to go.” Gert placed the cardboard coffee holder down on the counter. “On me. It’s my little part to help in the planning. You give me a call when you figure out how many people are coming, and I’ll get you a special engagement blend for the happy couple.”

“You’re the best, Gert.”

“Bye, Dottie,” Gert called after Dottie had made her way to the door.

Dottie didn’t bother turning around. She lifted her lighter in the air and wagged it as she kept walking.

Once out the door, she lit the cigarette.

“I’m sure you’re mad I said something, but I wanted her to know that we are watching, and that’s her wagon to hitch, not yours.” She jabbed me with the fingernail of her pointer finger, the lit cigarette between it and her middle finger.

“You’re going to burn me.” I jerked backward.

“Nah. I wouldn’t do that.” She continued to suck it down while we took our time to walk back over to the laundromat. It looked like everyone was there, including Alicia Becker.

“Hey, Mae,” she greeted me with a sweet-as-pie Southern voice that was one of the tones I recalled Mary Elizabeth trying to get me to take on.

“You look a little better.” I tried to be on my best behavior and give her somewhat of a compliment on her freshly cleaned hair and makeup job that looked like it was trying to cover the bruised-up eyes. She had on a plaid shirt with a pair of jeans that I assumed to be Dawn Gentry’s.

“Maybelline, why don’t you get me one of those coffees for Alicia while I introduce her to the gals?” Mary Elizabeth had a lot of emotions buried under her words.

Instead of balking at her or protesting about why on earth she’d bring Alicia to our special group, I decided to just grab a coffee and shove it toward Alicia. Then I gave Mary Elizabeth the nod for her to come help me with the other coffees while Alicia had everyone else’s full attention.

“I wouldn’t trust that woman if her tongue came notarized.” Dottie walked up, nudging me in the ribs.

I turned around and looked past her to the group. Alicia Becker was in the middle of telling the group something that I couldn’t hear.

I wrapped my arms around my body and stared for a few seconds.

“Mm-hmm.” Dottie shifted her gaze back to me before she plucked a couple more coffees from the holder. “Looks like our in-vestee-gation is ramped up now that I can see what we are up against.”

I forced a smile and sucked in a deep breath before I got the last remaining coffee so I could keep my hands and mouth occupied while Alicia finished telling her story, which had ended up being about her first day in Mary Elizabeth’s care.

Normally, I didn’t suck my coffee down as quickly, but I had to do something to keep my mouth from saying anything that would be in ill taste.

“What is this I hear about Bobby Ray getting hitched?” Alicia’s question was laced with concern.

“Is that an issue?” Queenie French pushed her headband up in her short blond hair just as her brows furrowed with uncertainty.

“I mean, he is a ladies’ man. I mean, after all, he did try to hit on me when I lived with them.” Alicia rolled her eyes to the right and upward, and her shoulders did a little shimmy.

“Was.” My stomach lurched at the thought of what she was accusing him of. “And why would you say something like that? When I told Bobby Ray you were in town, he was a little leery like I am.”

So much for sipping on the hot coffee to keep my mouth shut.

“Maybelline,” Mary Elizabeth gasped, sending me the keep-your-mouth-shut look that she was so good at.

“What, Mary Elizabeth? Ain’t you gonna take up for Bobby Ray when this… this…” Dottie pointed a finger at Alicia. “This zealot is accusing someone who has been there for you and didn’t abandon you after these two did?”

“Why are you lumping me in with her?” I poked my finger at Alicia.

“Oh dear.” Betts put her hands up to her eyes. “I think we all need to take a moment and go for a quick walk or break so we can come back together and help plan our dear friends’ engagement party.”

“Yes. That seems to be a great idea.” Queenie stood up and walked over to the washing machines. They were lined up in a row, and that area had the most floor space, so she could do a couple of her Jazzercise moves with ease. “Good stress relief. Why don’t we all try it?”

“I’m game.” Alicia popped up and went over to Queenie to take instructions.

Mary Elizabeth quickly followed her, and instead of joining in, she clapped her hands with a big smile on her face.

“It appears to me that she’ll do anything to get in good graces with anyone.” Dottie was right again. “That includes that awful Jazzercise.”

“I don’t know her, but I am seriously wondering why Mary Elizabeth is taking up for her.” There was a tickle in my mind with questions that I was going to have to ask Mary Elizabeth.

“Why don’t we just let them do their thing, and we can plan.” Betts had gotten Dottie’s and my attention. She waved a little notebook in the air. “What day do you have in mind?”

I told her how Abby requested something soon because they wanted to get married as soon as possible. No one seemed to question it like I had. Apparently, it was just me struggling with it, and probably because of where Hank stood on the matter.

“What if we do it during your campground supper? That way, there will be plenty of food, since we can all bring some items.” Betts made a great suggestion. “And your guests will see how much fun the campground is and book reservations for next time.”

“And we can do a special. Book this week and get ten percent off of your next stay,” Dottie suggested, even though we didn’t need to do any sort of special since the campground had been booked so far in advance.

“It is nice to give away some discounts.” I shifted and looked over at Alicia. They all looked like they were having fun. Who was I to judge Alicia?

It wasn’t long ago that I was new in town and a much different person. It was these ladies that ended up believing in me and shifted me into who I was today.

“Hey, guys,” I called over to Queenie, Mary Elizabeth, and Alicia. “Do you think we can pull off the engagement party tomorrow night?”

“Tomorrow night?” Mary Elizabeth questioned.

“Why not?” Alicia agreed. “I can help. I’m not doing nothing the rest of the day, and I noticed Mary Elizabeth still hoards magazines while I was putting the few things I had away in one of the suites at the bed-and-breakfast. I can use those to make these really cute paper flowers I learned how to make at the women’s shelter.”

“Women’s shelter?” Betts asked and patted the seat next to her for Alicia to sit down. Betts was good at taking in strays. I knew because I had been one of them.

Chapter 6

Alicia got everyone’s attention with her story about how she’d been staying at a women’s shelter.

“I finally had enough of Craig beating up on me.” She teared up. Betts ran to her office and brought out the box of tissues. Alicia dabbed the corners of her eyes and continued, “He would come home from work, and I could tell if he had a bad day by the way he slammed his car door. Mind you, he always had to slam the door since the latch was broken, but when he really slammed the door, sometimes kicked it, I knew that I better keep my lips shut, or the slightest thing would get me a backhand to my jaw.”

“Oh, honey,” Queenie cried out and put her hand on Alicia’s skinny knee. “How did you get beat up this time if you were in a shelter? Shouldn’t they be protecting you?”

“They did.” Alicia looked down at her fingers, where she was picking a hangnail that ended up bleeding. Her nails were short, gnawed down to the quick. “He found me. I was really good at gardening.” She blinked a few times and looked over at Mary Elizabeth. “I seen you had a beautiful garden when I was hiding in the bushes trying to figure out if that was your place or not.”

Mary Elizabeth crossed her hands over her chest and frowned.

“I can really help you in the garden.” Alicia smiled, tilting her head.

“I’d love that.” Mary Elizabeth returned the gesture.

Dottie shifted in her chair, swinging her leg over the other and crossing her arms over her chest.

“Go on with the story. I’m interested in how you got them two shiners,” Dottie said with a flat voice.

“Dottie,” Betts groaned. “Alicia, I’m sorry. We shouldn’t be meddling.”

“You’re not. I don’t mind telling you.” Alicia’s face stilled. “I’ve had enough trouble over the winter that I’m glad to be here among friends.”

“Friends?” Dottie asked under her breath.

I snapped my eyes toward her to get her to hush. Though I wasn’t sure if Alicia was putting on an act or what, I still didn’t want her to be mistreated.

“Last fall, Craig found me. I have no idea how. But he did. I didn’t even question it. He came to the home and had roses, chocolates. You know those little chocolates formed like a heart with them cute little sayings on them?”

We all nodded our heads. Well, Dottie didn’t. She continued to stare at Alicia like she was full of you-know-what, but we ignored her.

“Anyways, he was so sweet. Said the right things. The director of the facility told me not to leave and to get counseling, but Craig did that sweet-talking to me that I can’t refuse—couldn’t refuse,” she corrected herself. “It was fine until winter brought all the snow and ice we got, keeping us holed up in the house. He got to drinking, and then my face got in his way.” Her voice cracked, making Betts put an arm around her.

Alicia offered that sweet innocent smile to Betts. Betts squeezed her.

“I’d been planning on leaving. I just had to find the right time. Then I was at the Piggly Wiggly picking up his pork rinds. Trust me, if he was ever out of pork rinds, I paid for it dearly.” Her shoulders slumped. “It was then that I saw that national parks magazine, and right there on the fifteenth page of places to stay in the park was a photo of Mary Elizabeth and Dawn Gentry. I couldn’t believe my eyes. It was like God had laid his hand on me right then and there, giving my way out.” She reached out her hand toward Mary Elizabeth. Mary Elizabeth clasped hands with her. “She’s always been the angel sent when I needed her. I need her.”

“Sweetheart, you’ve got me.” Mary Elizabeth looked at Alicia with wounded eyes. “I’m not going to let that nasty Craig come around.”

“Don’t you worry. If he tries to come get me, he’ll leave in a body bag.” Alicia made no bones about how much she disliked him as the story grew. “I held on to that magazine article for dear life. I would find pork rinds on sale so I could sock a little money away here and there so I could save for a bus ticket here. I took so many beatings that I finally had to just leave. That’s when I showed up here.”

“You’re welcome here anytime. This is your home now.” Mary Elizabeth’s words made me so sick to my stomach.

It wasn’t that I didn’t want to give Alicia a home; it was the fact that Mary Elizabeth didn’t question anything, such as where Craig was or what Alicia’s plan was. Did she even know this lady anymore?

From what Bobby Ray told me, I wasn’t going to shun Alicia, but I wasn’t going to be best friends with her. There was something not good, and I couldn’t put my finger on it. It was best to stay silent until I did figure out what I needed to know to make a true judgement call on her.

Then, it didn’t even boil down to what I thought. It would be what I’d know for sure, and then I’d bring those facts to Mary Elizabeth’s attention, though I already knew what she’d say. She’d tell me how everyone deserves a second chance, and until Alicia proved otherwise, Mary Elizabeth was going to give it to her.

The only thing that I was going to be sure of was that I’d be well-informed once Alicia did prove otherwise.

“We have a women’s meeting at the church for women who have been in abusive relationships. I’d love to invite you.” Betts took Alicia over to her office, where I was sure they’d make a plan to meet up.

“What do you think about all that carrying on?” Dottie asked, and we both kept our eye on the office door as we gathered our things.

“It only makes me want to find out if her story is true or not.” My chin lifted, and I twisted around to look at Dottie.

“I swear I seen something like this on Oprah once.” She cocked a brow, making me smile.

Chapter 7

With the meeting for the engagement party being hijacked by Alicia’s story, the party planning was left up to me. Before Dottie and I had made it home, Alicia had already texted me, and I realized Mary Elizabeth had given her my phone number.

She assured me she’d have the paper flowers ready for me by tomorrow afternoon. Then she followed up by asking me if I’d take her to see my friend Tex, the shirtless chiropractor. Mary Elizabeth had told her about him, and she said she’d love to get a clean Reiki session in with him to help clear all the negative out.

“You’ve got to be joking me.” I read the text and threw my phone on the bedside table next to me. “Fifi, what am I going to do?”

Fifi curled up beside me and didn’t move. She was exhausted from her day of running around the campground and enjoying the beautiful weather.

I rolled over to my side and peeked through the window blinds to see down the campground to Hank’s camper. He must’ve been asleep, because there weren’t any lights on. All the new information I would tell him about Alicia’s stint at the women’s shelter and Craig using her as a punching bag was going to have to wait.

This would definitely be some information for him to check into. I began to go over all the details of Alicia’s story in my head, and I must’ve fallen asleep, because the next thing I knew, Fifi was licking my face and the sun was darting through the small holes in the window shades next to my bed.

“What time is it?” I groggily asked Fifi, knowing we were on Fifi time, not the actual time. I rolled over and noticed it was after seven a.m. “I know. I know.”

That was all I had to say for Fifi to bound off the bed and down the small campervan hallway. She would be eagerly waiting for me at the door so she could go outside and do her morning business.

I stumbled down the hall after her and went ahead and opened the door since I knew she’d be okay with the sun up. Before that, I sometimes put her on a leash and walked her around the campground in fear that if she was out there by herself, she’d become a snack for one of the many critters that roamed the park.

I picked up my cell phone and noticed there were a couple of text message alerts. I rubbed my eyes and clicked on the text button to see if it was Hank wishing me good morning.

It wasn’t. It was another litany of text messages from Alicia, all of which were about those darn paper flowers and fitting in a visit from Tex.

I put the phone back on the counter and decided that I needed some coffee in me before I responded back because this might be a tongue-biting situation for me. In the back of my head, I knew that if I didn’t take her to see Tex, Mary Elizabeth would be upset. I didn’t want Mary Elizabeth upset yet. I knew she’d be a spitfire once she did find out I had Hank dig up some information on Alicia. That’s when I’d tell her what he’d found and let her go off on me.

I was sure in my gut there was something up with Alicia. She tried too hard in that little sweet-and-kind act of hers not to be up to something.

While the coffee was brewing, Fifi scratched on the door. I let her in and put some kibble in her bowl so she could eat while I got a quick shower and waited for the coffee to brew.

My phone buzzed with another text while I finished getting ready. I didn’t bother hurrying to see who it was, because I couldn’t help but think it was just Alicia again. However, when I finally checked my phone, it was Hank. He had said he had a few minutes before he headed down to the department, just enough time to kill to have a cup of coffee. Then he followed up a few minutes later telling me my time was up. He had left the campground.

“Good morning. I’m sorry I didn’t get your text.” I called him instead of texting. I needed to hear his voice. “I wanted to thank you for being such a nice guy.”

“What’s wrong?” he questioned with some suspicion in his voice.

“Nothing.” I found it odd he had to link something to it, even though he was right. “Can’t I just tell you how grateful I am for you?”

“No. Not without something having happened.” Hank was a straight shooter and held his own ground, which was what had attracted me to him the first day I was in Normal and he’d accused me of killing my now-dead ex-husband.

“Fine. Alicia told her story to the Laundry Club Ladies last night, and I’m so thankful you aren’t like Craig.” I let it hang out there.

“You mean to tell me that she was at the engagement meeting?” he asked.

“Yep. Mary Elizabeth is all-in on her, and I’m a little worried.” I was going to tell him what I was thinking, but I got a text. I pulled my phone from my ear and noticed it was from Dawn Gentry.

She had texted, We need to talk ASAP.

“Listen, I’ve got to go. But tonight is going to be the engagement party.” I knew it was short notice, but when you lived in a small community like Normal, everyone was always up for a great time, and there was literally nothing to do in the hiking town once the sun went down but sit around a campfire. That was exactly what tonight was going to be about. “I’ll see you tonight. Good luck at work today.”

“Thanks. I’ve got a lot of thinking to do.” He sounded determined before we hung up the phone.

I hit Dawn’s name with my finger and positioned the phone between my ear and shoulder while I poured myself a cup of coffee. Then I headed outside to sit under the campervan awning at my picnic table while I talked to Dawn.

I had a feeling the early-morning breath of fresh air was going to do me some good.

“What’s up?” I asked and took in the moment of silence the outside had to offer.

The sun had popped up over the tree line, the birds were chirping, and the ducks were already taking their morning swim in the lake. The faint smell of last night’s campfires was still in the air, and soon, they would be started right back up.

“Mary Elizabeth wrote that girl a check for five thousand dollars without question. Who is she, and why is she here?” Dawn told me exactly what I had feared. Alicia was here just to get money.

“I don’t know. I never even knew about her until yesterday when she showed up. I asked Bobby Ray about her, and he said she was nothing but trouble.” I didn’t tell Dawn about how Alicia said Bobby Ray had hit on her while they lived at Mary Elizabeth’s. “But if it makes you feel any better, I have Hank looking into her background. Until then, I guess I just have to keep my mouth shut.”

“Do you know that Mary Elizabeth gave her some of my clothes to wear? She didn’t even ask. I left them in the laundry room until I could go up to my room to put them away.” Dawn sounded very worried. “I’m concerned. I think she’s here to swindle Mary Elizabeth. Don’t get me wrong. I think she’s been abused, but I also think she’s underhanded.”

“Yeah. Well, keep your eyes on her, and let me know if something else happens. In the meantime, I’m going to take her to see Tex as a favor, so I’ll be sure to let you know what I get out of her.” After Dawn and I concocted a little plan to keep each other abreast of any other things we saw, we hung up. I texted Alicia to let her know to get ready because I was going to be there in a few minutes to pick her up to go see Tex.

Tex and Glenda had opened up the Pamper Camper mobile spa a few months ago. I’d known Glenda a lot longer than Tex, and when Mary Elizabeth and I had gone to explore some possible new trails to add to the Daniel Boone National Park registry as part of my job as a National Park Committee member, we stumbled, literally, upon Glenda, who I had no idea had taken up residency in the deep woods near the new trail.

That’s how we’d discovered Tex. Glenda had left her cushy life to live in the woods with Tex and his clan of holistic-type people. Tex was a licensed chiropractor who loved to incorporate Mother Nature into his way of working with clients. He also did Reiki as a service, which really did help me unlock a lot of my past.

So you bet your bottom dollar when I took Alicia to see him, I’d be all ears to see if I heard anything uncovered.

“Have a good day, girls!” Mary Elizabeth stood at the screen door of the kitchen of the bed-and-breakfast of the Milkery, waving goodbye with a huge smile on her face like she was sending us off to school or something.

“I wish she was as proud of me as she is of you,” Alicia said, clicking the seat belt into place. “I guess I have to be on my best behavior, buy a campground, or at least marry rich.” She snickered as if her insult was excused.

“There’s where you’re wrong.” I sucked in a deep breath and took off before she finished clicking the belt.

“Whoa.” She laughed and put her hands out in front of her to touch the dash. “I hit a sore spot?”

“No. I’ve really worked hard to get the campground where it is, and Mary Elizabeth showing up was a nice little bonus after Bobby Ray came to stay with me.” I was going to bring up the story, which I did believe to be a big lie about him. “Speaking of Bobby Ray, why would you accuse him of hitting on you?”

“I didn’t say he hit on me. Did I?” She threw her head back, laughing. “He’s a big ole dope.”

“No, he’s not. I’m not sure what you see, but from where I’m sitting, it appears that he has a job, friends, family and people who love him, and a new fiancée who is amazing and doesn’t beat him up.”

“Wow. I guess you told me. I had no idea you couldn’t take a joke.” She looked out the window and crossed her arms. “I was joking. He was kind. I’m sorry. I just want to fit in.”

“One word of advice.” I decided not to let her get my goat because it would ruin the rest of my day if I let her. “No one here likes unkind people. We help each other out and stand by one another in good and bad times. As you can see from last night, all the gals were so kind to you and really did embrace you without even knowing a thing about you. If you think the little bit of makeup you put on to cover the bruises made them less visible, it didn’t. They all could see them. So they didn’t question you or shun you before you even told your story.”

I wanted to add, Which I’m not sure is true, but I kept that thought in my head, having to bite my lips to do it.

I guessed she was stewing over what I had said, because she was quiet the rest of the way to the Old Train Station Motel, which was near the trail we had to take to get to Tex and located north of town off Fawn Road.

Fawn Road was actually named after Abby Fawn’s family. It was a lot of fun to tell Alicia about it so it would break the tension before we got there.

“Wow. What’s the deal with this place?” she asked when we pulled into the parking lot of the motel.

“It’s an actual old train station that was run-down when Coke Ogden bought it. It has all of those doors along the front that were various places where the passengers waiting for a train were able to go in and get out of the rain. Some of them had bathrooms and some not.” I loved how Coke had a vision for the old building and brought it back to life, giving tourists a place to stay when they visited. “She turned each of those into guest rooms and added new bathrooms. She also turned the old diner into a new one while keeping the integrity of what it once was. Then she turned one of the many barns behind it into a really cool events venue, where I’m hoping Bobby Ray and Abby will have their wedding.”

I left out the story about the last wedding I attended here, where someone was killed. I didn’t want to scare her off, even though she wasn’t high on my list. I was willing to give her a shot.

If not for me, then for Mary Elizabeth.

“So cool.” She glanced around as I parked the car. “What’s back there?” She pointed to the open-area courtyard that was smack-dab in the middle of the motel rooms.

“That is a very cool courtyard where guests can gather and enjoy the stars while being out in the open.” It really wasn’t a new concept for a courtyard; it was just another neat feature of what Coke Ogden had made available to her guests.

“This is where the holistic practitioner’s office is located?” Alicia questioned.

“Holistic practitioner?” I chuckled because I was sure that was how Mary Elizabeth had eloquently introduced Tex, the bare-chested chiropractor.

“Isn’t that what he is? Or is this one of our dear foster mother’s schemes to get me somewhere?” Alicia had a frightened look on her face.

“He’s a chiropractor and actually located in the woods off of that trailhead right over there.” I pointed past the motel to the tree line where the trail began.

Alicia gave a weird pause where she looked at the trail, then back at me, and then back at the trail.

“Are you sure this isn’t one of them intervention, taking-me-to-rehab kinda things? Because hand to God, I’ve not done a single drug in two or three months. Well”—she looked at me with a frown—“maybe a month. For sure a month.” She nodded.

“No, and I’ve not heard anything mentioned about you or rehab, in fact.” I shut the car off. “I’ve not even talked to her privately since you walked into the Milkery kitchen the other morning.”

“Oh. Well, I’m not a druggie or anything. I just have some things to clear up with myself, and I’m not sure Craig is even in my future.” She got out of the car.

“You mean to tell me that you think you might want to still date him?” It was such a far-fetched situation for me to wrap my head around, and I questioned why she’d want to be in a physically abusive relationship.

“Not really, but he will track me down. That’s why I need to see the holistic practitioner so I can learn to be strong and stand firm when Craig does find me and does all that sweet-talkin’ he does to get me back in his web of lies.” Though I didn’t trust her fully, I did believe she was being truthful.

“Then Tex is the right person for you.” I found myself doing an action I never thought I’d do. I actually ran my hand down her arm, showing her I did care. “I don’t know much about abuse, but I do know that no one deserves to be used as a punching bag, and I certainly don’t want it to be someone Mary Elizabeth loves.”

We strolled down the sidewalk in front of all of the motel doors and off into the grass after we reached the end. It looked like Coke had already started to lay down some old wooden railroad ties to make a path leading to the trail. It would be a much-welcomed added feature she would be able to tell her guests about when they called to inquire about staying there.

I’d found that when people were looking to come stay at the campground or even just in the motel, they wanted a variety of activities that could be at hand for them instead of having to drive from area to area in the national park.

So when Coke had mentioned to me that she’d been walking the woods and found a new way down to the waterway, I knew that I could help make it a real trail with the registry. She could now tell her guests how she not only had a wonderful venue for their event but how they could also ride one of her horses from one of the other barns and go on trail rides, including now on the new trail.

“You know—” Alicia started to talk and began slapping her neck. “Darn bug.” She swatted at something in front of her that I didn’t see. “I was going to say that Mary Elizabeth talked about you all the time. It kinda made me mad because she would say how great you were. And I wondered to myself, if you were so great, why did you up and leave in the middle of the night?”

I wasn’t expecting to be the one to get grilled with a million questions. I was planning on grilling her.

“I guess I needed to find my own path”—it was a diplomatic thing to say—“but in truth, I don’t regret my leaving Perrysburg, because otherwise, I wouldn’t have the life I have now. If I had one thing to do over, it would be how I treated Mary Elizabeth. I didn’t realize what a gift she really was when she took in all those kids.”

The last part of my vague explanation to her question was pretty much a shot at her and how I hoped from here on out she’d be kinder to Mary Elizabeth and not take her for granted.

The trail was nice and dry, so I didn’t have to worry about any sort of mud getting on our shoes and in my car. I felt bad for Alicia. She’d been swatting off bugs the entire walk.

“I hate the outdoors. And these specky bugs are bad.” She smacked around her ankles, and her hands continued to pat her arms and neck, hitting a lot of the foliage that’d grown up around the trail since the hikers had yet to dampen it down this season. “I’m so shocked Mary Elizabeth likes that old dairy farm too. I told her this morning that I wouldn’t get up like she does and milk them stinking cows for nothing. Did you know she reads books to those chickens?”

“They are hens, and you know, if it keeps her happy, I’m all for it.” I wanted to say that bringing her here also made Mary Elizabeth happy, which was why I was doing it. “Right this way,” I told Alicia after we’d walked a little ways on the trail.

“What way?” she asked and scratched her forearm. “That way as in through the woods and off the trail?” There was some in trepidation in her voice.

“Yes. Didn’t Mary Elizabeth tell you anything about him?” I asked, and when she didn’t answer, I took the first step into the thicket of the woods. There were some crunching noises from her stepping on branches and sticks, so I knew she was following me, but her continual saying of “yuck,” how she didn’t like bugs, and if-she’d-known statements got on my last nerve. “You know what?” I’d finally had it up to my ears with her complaining. “This is what living in Normal is all about. There’s nothing similar to Perrysburg. If you want to see the chiropractor, then you’re going to have to finish walking through these woods, bugs and all, if you want help.”

“Goodness. Pfft, pfft.” She made noises with her mouth as she appeared to be rubbing a cobweb off of her face. “I’ll certainly not be back.”

For a second I got a little giddy, thinking she meant she wasn’t going to come back to Normal, but then…

“Next time, Mary Elizabeth will have to drive me to a bigger town where there’s actually a real office.” She burst my bubble. “Is that it?”

The trees had thinned out a bit, and there was a clearing just beyond the line where Tex had set up the various tents around the huge campfire ring. He must’ve had good ears, because he walked out of his tent, looking over our way.

“My oh my, you said bare chested, but not muscular and a little tuned.” She purred like a cat. “And by ‘tuned,’ I mean a little older, which I do not mind.”

“Tex is spoken for.” I wasn’t about to let her mind wander off in that direction. I might as well put a stop to it right now.

“How spoken for? I don’t see a ring on that finger.” She giddyapped and took off toward him. “Hey there. I’m Alicia, Mary Elizabeth’s other foster daughter. I’ve heard so much good stuff about you. If you noticed, I’ve fallen and got me a couple of black eyes.”

“Why, you are a bold-faced liar.” I wasn’t about to stand there and let her lie to my friend. “She got beat up.” I knew it was a bit harsh, but I’d about had my fill with her.

“Hi. Mary Elizabeth has given me a few details, but I don’t need to know them. I’m only here to help you get from Mother Nature what your body needs.” Tex gestured to the empty chiropractic table he had set up near the fire.

“Oh, my body needs.” She put her hands on her hips and looked around. “You sure could kill someone out here, and the body would never be found.”

Tex’s brows bumped together in a scowl, then he looked at me. I shrugged.

“He meant what your body needs,” I clarified just in case she didn’t know what he meant.

“I know that.” A confident smile arched on her lips. “It aches. My body aches.” Alicia winked, and either Tex didn’t see it, or he did a great job of ignoring it.

Me, not so much. Was she hitting on him, making the word “ache” mean more than physically hurting?

“Stop, or I’ll take you back.” I felt like she was that pesky little sister who just didn’t know when to hush. Only, I didn’t want to get to know her too much. I wanted her gone and out of town fast.

She headed straight over to the table and was already up on it, facedown, before Tex had made it over there.

“Do me a favor and get her fixed up fast,” I told him. “The quicker she’s out of Normal, the better life will be.”

“She seems like a handful, but Mary Elizabeth didn’t say she was so feisty.” Tex patted my back. “Glenda’s not here. She’s out in the camper doing a facial for someone, so just make yourself at home while I get to work.”

I meandered around the tents until I heard Alicia cackling. When I walked back around, I realized it wasn’t a cackle. She was crying. Her face was down in the hole, and she was sobbing as Tex’s hands ran down her spine.

I moved a little closer and peeled my ears to pick up any juicy tidbits of what he’d unleashed.

“I don’t know why I let him do it. The last time, he beat me up so bad, I was taken to the emergency room. He hit me so hard, my left ear has partial hearing.” She continued to sob. “I need healing, Doctor. I need healing in my head. In my heart. And in my soul. Healing. Because I swore to myself this last time that if he found me, I was going to kill him with my own two hands, even if I had to die doing it.”

“Now, we don’t want to do that. Let’s just get it all out and focus on you.” Tex was so good with his clients.

“I swear, he just goes crazy. This last time, he went nuts because there was this picture he had hanging up in the house. It was the ugliest picture you ever did see. I mean, so ugly he had it in the popper, above the toilet. So when I threw it out and the neighbors came down and got it out of the trash, he went off on me. Crazy. And let me tell you, he marched down to the neighbors’ house and kicked in the door to get that picture back.” She had to have been lying. Who cared so much about a picture? “Granted, he’d been down drinkin’ at the river, and I knew it wasn’t good. They gamble down there, and let me tell you that no matter where that man is, he finds a gambling joint.” She rattled on, nearly giving me a headache. “We went to Florida one time, and he didn’t have no money when we got there. He took me to Florida without a penny in his pocket. Now, if I’d known that before we got on the bus, I’d have never gone, but he swore he had a plan when we got there.”

Tex was working his hands so fast, I was sure he was trying to get through the session as fast as he could. A few times, I heard him tell her to relax and just enjoy the process, but she was talking so much and over him, she didn’t even hear him.

“He left me on a piece of driftwood under the boardwalk and told me to stay put. I did stay put, and don’t you know he came back the next morning, the next day, and he’d found a gambling joint where he said he made a couple hundred dollars. I reckon he drank some of that money, because I only saw where he had about fifty, but that night, he went back.” She trilled. “Came home the next day with over one thousand dollars. We had us a lobster supper that night.”

Alicia must’ve gotten on Tex’s nerves, because he didn’t end up doing all the things he did and told me when he’d done the Reiki on me. Nor did he offer to have her come back. He just thanked her and wished her well.

“So that wasn’t too bad. That felt darn-tootin’ good.” Alicia rolled her head around her shoulders a few times. “In fact, I’m starving.”

Literally, Alicia’s lips didn’t stop flapping until we made it into the diner of the Old Train Station. “Wow, this is a neat place.”

“It sure is. The burgers are the best.” I was hungry and tired of hearing her talking, crying, screaming, and back to crying. Maybe she’d be quiet for one second while her mouth was full.

I had no idea what Mary Elizabeth had paid Tex, but there was no way it was nearly enough.

“Hey, Mae, who’s your friend?” Coke Ogden had come up to the counter bar, where we’d taken two of the barstool seats.

“I’m Alicia, her sister.” Alicia snuggled up to me. Coke brushed back her long shoulder-length blond hair. “Aren’t you the cutest? You look just like that Mary Tyler Moore. You know, the time she had her hair flipped up?” Alicia used her hands to make swoops in the air.

I wasn’t sure if Coke knew she looked like Mary’s character, because honestly, she had probably worn her hair like that so long, she didn’t know any better.

“What?” Coke’s jaw dropped, and her face flushed white like she’d seen a ghost. “Yes. I know the character, but sister?”

I sucked in a deep breath because I knew I was going to have to correct Alicia since Coke was a member of the city council, and no matter, it would be around Normal that I had a sister before my car passed through downtown.

“Not sister.” I threw on that good ole Southern fake smile. “Alicia is the foster child who came to live with Mary Elizabeth after I left for New York.”

“I always wanted a big sister. I was bummed after I got there and found out that she had snuck out the window and zoomed away on a Greyhound to the concrete jungle.” Alicia kept on talking.

Coke had a look of entertainment, even leaning her hip on the counter as if she would be there for a while to hear more.

“I should’ve known then that something was up with living with Mary Elizabeth if she snuck out. Right? Or am I right?” Alicia snorted.

“We would like two of your amazing cheeseburgers and fries,” I told Coke.

“And a chocolate milkshake. You’re gonna need to keep them coming, too, because I like to drown my feelings in chocolate. Especially now that I feel real open since Tex laid his hands upon me.” Alicia winked. “If you know what I mean.”

“Huh.” Coke chuckled and looked over at me. I closed my eyes real slow like a cat does so Coke would know Alicia was getting on my nerves and I didn’t agree with anything the woman had to say, or at least that I didn’t believe any of it.

“I wanted to own a diner. Once, I had the chance.” Alicia talked to Coke even though Coke had already turned her back to fix me my usual Diet Coke with extra ice. “I just didn’t have the money. They were asking a pretty penny.” She jerked around and swept her eyes across the diner. “Where’s the bathroom?”

“That way,” Coke and I both said in unison as quickly as possible.

Coke turned around with a Diet Coke in one hand and a cup of ice in the other.

“I figured you’re gonna need extra, extra ice to put up with that one while you eat.” Coke laughed. “What happened to her face, and why is she here?”

“Long story, and I’ve not quite figured out why she is here, but Mary Elizabeth seems happy and is pushing to incorporate the girl in everything we do.” I leaned in a little over the counter and whispered, “Maybe she’ll just walk out that door.”

“Nope. Here she comes.” Coke threw a nod before she busied herself with another customer who had just walked in.

“Let’s go.” Alicia grabbed me by the arm and pinched me. “Now.” There was an alarming tone to her voice.

“Ouch.” I jerked away and immediately tried to rub out the hurt and pain she’d caused me. “Don’t you ever put your hands on me again,” I warned her. “Our food isn’t even ready.”

“Maybelline, right now. I’m not joking.” Her eyes were as big as saucers before she shifted them, making me look down the counter where Coke was still talking to the customer. “That’s Craig.”

After Alicia and I had hurried back to the car quicker than jackrabbits, it was like someone had taken out her voice box. This wasn’t the time I wanted her to stop talking. My heart was practically pounding out of my chest. I knew her heart had to be beating a million times per second.

“I need to call Hank, or at least the sheriff.” I reached for my cell phone once we got into the car.

“No. Go.” She didn’t yell. Her voice didn’t quiver. She was calm, cool, and collected. “I don’t want anyone to know he’s here.”

“But he obviously knows that you are here.” I couldn’t wrap my head around why she didn’t want to prosecute the man. “Aren’t you fearful for your life?”

“He knows that Bobby Ray is here.” Her words made me believe that she’d told me a lie about how she’d found Mary Elizabeth by way of the magazine.

“Spill it, Alicia Becker, or I’m not moving this car anywhere. I want you to tell me exactly what happened between you and Craig, how he knows Bobby Ray is here, and what you want with Mary Elizabeth.” I held my fingers on the key in the ignition.

“Fine. I’ll tell you everything you want to know.” Her words made me turn the engine on, and soon, we were on our way.

Chapter 8

There was a little pushback from Alicia when I insisted on her telling Mary Elizabeth, because she didn’t want to upset her.

“Too late for that,” I told her.

“Too late for ping-pong.” She nearly brought herself to tears with laughter.

I didn’t know what on earth she was talking about, but it seemed to tickle her fancy, and when she stopped laughing so hard, she started to tell me what on earth Craig and ping-pong had to do with each other.

“One time, Craig and I went to Florida.” I knew it had to be the same story she’d told Tex, but I let her talk because she appeared to be at ease. “We were free birds, so we never would plan out things like a hotel or food. We’d just get up in the morning, scrounge up some change, and hit the road.” She smacked her hands together. “Anyways, we had actually decided to sleep on the beach. It was nice out, and if you’ve never slept on the beach under that big sky, you don’t know what you are missing. I just love it, and thankfully, Craig did too. So we would sneak over the fences at these fancy hotels and use their pools to get a quick bath in. You know, just a quick little dip.”

She honestly was trying to get me to agree with her, but I couldn’t stop my head from thinking she had lived a hard life and honestly had no direction. My heart ached even more for her than it had before.

“And this one motel, or is it hotel?” She wagged her hand in the air. “I can’t remember which is which, but it had one of them shuffleboards and ping-pong tables out in the open. Craig said, ‘Honey, come on. You love ping-pong.’” She seem to be performing her best Craig impression. “‘I’ll make a little bet with ya.’”

I looked over at her, and she winked.

“I don’t reckon I have to tell you the prize.” She made some smoochy noises, making my stomach curl. “Anyways, I am good at ping-pong. But every time Craig missed, he’d run around and tap me on the heinie with the paddle, and I couldn’t help but giggle.”

“Seriously, just tell the story.” If I wasn’t so curious as to why she didn’t want to call the police or get a restraining order against Craig, I might’ve just dumped her on the Milkery doorstep.

“The night guard heard me laughing, and he treated us like criminals, saying it was too late for ping-pong. Well, Craig mocked him up and down—‘It’s too late for ping-pong’—until the guard got mad. He shined that flashlight in Craig’s face, and it tore Craig all to holy hell.” Her twangy voice cracked. “We left before the guard called the police, but it put Craig in a bad mood.” Her voice trailed off, and the look on her face told me her face was probably how Craig took out his aggravation from the guard.

Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed she was back to picking at her hangnails. She was in much need of a manicure. I started to feel bad for her. My mind wandered. What if she did live here, and we did manicures and pedicures? Baked with Mary Elizabeth?

As if my thoughts were coming to fruition, Mary Elizabeth was busy baking in the kitchen when we got back.

“Something smells good.” Alicia walked in ahead of me and shimmied her arms to her sides and up over her head. Her small hips wiggled to the same motion.

“You’re just in time to sample the dog biscuits.” Mary Elizabeth held up a homemade treat for the puppies that came with their owners to stay at the bed-and-breakfast. It was in the perfect shape of a bone.

“No, thank youuuu.” Alicia’s vowels were drawn out as her nosed curled.

“I will.” I took it from Mary Elizabeth, popped it into my mouth, and gave her a hug.

“Alicia.” Mary Elizabeth put her arms out. “You best get over here and give me some sugar.”

“You know I always hated when you said that.” Alicia shrugged and lollygagged over, finally giving in to the hug. “We seen Craig.”

“What?” Mary Elizabeth had the look of death cross her face. “Where? Did you call Hank?” She jerked toward me.

“No. She wouldn’t let me, and she’s going to tell us why.” I sat down at the kitchen table and patted it. “Why don’t you come on over here and sit.”

“This is going to call for some sweet tea.” Mary Elizabeth’s eyes widened before she turned and busied herself with grabbing some glasses, filling them with ice, and bringing them over.

It was good to see Alicia had taken the initiative to grab the jug of tea that had been sitting in the kitchen window. No doubt it’d been there all day, baking in the sun.

“Craig ain’t changed a bit.” She looked over at Mary Elizabeth.

“What did you expect, Alicia? I mean, how many times has the man been in jail for fighting or something awful?” Mary Elizabeth’s anger seethed through her words.

“He still has them long spells of not hitting me, but if we go too long, he’s harder on me the next time. I was telling Mae about him putting me in the hospital. Even though I said it was before this one, it was this one. They put me in a women’s shelter from the hospital. He sweet-talked some nurse, and she told him where I was at. He snuck in the home, and he charmed his way into my heart. Once he got me in the car and drove for about ten minutes, he pulled over and started to whale on me again. He told me if I ever left him, he’d kill me.” This time she didn’t cry or scream. She was level-headed, until, “That is, if I don’t get to him first.”

Her words sent a chill up my legs, along my spine, and up my neck.

Chapter 9

“Did you get in touch with Gert?” Dottie asked me after I got back to the campground office. “The engagement party is set for tomorrow night.”

“I know. I know. I’m sorry I’ve been gone so long today. I didn’t think it would take that long to go see Tex.” I looked at the wipe-off board, where we’d written some things down about Alicia while trying to solve the mystery of why she was really here. “Alicia and I decided to have lunch at the Old Train Station, and you aren’t going to believe who was there.”

“Coke? Glenda? Jesus?” she teased and threw her hands up in the air. “I’m all out of guesses. Tell me.”

“Craig.” I looked over at the board again before I grabbed my phone and googled him in hopes the Kentucky Jail Tracker would pull up his arrest record. And it did.

“As in the Craig? Alicia’s Craig?” Dottie was taken aback as much as I had been in the moment Alicia had identified him.

“Yep. He’s in town.” I showed Dottie my phone so she could see him. “I can’t help but wonder how he found her.” I told Dottie all about the story Alicia had told me and Mary Elizabeth. “She didn’t want me to call the sheriff.”

I decided not to tell Dottie about how Alicia said she would get to Craig first and all that threatening business.

“I’m concerned for Mary Elizabeth. What if he finds them?” Dottie questioned.

“It wouldn’t be too hard. It’s right in the article Alicia told me that he’s seen. All he has to do is google the Milkery and be taken right to her, or even go to the website Abby built. It has Mary Elizabeth’s name, photo, and story, along with Happy Trails Campground, tied to it.” I really did need to talk to Hank about it.

Even if he casually drove past there a couple of times or told the rangers in that area of the park to keep a close watch on the trails and the roads going to the Milkery, it wasn’t like Craig had to drive there. Heck, Red Fox Trail right here at the campground led straight to the Milkery.

“What are you going to do?” Dottie asked.

“I guess I’m going to tell Hank and just trust everything will be fine.” I shook my head and grabbed my cell phone. “I’ve got to call Christine Watson.”

“I already did that. She’s going to have the cake here in the morning. Blue Ethel and the Adolescent Farm Boys will set up tonight. Ty Randall is supplying the burgers and hot dogs.” She snapped the cigarette case closed and popped the butt end of the unlit cigarette in her mouth. “And Henry has all the firewood cut and ready to go.”

“Goodness. It sounds like you’ve already got everything covered.” I was so grateful for her. She’d done so many good things while I’d been out. “Thank you.”

“You’re welcome, but you need to get all the decorations put up. I’ve got an old stash of party supplies in storage unit number five.” She opened the top drawer of her desk and searched through it before she finally took out a key on one of the stretchy cords that floated. There were a lot of those around here. We put the camper keys on them so if guests went in the water, their keys would float.

She tossed it my way. I grabbed my phone.

“I’ll keep an eye out here while you go get them supplies.” She got up and headed out the door to go smoke. I followed her. “Oh, Queenie already sent out invites through some sort of text messaging to everyone, so the list is covered. And Henry said he’d pick up the ice for the tiki hut. Which reminds me, are we having some booze?”

“Yeah. I’ll have Hank pick all that up, but first, I need to call Violet Rhinehammer about the piece I would like her to do in the social section of the Gazette. I’ll be back in a few.” I wasn’t sure what sort of shape the decorations were in or what kind of decorations Dottie had in storage, but I’d been here a couple of years and had never seen the inside of unit five.

Most of the storage units were empty. I had one and Dottie had one. A couple of them were occupied by people who continually rented a lot in Happy Trails but only came during peak seasons, one of those being my insurance agent, who just loved to come in the summer and raise my rates.

“Hey, Violet, it’s Mae,” I said when she answered. Not that she hadn’t seen whose name had come across the screen. “I wanted to invite you to Happy Trails Campground tomorrow night for the engagement party of Abby Fawn and Bobby Ray Bonds.”

I shot Dottie a look and rolled my eyes as I passed her on my walk across the gravel toward the line of storage units. She laughed while lighting her cigarette.

“Isn’t that mighty nice of you.” Violet’s tone dripped with charm. “I’m guessing this comes with a price? Let’s face it—I’m not high on Abby Fawn’s friend list.”

“I was hoping you’d be able to put the party in the social section of the Normal Gazette, and of course you’re friends with her. That’s silly.” I walked across the gravel road to where the storage units were located. “What in the world?” I gasped.

“What’s wrong?” Violet asked.

“Someone has broken the lock of my storage unit, and it’s wide-open.” I took a closer step to see inside, trying to use the sunlight, but the shadows were too dark inside. “And all of my stuff is thrown out of its boxes.”

“Is anyone in there? Do I need to call the sheriff?” Violet was sorting through all the solutions.

“No. I don’t see anyone.” I walked inside and pulled the string that was connected to the light on the ceiling, illuminating the unit. “It looks like a break-in, and I have no idea when it happened.”

“Do you have cameras?” she asked.

“Yeah. I’ll have to go back and see if there’s anything on them. It only records for forty-eight hours then records over itself.” Hank had warned me not to get that kind, but being the hardheaded person I was, I sure didn’t listen to him. “Anyways, before I call someone, do you think you can do a small paragraph in the society papers about their engagement party? Abby would be thrilled, and she’s done so much for this community. She does deserve a shout-out.”

“Of course I will. In fact, I’m just turning in edits on the column now before the deadline this afternoon. I’ll get it in tomorrow’s edition. You called just in time.” Violet and I didn’t see eye to eye a lot of the time, so I figured I must’ve caught her on a good day. “Oh, what time tomorrow for the party? I sure don’t want to be fashionably late and show up the happy couple.”

Violet and I arranged for her to be there a little bit early so she could get some good photos of the setup before it was party time.

“Dottie!” I poked my head around the corner of the storage unit. “Dottie!” I waved her over when I grabbed her attention.

“What do you wunt?” Her accent was so different when she was trying to suck out all the use of her cigarette. “I’m enjoying me some good sunshine and a nice smoke.”

“Someone broke into my storage unit.” I had to repeat myself before she got up from the chair in front of the office and came over.

“Well, I’ll be.” She scratched her head and took one more drawl before she snuffed the cigarette out on the concrete floor of the storage unit and stuck the butt in her pocket. “Who on earth do you reckon did this?”

“I have no idea, but I was just in here a week or so ago getting something for Bobby Ray.” It was true. Bobby Ray and I had come in here to get the loose diamond I’d given him that was in one of the boxes that Stanley, Paul’s lawyer, had sent before I’d even heard I was moving to Normal.

He’d had it all planned out, and at the time, I was sick over it, but now I was grateful he was able to see past the situation I had been dealt.

“You think he came on in here and messed it up?” She put her hands on her thin hips and jutted her foot out. “I mean, wasn’t it a shirt you gave him? One of Paul’s?”

“Something like that.” I wasn’t about to tell her that the diamond Bobby Ray had gotten put in a ring setting was actually a diamond Paul had bought me. There was really no sense in anyone finding out, because I was never going to use it or have anything done with it.

“I guess I can go back and look through the camera if you don’t think he did it.” She made a generous offer, especially since we had a lot to do to get the campground ready for the engagement party. “Anyone else get broken into?” She stepped outside of the unit and looked down the row of the few storage units we had.

“No. We will just leave it like it is for now. I’ll shut the door, and maybe the sheriff will be able to pull prints or something.” I wasn’t sure how to go about asking Bobby Ray if he’d gotten into the storage unit. “Maybe Bobby Ray needed in, and he is a little messy.”

“This messy? This is ‘I’m searching for something’ messy. Not ‘I’ve taken my clothes off and thrown them on the floor instead of the hamper’ messy.” Dottie was right, but I just couldn’t believe Bobby Ray could or would possibly break in when he could easily have asked. “Here’s the question. What on earth did you have in here that could warrant such a mess?”

“Just a bunch of old clothes.” I didn’t need to say anything about the diamond, because no one knew but me and Bobby Ray, and it didn’t make sense for him to come in here to look for any more. He knew I only had the one that I gave to him, so there was no need for him to break in.

Besides, if he needed in, I’d have let him in or given him the key. It didn’t make sense.

“We will worry about the decorations later. I’m going to call Jerry and have him send someone out to fingerprint after I talk to Bobby Ray.” I looked to the bungalows and didn’t see his car there. “I guess I’ll drive to town. Do you want me to pick up anything?”

“I’ll let you know if I do,” she said, and I left her there. She appeared to be looking around as if she were making sure nothing else was disturbed.

Fifi was more eager than ever to hop in the old Ford and take a ride into town. She loved this time of year, when she could keep her head out of the window and take in all the new, fresh smells of spring, her ears flapping in the wind and her tongue hanging out.

Joel Grassel wore a pair of bib overalls, just like Bobby Ray, and each had a greasy handkerchief hanging out of his front pocket. I could tell which one was Bobby Ray because Bobby Ray’s hair had thinned out and had a small bald spot, while Joel kept a buzz cut.

“Hey there,” I said.

Bobby Ray’s head jerked up, and he looked my way. Joel did too. The lines around Joel’s eyes deepened as he squinted away the sun. Bobby Ray smiled and waved.

“What are you doing here? Everything okay?” Without questioning what he meant, I knew he was asking without asking about Alicia. “Give me a second,” he told Joel.

“Hey, Joel.” I gave a slight wave.

“How are you, Mae?” he asked. I felt sorry for Joel. He had been really close with his brother who had died. From what Bobby Ray had told me, the hurt still ran deep, and Joel still talked about his brother.

“I’m good. You?” I asked.

“I’m fine. Just fine.” He pinched his lips together in a tight grin before he disappeared right back under the hood of the car they were working on.

“What’s going on?” Bobby Ray’s forehead puckered.

“Did you break into my storage unit?” I asked. When I saw the confusion cross along his face, I continued, “Not that I’d care, but someone has broken the lock off my unit and gone in. All the tubs of clothes are scattered everywhere.”

“No,” he said flatly. “Why would I go in there? I’d never do that without asking you.”

“I didn’t think so, but I wanted to check before I head down to the sheriff’s department to file a report. I’m sure it’s just someone hiking or homeless.” Though I hated it, the reality was homeless people or drifters were all over the Daniel Boone National Forest.

It wasn’t unheard of for someone’s things to get broken into where the only things taken were clothes and some camping items.

“I’ll be sure to keep my gun loaded and let you know.” Bobby Ray didn’t mess around. “Do you think someone knew about the diamond?”

“No. No one but me and you.” I used my fingers to flip an imaginary lock in front of my lips. “That secret is safe with us.”

“Now that I’ve got you here in front of me, I wanted to thank you for still doing the party even though Alicia has seemed to put a damper on things.” His eyes rolled upward.

“Speaking of her, we saw Craig was in town. I think he’s staying at the Old Train Station, but I didn’t say anything to Coke. I don’t want her to know in case she talks to him and seems nervous. If he’s anything like Alicia says, he’ll catch on that Coke knows something.” I gnawed my lip and wondered if I was doing the right thing by staying silent.

“That’s great news. Jerry should be able to serve the restraining order to him.” Bobby Ray thought like I did, but as we all knew, Alicia didn’t.

“She doesn’t want to do that. She said that if he showed up, she’d take care of it.” I could see by the look in Bobby Ray’s eyes that Alicia’s way of dealing with it didn’t sit well with him.

“If he comes within one hundred feet of Mary Elizabeth, I’ll kill the son-of-a…” His voice trailed off. “Well, let’s just say, he’ll not see the light of day.”

“Don’t do anything stupid. But I’ve got to go.” I turned to go back to my car. Over my shoulder, I said, “You’re going to love your party!”

Fifi had waited patiently in the car for me.

“You have no idea how glad I am that it wasn’t Bobby Ray but, on the other hand, how stressed I am that it’s not.” I talked to her like she was human.

She wagged her tail and went to take her spot on the door handle to pop her head out the window on our short drive to the sheriff’s department, which had been a place of controversy and a sore spot lately in our community.

The department was located in the courthouse—well, in the back of the courthouse. With the increased population due to the fact that camping, hiking, and all outdoor activities had really become popular over the last couple of years, any sort of real estate had really picked up, making the lines at the courthouse much longer than in years past.

Granted, we had one circuit clerk with one deputy along with one county clerk with one deputy. Both positions were elected. Mayor Courtney Mackenzie had been getting so much angst from the citizens about how long the lines were to just pay car taxes. With increased population came increased traffic and taxes.

This was a problem. When a town grew, the government side needed to grow, and that meant they either needed to expand the courthouse offices by building on, which wasn’t possible because there was no land on either side, or get rid of some of the things in the courthouse, which meant the sheriff’s department.

And that’s where Hank’s office was located. Here was the kicker. There was no money in the budget to do any of the ideas that were suggested, but if they found something to cut, it would be better. That’s where Hank’s job came in. He was the detective in the department and had taken that job on full-time a couple of years ago after he’d decided to leave the rangers.

When I opened the door to the department and stepped inside the entry, I could see through the small window where Agnes Swift was sitting. There were a few boxes on her desk, and she was filling them with files.

“What’s going on?” I asked through the window.

“Jerry Truman quit today. It’s been a heck of a day, so I figured I’d just do some file cleanup so I appear to be busy.” Fifi heard her and barked. “Is that Fifi?” Agnes asked since she couldn’t see anything but my face. She walked over to the entrance door and opened it, letting us in the department.

“How did Hank take it?” I asked and ignored my phone when I saw it was Mary Elizabeth. I was sure it was something about Alicia, and right now I was worried about Hank.

Hank had already told me he was thinking of quitting and going in with Jerry on some sort of private investigation job, but I wasn’t so sure Hank had the heart for it, or else he would’ve probably jumped at it.

“He’s back there right now with Judge Executive Gab Hemmer and Al.” Her saggy jowls swayed when she frowned. She patted Fifi as best as she could.

Agnes was Hank’s granny and in her eighties. She was so sweet and feisty, but I could see she was slowing down a bit.

“Al, huh?” I gave a slight shake of my head. Al had been hired on by the mayor as a favor to his uncle, Gab.

“Yep. I guess they are getting a game plan for what they need to do, and if they walk out of there with the five-point stuck on Al, you’re going to see one mad old lady.” She referred to herself. The dispatch phone rang. “Hold on.”

I stood there with Fifi next to me and waited for her to finish up on her call. I really wanted to talk to Hank about the break-in, but maybe I should just wait until whatever was happening in the back room happened. Or just go back to the campground to see if Dottie had seen anything on the tapes.

I pulled out my phone to see if by chance I had missed a text from her, but I hadn’t. If she did see something on the security cameras, she would’ve already called or texted.

I slipped the phone back into my pocket when I overheard Agnes.

“Did you say murder?” Agnes questioned. “I’ll send someone now.” She put the phone on the hook with one hand and grabbed the walkie-talkie with the other. “Hank, we’ve got a 10-54 with a possible 10-66 on the scene at the Old Train Station Motel.”

Agnes sure didn’t show her age as she rattled off the radio codes for whatever call she’d gotten on the dispatch number.

A sudden commotion came from the back of the department before I heard several heavy footsteps coming down the hall.

Fifi started to yip and yap with the excitement. Quickly, I picked her up just as Hank, Al, and Gab turned the corner from the hallway.

“You said murder and possible suspect?” Hank had taken a fast look at me before he shifted his focus to Agnes. The three men headed over to Agnes’s desk.

“Yes. That’s what Coke said.” She looked at Al before she looked at Gab. “We don’t have an active sheriff. What are you going to do now that it’s your job to get someone there?”

Judge Executive had the authority to appoint a sheriff or any elected official when needed. He reached behind Agnes and grabbed the five-point sheriff’s star.

I gulped in fear of Hank’s reaction if Gab were to pin it on his nephew.

“I guess you’re the man,” Gab said and turned, smacking the badge onto Hank’s chest. “At least until we can figure this out.”

Hank’s mouth fell open, as did mine.

“Get on with it.” Agnes smacked him on the back with a big grin on her face.

Chapter 10

The usual drive out to the Old Train Station was always a much-welcomed drive north of town. There were a few windy roads that showcased the peaks and valleys of the national park. Sometimes, travelers were forced to stop because the view was so spectacular that they had to take the moment to try to capture it on their cameras.

On this particular occasion, I had to admit I didn’t pay a bit of attention to any of that beauty. My hands gripped the steering wheel, and my eyes stayed on Hank’s taillights. It wasn’t until we both pulled in and jumped out of our cars did I notice what he’d stuck on his belt.

The sheriff’s badge.

It glistened in the sun as he stood with his fists resting on his hips.

“Where are they?” He glanced around when we didn’t see anything or anyone moving about. He had his bag he used for investigations in his grip. It contained the various things he needed for the initial intake of the scene before he declared something more needed to be done.

There was a loud whistle that rang out, catching our attention.

“Is that Queenie?” I asked, putting my hands up over my brows to shield my eyes from the sun when I noticed everyone was near the tree line where the trailhead was located.

“Over here!” she yelled, and as she came into focus, I could see that Betts was there as well as Mary Elizabeth.

“What on earth?” Hank groaned, slipping his fancy sunglasses off his head and sticking one of the earpieces in the neckline of his shirt, letting them dangle there.

“I have no idea.” Suddenly, I had the worst vision. “Oh gosh.” I shoved past him as the vision played in my head. “Mary Elizabeth is here. Do you think Craig got to Alicia?”

I hurried across the front of the old motel with Hank on my heels, both of us doing that walking-running sort of hustle as we made our way across the lawn.

“Craig?” Hank asked.

“Yeah. I haven’t had time to tell you, but we saw Craig here, at the diner, but he didn’t see us. I knew he was in town, but Alicia told me not to say anything.” Then Alicia’s words rang in my ears, the words she told me and Mary Elizabeth.

“He told me if I ever left him, he’d kill me. That is, if I don’t get to him first.”

“He told her he was going to kill her if she left him again. He had to know where she was if he was here.” My eyes flashed as soon as my friends came into focus, and there stood Alicia Becker right next to them.

I stopped walking when we got to them, and Hank continued over to where Tex and Coke were standing near some of the fallen brush that had yet to be cleaned up from the winter freeze and a pair of shoes that appeared to be attached to a person buried under a pile of twigs, leaves, and dried-up foliage, like someone had been trying to cover up the body.

The ladies and I stood there watching as Hank opened his bag and pulled some blue latex gloves onto his hands. He bent down.

“I can’t believe it.” Alicia interrupted the silence and stared with cow eyes at me. “Craig is dead.”

“I tried calling you, but you didn’t answer my call.” Mary Elizabeth grabbed my arm and walked me away from the group. “We’ve got a problem.”

“What?” I was almost too afraid to ask.

“Alicia asked me if she could borrow the car so she could run to the Thrifty Nickel thrift shop to look for some old books to make some paper flowers for Abby’s party, and I let her have my keys to my car.” Mary Elizabeth leaned in, her breath hot against my cheek when she whispered, “Next thing I know, I get a call from her saying that Craig is dead. I needed a ride here because she had my car, and Dawn was on a hiking excursion with a group staying at the Milkery. I had to call Betts, and Queenie was with her, so here we are.”

“What’s the trouble?” I asked.

“Alicia.” She grabbed my arm and tried to bring me closer to her, but we were already touching. “She took my car to go to the store. But she called me from here. Why was she here?”

I could see the worry in her eyes. The kind a mother would have for a child.

“Do you think she drove here, and you know…” I asked without asking.

“What do you think?” she asked in a fast Southern tone. “I need you to find out who killed him. I am telling you she doesn’t have it in her to kill him.”

“I don’t know, Mary Elizabeth. She’s got an awful good reason. Not that she should’ve, but if she was here…” I didn’t know all the particulars of where Alicia had been at the time of Craig’s death. It sure didn’t look good for her at first glance.

“You have to do me this favor. I rarely ask anything of you.” Mary Elizabeth’s eyes snapped to mine. “I can’t have her go back to jail. She’ll never survive. She was on a second chance.”

“Second chance?” I snorted out a sarcastic laugh. “It sounds to me like she’s had several chances in life, and I heard that from Bobby Ray.”

“Oh, what does he know? Nothing.” Mary Elizabeth sighed deeply. “Maybelline, I need your help on this. You swear to me you’re going to help out your sister?”

“She’s not my sister,” I said, vehemently denying any sort of claims. “But I love you, so let’s just see what Hank has to say, and I’ll see.” I gave a slight eye-gesture for her to look ahead of us.

Mary Elizabeth straightened up her shoulders and took a step away from me, giving me some space. Her eyes shifted up to where Hank was walking over to us. He had a wallet in his gloved hands.

“Craig Sutton.” He flipped the wallet open and showed me the driver’s license through the clear liner inside the wallet. “Is this the guy Alicia identified at the diner?”

“Yes.” I nodded and could feel the stare of not only Mary Elizabeth but also Alicia off in the distance.

“He’s been hit in the back of the head with a rock. From behind.” Hank gave us the hold-on gesture and walked around us when Al Hemmer and a couple of the other deputies who had driven up walked over.

While he got them up to date, I took the few seconds Mary Elizabeth and I had alone to pepper her with questions.

“Did Alicia say anything more about Craig after I left? Did she tell you she was going to come here and see him? Did he show up there?” I asked. “Because you and I both heard her say that if she ever left him, he’d kill her. Then she quickly followed it up by ‘if she didn’t get to him first.’”

“Who said that?” Hank asked.

“I didn’t realize you were standing there.” I sucked in a deep breath. “What are you going to do?”

I tried to ignore his question but knew that he would not let that happen.

“Did Alicia tell you that she would kill him?” Hank managed a deadpan expression when he looked at me. “Mae.”

Mary Elizabeth slid the toe of her shoe over to nudge my foot, like she wanted me to keep quiet.

“I saw that.” Hank pointed to her. “You two are keeping something from me about Alicia, and I need to know what it is.”

“Fine.” I turned to Mary Elizabeth. “I’m sorry. I know that Craig was mean and awful, but there are more ways to handle this situation than death.”

“You don’t know if she did it,” Mary Elizabeth bit back.

“Why are you protecting her?” I questioned. “You’ve never mentioned her.”

“So this is what it boils down to. You’re upset that I had to move on when you are the one who snuck out and left me. Did you think I was going to just sit on my laurels and worry about you? I had to move on.” Mary Elizabeth took a tone with me that I’d never heard before, taking me aback.

“Hello, this is not the time to have this argument. What did Alicia say about Craig that you two are keeping secret?” Hank asked.

“She said that he told her he was going to kill her if she ever left him again, then she said to us that it wasn’t going to happen if she got to him first.” My words hung in the air for a few too many seconds before Hank turned around and marched over to where Betts and Queenie seemed to be comforting Alicia.

“Now you did it.” Mary Elizabeth’s face turned crimson with fury.

“Why are you protecting her?” I asked.

“Because she needs protecting!” Mary Elizabeth screamed and darted off to Alicia when Alicia seemed to be crying more after Hank took her by the elbow and started walking her toward the parking lot of the Old Train Station.

“Thanks, sis.” Alicia addressed me with a sharp tone in her voice as they passed by me. “Mary Elizabeth, I need a lawyer. Mr. Sheriff here thinks I killed Craig.”

“Don’t you worry. I’ve got just the lawyer!” Mary Elizabeth was already on her phone, punching at the glass screen. “Sheriff? What is she talking about? If Hank thought his job was in jeopardy before, now that he’s taken her into custody, I’m going to the mayor myself to tell her that he needs to be removed.”

“Are you listening to yourself?” I asked. “Why in the world would anyone else in Normal have any reason to kill him? She even said she was going to kill him before he got to her. Do I need to remind you that you’re the one who said that we are in trouble?”

“You don’t understand. Wait until you have your own children, then tell me you know what it feels like to have one of your children hurting.” Mary Elizabeth teared up and brought the phone to her ear. “Ava, it’s Mary Elizabeth.”

She’d called Ava Cox, a lawyer who had been part of my past life when I was married to Paul and who now lived in Normal. Recently, she’d opened an office here out of her home then moved it to an office down in the business district part of town.

Initially, she was going to try to go into the courthouse, since she’d be spending a lot of time down there with clients in and out of the courtroom or, like now, going down to the department for questioning.

I walked away to give Mary Elizabeth some space and let her talk to Ava about what needed to be done next.

“This is a turn of events,” Betts said when I walked up to them. Queenie shook her head and kept her eyes on the brush with Craig still partially hidden under it.

“Do we know any particulars?” I asked.

“He was murdered with a rock.” Queenie shivered as though she pictured it in her head when she said it.

“I mean, anything else besides the obvious. Something we can go on to prove Alicia didn’t kill him.” I could feel my heart tugging toward Mary Elizabeth. She needed a rock, and I’d been that rock for the past couple of years.

She needed me now.

“I don’t know. Maybe Coke knows something.” Betts made a good suggestion.

The three of us waited a little while longer before I caught Coke’s eye. She was still near the trailhead talking to Al. She appeared to be giving her statement while he wrote it down.

My phone rang. I pulled it out of my pocket and noticed it was Emmalyn Truman, the ex-sheriff’s wife. I excused myself to take it.

“Hi, Emmalyn.” I knew she was calling about the murder. They had a police scanner just like everyone else in Normal, and by the size of the crowd that was growing in the parking lot of the motel, I could see word had spread fast.

“What on earth is going on? I heard over the scanner there was a dead body on the trail at the Old Train Station then heard Sheriff Sharp was there and needed assistance. Sheriff Sharp?” she asked. “That didn’t take long.”

“It all happened so fast. I went down to the department, and while I was there, Agnes took the call about the body. Judge Hemmer was there, and he literally stuck Jerry’s badge on Hank’s chest, appointing him sheriff until they figure out what to do.” I knew this wasn’t going to go over all that well, but Jerry leaving abruptly probably wasn’t the best thing to do on his part.

“Good for Hank. Tell me about this murder.” She wanted all the details, but I wasn’t sure Hank would want her to know them.

“I don’t know anything right now. I showed up here, and it looks like someone from out of town.” It was the truth and just vaguely what I knew.

“No one you know?” she asked. There was some whispering going on in the background, and I knew it had to be Jerry asking her to ask me some questions. “How was he killed?”

“I think Colonel Holz just pulled up. I’ll call you back.” That wasn’t a lie either.

Colonel Holz, the coroner, had pulled up in the parking lot and proceeded to get the church cart out of the back of the hearse. That’s when it hit me that this was for real a true death. Murder, in this case.

The gals had joined me, and we watched in silence while he navigated the gurney through the grass, passing us on his way to the body.

“What did Ava say?” I asked Mary Elizabeth.

“She said she’d head on down there and make sure Alicia didn’t say anything.” The worry lines on Mary Elizabeth’s face deepened as she frowned. “I know what Alicia told us, but I know her heart. Just like I know your heart. She didn’t kill him, even though she should’ve the first time he put a hand on her.”

Coke stepped away from Al when Colonel stopped the gurney next to them. I waved her over when she glanced our way.

“What happened?” I asked.

“Do y’all want to come have a cup of coffee?” she asked and held her hands in front of her. “I need some coffee.”

“Honey,” Mary Elizabeth put her hands on Coke. “You’re shaking like a leaf. Are you sure you need more caffeine?”

“Yes. I need it to stop my nerves.” Coke let go of a heavy sigh. “I can tell you all about it.”

I gave one last look over my shoulder as Colonel and Al moved the brush to retrieve the body and put Craig in the body bag before they moved him to the gurney.

My mind was so full of thoughts after I left the Old Train Station. I was hardly able to focus on the engagement party after what Coke had told me, Queenie, Betts, and Mary Elizabeth about how Craig had been found.

Many things were swirling around, and I couldn’t really focus on one. The only thing I did know was that there was a small window where Alicia just might be telling the truth. That she didn’t kill Craig.

Dottie Swaggert, Bobby Ray, Abby, and Henry were sitting by the community firepit after I made it back to the campground. They all sat up a little straighter when they saw me and Fifi driving past them.

Dottie and Abby had already made it to my camper before I even got the car in park.

“What on earth happened?” Dottie asked.

“I told Dottie that we just need to wait on having the engagement party until after this is cleared up. I heard they have someone in custody and charged with the murder.” Abby said something I didn’t know.

“Charged?” I questioned. “Alicia was charged?”

“Was it Alicia?” Dottie gasped.

“I don’t have all the details from her, but according to Coke,” I said as the two of them followed me and Fifi into my camper, “Craig Sutton had come into the diner looking for Mary Elizabeth. She said he acted a little sketchy when she questioned him on how he knew Mary Elizabeth. He said he was someone from her past, and he showed her the article done on the Milkery. Then he asked her about the trail and me.” I poured some kibble in Fifi’s bowl.

Dottie and Abby sat down on the little couch.

Dottie said, “Before you get too involved in the story, I wanted to tell you while it was on my mind that I went through the security tapes and didn’t see nary a soul near the storage units. The tapes did roll back to the forty-eight hours, so I’m guessing this was before that.” Dottie’s findings didn’t surprise me all that much. “Go on. What else did Coke say about Craig?”

“She told him that he just missed me and my foster sister, that we were in the diner.” I forced myself to put the issues with the storage unit in the back of my head and focus on what I was telling them.

“After he questioned her about it, she ended up telling him about Tex and how he was a chiropractor in the woods my foster sister and I were going to see. In reality, we’d already been to see him and the diner was our last stop, until we left because Alicia did see him.” I stopped talking when Abby put her hand up like she wanted to be called on.

“Sorry to interrupt, but this sounds like we need to look into this.” She got up and opened the junk drawer in my small kitchen, taking out the notebook and pen we used to put down various little clues that we’d collected in other cases we’d stuck our noses into when we shouldn’t’ve.

We couldn’t help it. It was like the Laundry Club Ladies and I were a magnet for these types of crimes. And was it wrong that we loved trying to figure them out like puzzles?

“Go ahead.” Abby urged me to continue as she sat back down, ready to write down what I would say.

“This is gonna get good.” Dottie smiled and vigorously rubbed her hands together.

“Here’s where it gets a little confusing, and why I think we need to look into this a little more.” I opened my little refrigerator and took out bottles of water for everyone. I unscrewed the top of mine and wet my whistle before I continued. “Coke said Craig was going to go see if we were still seeing Tex. Keep in mind, I took Alicia back to the Milkery. Mary Elizabeth told me that after I left the Milkery, Alicia asked to use her car to run to the Thrifty Nickel.”

I had left out the reason why she wanted to stop by the thrift store because I didn’t want to ruin any sort of plans for Abby.

“That’s when she got a call from Alicia saying Craig was dead, and then Mary Elizabeth got a ride with Betts to the Old Train Station.” Every word I said was met with some sort of gasp or wide-eyed look from Dottie or Abby or both. “But here’s what Coke said. She said that Tex was the one who stumbled upon Alicia and Craig. She said Tex told her Alicia was standing over top of Craig’s lifeless body, holding the rock with the blood and hair on it. She told Tex she just found him there and picked up the rock.”

“Do you believe her?” Abby asked.

“Have you talked to her?” Dottie asked Abby. Abby shook her head. “That woman’s butter has slid off her biscuit. If anyone killed Craig Sutton, it was her.”

“I’m not so sure, and for Mary Elizabeth’s sake, we need to look into it. I think I need to go see Alicia and Tex, both of whom saw the body.” I gestured for Abby to write it down in the notebook. “We need to change the wipe-off board from figuring out Alicia’s past to figuring out how to keep her out of jail.”

“It looks like she’s already in jail and arrested.” Abby lifted up her phone, where she’d gotten an alert.

“What does it say?” I asked.

“Breaking news from the Normal Gazette. The body of Craig Sutton from Perrysburg, Kentucky, was found dead on a trail in the Daniel Boone National Park in Normal, Kentucky. It is believed the victim was bludgeoned to death by a rock. The details are unclear, but the victim’s estranged wife was found at the scene by a local man. According to an unnamed source, the wife was holding a rock that appeared to have blood on it.” Abby put the phone down from her face. “Written by Violet Rhinehammer.”

My phone chirped with a text. I looked at it. It was Jami Mackenzie, the exact person I had on my list to call about Alicia Becker when I needed to know more information about Alicia.

Before I could text her back, there was a knock on the camper door before it was opened.

“Mae?” Hank took the step up into the camper, and Chester darted in past him.

“Hey, Sheriff.” Abby grinned from ear to ear. “I heard you were the big man in the department now. Violet Rhinehammer was all over it. Tweeting it with the hashtag ‘new sheriff in town.’”

“Did she really?” I asked and walked over to kiss him. I looked him in the eyes because it was there that I could see where his heart was, and there was already some exhaustion in them. I answered myself. “Of course she did. But I see that you’ve arrested Alicia. Is that right?” I gave him a kiss on the lips.

“Thank you. I needed that.” His eyes softened when he looked at me.

“Welp, I’m not going to sit here and watch you two play kissy-face.” Dottie stood up and grabbed the notebook. “Abby and I are leaving. We will catch up with you in the morning for coffee at the Laundry Club.”

“Is that code for ‘all y’all are going to be sticking your nose into this’?” He looked each one of us square in the eyes.

“Don’t be looking at me. I’m getting married.” Abby wiggled her hand in the air, reminding me of the break-in at my storage unit. “Have you heard?”

“You’re a mess.” Dottie pointed for Abby to get out of the camper. “Pick me up in the mornin’. I’ll tell Henry to keep an eye on the place while we are gone.”

“We can postpone the engagement party tomorrow night. I’ll call you.” Abby tried to get it all out before Dottie practically shoved her out the door.

Hank opened the outside door of the campervan so the screen was the only door open.

“Do you have a beer? I need one.” He bent down and opened the refrigerator door.

“Of course I do, but it’s out in the cooler.” During the winter months, it was easy to keep things nice and cold in a cooler. The temperatures were perfect for it, and it was hard to keep the refrigerator stocked with cold items due to lack of space. “Soon, I’m going to have to bring them in.”

Even though he’d already gone out the door to grab a couple of bottles, he still heard me.

“You’re stressed.” I patted the couch next to me.

“Just a little.” He looked under the sink to get a couple of dog bones. “This will keep them busy.”

Fifi and Chester danced around with delight. Normally, they’d jump up next to us, leaving us little room to snuggle or even talk without them wanting attention. Tonight, I could see it was Hank who needed the attention.

“Talk fast.” I laughed as Chester ripped into the bone, teasing about the time we had until the dog had the full thing devoured.

“Before all that, why were you at the sheriff’s department this afternoon?” he asked then twisted off the top of the bottle and handed it to me.

“Someone broke into my storage unit. Dottie looked at the security tapes and didn’t see anyone.” I could see in Hank’s eyes the worry as he adjusted how he was sitting on the couch. “But I don’t think it was actually anyone to be worried about. There are only clothing boxes in there, and it looked like they were just opened and dumped out. Maybe it was some drifters looking for clothes or anything to pawn.”

I wanted to ease any sort of unnecessary worry from his plate, which was already full.

“You didn’t have anything in there worth anything? None of your fancy purses? Jewelry?” he asked.

“No. Not a thing.” I gulped back the idea that someone might’ve known I’d given Bobby Ray that diamond, but I was sure he didn’t tell anyone. “I was actually coming to the department to see if there was any chance we could get some prints lifted, but it can totally wait. Or don’t even worry about it. Now that I think about it, I’m sure it has to be some drifter who needed some clothes.”

I wasn’t sure if I was trying to convince Hank or convince myself, but deep down, I had a little worry that someone knew about the diamond.

“Did you really know what was in the boxes?” Hank asked. Then he followed up with “Because you’ve always said they were just sent full of clothes.”

“I went through them here and there. Nothing but clothes that I could see.” And a diamond Paul had given me, I thought but kept to myself since there was no reason to put anything else on Hank’s plate. “I’ll leave it all the way it is. I have some extra locks I can put on it. When you get Craig’s case solved, then you can look into it.”

“I think Alicia did it.” He shifted the subject and sipped on his beer.

“Really?” I asked.

“Yeah. She didn’t deny she went over to the Old Train Station to see him. But when she didn’t find him, instead of leaving, she said she was going to wait then decided to go see Tex and possibly get another Reiki session. That’s when she claimed she found Craig on the trail. She said she bent down to shake him and saw the rock. According to her statement, she picked up the rock and stood up. That’s when Tex came up on her after he heard some rumblings.”

“Rumblings?” I asked. “Leaves rustling? Heavy footsteps? Fussing?”

“Arguing. That’s where his recollection of events comes in. He said he walked through the woods, and that’s when he saw Alicia standing over top of Craig’s body with the rock in her hands. And he overheard her mutter, ‘You got your due.’”

I could feel my face contort into all the emotions until it finally settled with a slight gasp.

“Really? I know she said those things to me and Mary Elizabeth, but she’s so scared of him that I’m not sure she could’ve stood up to him.” I just didn’t see that in Alicia.

“We have an appointment scheduled for a psychologist to visit with her. She and Ava agreed to it. I’ve also got her records subpoenaed for her medical history, and Al will head to Perrysburg to visit the women’s shelter she was in before Craig got to her this time. I will help her get the murder charges lessened due to the nature of their relationship and his abuse.” Hank reached over and rubbed my leg. “I can’t ever imagine anything like that ever happening to you.”

“I don’t think I’d ever let it happen to me.” I shifted to my side and snuggled up close to him. His heartbeat drummed in my ear. “Tell me about your first day as sheriff.”

Happily, I listened to him talk about how he was taken aback by the appointment from Gab and how Al was really stepping up to the plate. He also talked about how this would impact his decision to leave once they filled the position full-time or after someone else got elected.

“But what if you stayed in the job?” I asked with a joyful sigh when he put his bottle down and held me tighter. I smiled when I felt his chin rest on the top of my head. “It would really work.” My thoughts were like puzzle pieces, and suddenly, the problem with him being a detective and the issues of needing money for the budget for the new department clipped together.

I pushed myself up and broke free of his arms.

“This is actually perfect. You stay the sheriff, and you do that job and all the detective work, since that’s what you’re best at. Jerry didn’t have the education you have, so he could only do the sheriff’s part of the job, whereas you can do both or at least train deputies to do both. Like Al.” I couldn’t believe how the simple act of Jerry stepping aside solved all the problems surrounding Hank’s job. “You said Al has been great. That’s awesome. He can be a deputy, and when someone or something needs to have a detective attached to it, you’ve got the resources.”

“I never even thought about that.” He scratched his chin and looked out into the camper. He gnawed on the inside of his cheek, a sure sign he was putting it all together. “Really not a bad idea at all.” He turned to me and dragged me back into his arms. “You are a smart cookie, Mae West. I’m lucky to have you.”

Chapter 11

“I can’t ever imagine anything like that ever happening to you.”

I popped up out of bed from the nightmare I was having, and Hank’s words that he’d actually said to me last night jolted me awake.

It wasn’t the same scenario in my nightmare but the same words.

Fifi yipped and jumped to her feet.

“Did I startle you?” I reached over and picked her up, bringing her to my chest to give her some comfort. “I’m sorry. But what if Alicia did have someone else who loved her or even cared for her that could’ve possibly killed Craig?”

I looked at the clock and realized there were just a few more minutes left until my alarm clock would go off. There was no way I was going to be able to go back to sleep.

“It’s a real possibility.” I knew Hank was going to have to let Alicia out of jail after he kept her there for the legal period of time for questioning if he didn’t formally charge her, which he hadn’t yet. Violet had gotten that wrong.

I was glad Hank was able to look at this position with a strong head on his shoulders and lead with not only the clues but the facts of the case, and that he was open to the possibility there could be others.

This did give me some time to explore other options. This was one thing I could do for Mary Elizabeth after everything she’d done for me. I could see in her face yesterday the worry and fear that had to have been knotted up inside of her.

“I think we will go see Alicia today at the department.” It was one of the few stops I had thought about before I went to bed. “And we need to go see Tex. Which I can do after I stop in the Cookie Crumble to check on the engagement cake order for Bobby Ray and Abby’s engagement party tonight.”

Though Abby had actually suggested we postpone it, the Laundry Club Ladies and I had texted back and forth last night and decided not to cancel. Life still had to happen, and we could all put the murder aside for a few hours. Maybe it was the distraction Mary Elizabeth needed.

With the sun already popping up, I could feel the warmth of the rays coming through my bedroom window. It was so nice to be able to wear flip-flops and not have to tie up the winter boots to take Fifi out.

The coffeepot had already brewed from the timer, and with a nice steamy cup in my hand, I opened the door to let Fifi out. She darted out and did her morning ritual of running around smelling anything and everything.

I sat down on the picnic table and made a mental note of all the things that needed to be done today for the party. I also factored in how much time it would take and how much time it would allow me to be away from the campground so I could also look into Alicia’s case.

It would be cutting it close, but if I hustled and didn’t dillydally chitchatting at each stop about everything but why I stopped, I could go talk to Alicia, see Tex and get his account of what he saw from his own lips, and check in on Mary Elizabeth to make sure she was not only safe but okay.

Since I’d not gotten any emergency calls or text messages from her, I had to assume she was doing fine. Or as fine as she could be.

After Fifi had done her morning routine and I’d gotten dressed, replacing my flip-flops with my tennis shoes, I quickly headed out of the campground and toward the Cookie Crumble, where I wasn’t shocked to see a line. Christine Watson and her sister, Mallory, had opened the very first bakery in Normal a few years ago, right after I’d come to town. Christine was always the one there. I rarely saw Mallory and decided to ask Christine about her while I waited for her to grab the cake I’d ordered.

“For Christmas, she decided to give me her part of the ownership, since she’s never here.” She smiled at me, causing the freckles along her nose to run together into one big brown spot. Her long brown hair hung loosely around her face, giving me serious jealousy pangs.

“I was so shocked.” Christine walked down the line of boxes sitting on the counter behind her until she got to the one with my name on it. She brought it over to the register and lifted the lid so I could see inside at the perfect cake she’d made. “It was the best gift she could’ve given me, since she’s never here or even did anything for it. The reason she joined me in the first place was because she knew I could bake, and she had the money I needed to fund the start-up. But now that I’m here and doing so well, she said it wasn’t right to take her part when she didn’t even do anything for it.”

“That’s so nice of her.” I loved how thoughtful the two sisters were to each other. “And she’s right. You create masterpieces.”

The three-tiered round cake had a white smooth outside with gold frosting along the top and had the drip effect on the outside, as well as a thin gold stripe around the very bottom. On the top of the cake, she had placed six light-pink roses and some sprigs of baby’s breath along the back half, with a gold 3D “Engaged” sign in the middle. On the front half of the top of the cake, in front of the sign, she had three pink macaroons that I was sure represented the tasty treats Abby always bought when she came to the Cookie Crumble. They were next to a small car-shaped cookie that represented Bobby Ray. She had placed two pink roses at the base of the cake with two more pink macaroons propped up next to them.

“I thought it represented them well.” She handed me the receipt since I’d prepaid.

“I’ve got a few errands to run.” I picked it up. “Will it be okay in the car?”

“Yes. I suggest you put it on the floorboard so it won’t be in the direct sunlight, and leave your windows cracked if you are out too long.” She looked past me and out the window. “I know it’s not supposed to get over sixty-three degrees today, but the closed-up car gets so much hotter.”

“Thanks. I’ll do that.” I didn’t want to take up any more time since I was on a schedule, but the small television behind her grabbed my attention when I noticed Hank on there. “Do you mind turning that up?”

“Sure.” She turned around and grabbed the remote then handed it over the counter to me. “You can adjust it how you like.”

She moved on to the next customer, and I stepped aside, pointing the remote at the TV.

I set the remote down and got my phone from my pocket to text Buck. I wanted to make sure he was coming to the engagement party and, if he was, that he would bring the pewter dishes I’d gotten Bobby Ray with him.

He quickly sent back a text with a thumbs-up emoji.

“Currently, we have a couple of people we are questioning. We do not have anyone in custody who is charged with the murder. This is a very active investigation, and as the current sheriff with a detective background, I have all my people doing exactly what needs to be done in order to bring this case quickly to close.” I smiled when I heard him use my suggestion to address the public.

“I can’t believe Hank is sheriff.” Christine had finished up with the customer and came over to watch the news report. “That’s great. You know, I almost forgot. Did Mary Elizabeth’s friend ever find her?”

“What friend?” I asked.

“This guy came in and said he was friends with Mary Elizabeth’s foster daughter. When I told him I knew you, he said it wasn’t Mae.” She shrugged.

“Did he mention who it was by name?” I asked.

“Alice or Amy?”

“Alicia?” I asked.

She jutted her finger toward me. “Yes! Alicia. But I told him there wasn’t anyone named Alicia here.”

I pulled out my phone and quickly googled Craig’s name so I could bring up the mug shot that I’d found on Jail Tracker.

“Is this him?” I asked.

“It looks like him but different.” She moved her head side to side as though she were looking at him from different angles. “It’s the eyes, but he did have on a baseball hat.” She leaned on the counter. “Who is Alicia?”

“She was one of Mary Elizabeth foster kids after me. She is in town, staying with Mary Elizabeth.” I didn’t give Christine any details about how she’d been beat up, because it really didn’t matter at this point. “Did you tell him how to find her?” I asked.

“I was going to, but then he asked if there were any places to stay, and I didn’t even think to tell him the Milkery. So I pointed him the direction of the Old Train Station since it’s just right up the road.” She gestured that way. “What’s wrong? You have a funny look on your face.”

“He’s actually the guy that was murdered there.” I watched as her face turned to shock.

“Wow. Alicia?” she asked.

“Not sure. That’s why I’m on my way over to see Tex. He found Alicia standing over the body. And you know me. I’m doing all I can to not put any more stress on Mary Elizabeth.” I gently lifted up the cake box. “So this engagement party tonight will be a nice distraction.”

“Goodness. I had no idea all of that was happening. I’m so sorry.” Christine was so sweet. “Is there anything I can do?”

“Just be at the party tonight, and let’s celebrate something good,” I told her and waved goodbye as another customer stepped up to order and as I remembered I’d yet to get the happy couple a present from me and Hank.

I’d been thinking so much about Alicia and the murder, I wasn’t on my game, and the little bit Christine had told me about seeing Craig made a lot of sense regarding why he’d chosen to stay at the Old Train Station. But Alicia had mentioned the Milkery article, and if he’d read it, he’d have known exactly where it was located and how to get in touch with Mary Elizabeth. That settled on my mind, and I noodled it the entire way over to the Old Train Station, where I found Coke weeding in her garden that was between the trail and the motel building.

“You always have the best flowers.” I walked up behind her.

“My stars, Mae.” She jerked up and looked at me from underneath the large-brimmed straw hat. She had her blond hair pulled back in a low ponytail, but I swore the ends were still flipped up. She pushed herself up to standing and brushed her hands down the front of her overalls, leaving a mud streak on them. “You scared me to death. My mind is on warp speed with a killer running around here. I know Hank has that girl you were with in custody, but it still don’t make me feel any better, and I’m constantly glancing over my shoulder.”

“I didn’t mean to scare you. I am on my way over to see Tex and get his take on what happened.” I pointed to the garden. “What are you digging into?”

“Some of my tulips didn’t come up this year.” She glanced along the line row, where the leaves were popping up here and there. “It’s strange, so I’m planting more on top of those just in case. I can’t stand these loners. I like them in bunches.”

“They are gorgeous no matter what. You have a green thumb.” I held mine up. “I don’t have any sort of green in mine,” I teased.

“You have the mind to create businesses—speaking of which, how on earth did you get Gab to appoint Hank as sheriff and not his nephew?” she asked, adjusting the hat so the sun didn’t shine in her eyes.

“I didn’t. He just did it, and I’m glad too. Which is another reason why I want to talk to Tex. To see if he remembered anything about Alicia or before. Hank said Tex overheard some fussing, which would make sense if it was Alicia, but Alicia claims she found him that way.” My lips twisted into a cynical smile. “Seems crazy, I know. It’s going to be hard to prove Alicia didn’t do it, but Mary Elizabeth thinks she doesn’t have it in her.”

“Honey, I didn’t get the particulars from the two of you when you came in the diner that afternoon, but by the looks of her face, someone did a number on it. It doesn’t take a brain surgeon to put two and two together, especially now that Violet Rhinehammer has sniffed around and posted their entire courtship on the society page.”

“She what?” My mouth snapped shut, stunned by what Coke had told me.

“Mm-hmm, got it right here.” She dug down in the tulip bulb bucket, which she had lined with the day’s paper. “I try to recycle the best I can.” She took all the bulbs out of the paper and gently put them back in the unlined bucket before she handed me the paper.

“I’ll be.” I looked at the headline. “She was supposed to write about Abby and Bobby Ray. There’s nothing in here about their engagement party.” I turned the paper over to the other side to see if anything was there. Nothing. I could feel the heat boiling up in me. “I’m beside myself.” I shook the paper. “Can I keep this?”

“Sure you can. But you and I both know Violet is looking to join the big networks any way she can, so she’s going to cut one story to publish a bigger one.” Coke didn’t tell me anything I already didn’t know.

“Well, it doesn’t make it right,” I told her and stormed off in the direction of the trail, leaving Coke to finish planting the bulbs while I decided on my next move with Violet Rhinehammer.

The crime scene was still taped off, and there was a deputy there along with a few other rangers who appeared to be carefully scouring the scene for something. Where Tex had found Alicia and Craig was the spot I’d leave the actual trail to head off into the woods so I could get to his place. Since there was no direct route to Tex’s secluded compound, there were several other ways to get there, and today, backtracking was going to be the one.

It was a gorgeous day, and even though I’d not figured this little off-the-beaten-path excursion into the allotted time I’d given myself, I hustled down the trail. The route took me out of my way twenty more minutes than I had wanted, but I knew if I headed down to the stream where there was a picnic area for hikers to stop and enjoy themselves, I could walk a few hundred feet along the stream going north and cut up through the woods to a path Tex and his groupies had made on their way from their camp to the stream for bathing and fishing for trout.

The trail was amazing. It had to be one of the most picturesque trails in more recent discoveries. The Old Train Station sat upon one of the mountains, and the trail followed down to the cascades where Cat Camp Creek Trail and Tear Trail met.

The cascades were the destination for this particular trail, but the views getting there were the most spectacular. It was hard for me not to stop to gawk at the beauty when there was a break in the trees.

Of course on this particular day, Mother Nature knew I had a timeline to adhere to, but she didn’t care. She was showing off with the bright sun bursting over all the forest, which showed many peaks and valleys where the trees were going from the lime-green buds to deep-green leaves. The transition was music to the eyes.

The wildflowers that danced to Mother’s Nature music included vibrant-orange poppies, purple coneflowers, scarlet flax, dwarf blue cornflowers, and purple prairie clovers, which spanned for as long as the eyes could take in.

Not too far from there, I could see one of the major destinations the teenage girls and their friends had flocked to over the years to get the perfect social media photo, the black-eyed Susan field that in the late summer turned into a sunflower field. They did make a lovely backdrop for photos, and today, the field looked especially bright.

The trickling noise of water told me I was getting closer to the cascades and would soon make the sharp right turn along the banks of the water to head up to the camp, where I hoped Tex would be now that I’d gone through all of this trouble to talk to him.

It would be much easier if he had a cell phone, but he didn’t believe in that type of communication.

There were a few people walking along the banks and in the water, as the shelf of limestone rocks created a nice long waterfall at varying levels before the water landed in a pool. The huge rocks in the water were moss-covered and, I was sure, slimy, but they were gorgeous and took out most of the algae from the water, making it a nice crystal blue. Or maybe it was the bright blue sky and bold sun that created the glass effect atop the water. Either way, the cascades and the three trails that came together in this particular spot had done their job.

It brought several happy tourists to exactly what it promised if they stayed on the trail.

Too bad the off-trail I was now treading on was full of thorns, dead tree limbs that’d probably been there for a lot of years, and strange noises. It wasn’t like the nicely manicured trails taken care of by the national park.

It took me much longer and set me back even more, making me think about who I truly could cut out of my list of people to see so I could get back to the campground and make sure everything was perfect for the engagement party.

Those ideas quickly left when I saw the clearing ahead and that someone was on Tex’s table.

The sound of my feet crunching along the way got his attention, and when he saw it was me, there was a big grin on his face.

True to himself, he was shirtless, and the sun had already started to give him the tan skin that I was used to seeing him with when I first met him. It had faded some over the winter, but I was confident with the upcoming summer, he wouldn’t disappoint in his sunbathing game.

He gave a nod with his chin and said something to his helper. The helper took over working on the patient.

Tex started making his way over to meet me but paused to grab his guitar. He strummed a few tunes on his way over.

His cutoff shorts had seen better days, or maybe they’d just been worn too many days in a row. It amazed me how talented the man was, yet he didn’t bother owning a business outfit.

“Good morning to you, Mae. Why on earth are you using the back door?” He teased about the way I’d come, the longest way here.

“Exactly why I am here.” I smiled. “Good to see you. Is Glenda here?” I looked around him.

“Nope. In the Pamper Camper again today.” He strummed another chord before he put the guitar to his side. “You here about that dead man?”

“Yes.”

“I heard the woman was some sort of ward to Mary Elizabeth.” Tex’s words showed his age when he called Alicia a ward.

“You mean foster child.” I felt the need to correct him, since I, too, had been a ward of the state and hated hearing that.

“Oh, sorry. I know you’re sensitive to that.” His brows furrowed. “What can I help you with?” he asked.

“I understand you overheard someone, or specifically Alicia and Craig, fussing before you found them.” I let the ending of what happened open for him to fill in.

“I didn’t say it was Alicia or Craig, since I’d never heard Craig speak. But I do know it was a man’s voice. The other I’m not sure. It was more of a muffled tone. It was pretty loud because I heard it from all the way back here.” His body twisted, and he looked back at his camp.

“You mean you didn’t actually see Alicia and Craig arguing?” I asked.

“No. I heard a man yelling about a picture, and it was so loud that that’s when I started to make my way over there. I had stopped about halfway there because I didn’t hear anything. I was about to turn back, then I heard some twigs breaking, so I knew someone was still there.” He shrugged. “That’s when I forged ahead and decided to see what was going on. That’s when I found Alicia with the rock.”

“How did she seem?” I asked.

“Like I told Hank, she seemed out of it. Kinda shocked. When I called out to her, she dropped the rock and nearly collapsed. I ran over when I noticed she was out of it, in time to take her into my arms. That’s when I saw the man on the ground.” Tex frowned and looked down before he slid his gaze up to me. His mouth was slightly open, and the tip of his tongue raked the back of his teeth. “I saw the blood coming from his head. I sat her up against a tree and was going to do CPR on him, but there wasn’t any sign of life, and the blood was gushing.”

“Where on his head did you see the wound?” I asked.

“I didn’t see it.” His answer gave me a pause.

“You didn’t see any wound?” I asked.

“No, he was lying on his back, and the blood had pooled around his head.” Images of Craig lying on his back with the blood pooled around him made me question just how Alicia would have hit him.

“He’s about your height, right?” I asked, knowing they were a good three inches taller than me. “I’m a little taller than Alicia.”

“What are you saying?” Tex asked.

“Will you turn around for a second?” Tex did what I asked. “I’m going to pretend to hit you from behind.” I lifted my hands in the air with my pretend rock and had to stand up on my tippy-toes to even reach the point of Tex’s skull that needed to be hit, even then coming up short. “Now walk forward slowly.”

Tex took a few steps, and I repeated the act of trying to knock him over the head with my pretend rock. That time, I came nowhere near hitting the target.

“Okay, you can turn around,” I told him. I tilted my head and asked, “You’re a doctor. Exactly where on the head does one need to be hit to die?”

“Right about here.” He lifted his arm and patted the area. “And pretty hard too. By the looks of the rock, there was blood and hair on it. So she must’ve hit him pretty hard…” His voice trailed off. “Wait a second—were you trying to see if Alicia could reach that high up?”

“Right. And if he was hit from the back, he was obviously walking away. So whoever hit him did it out of rage, not intent, so it would not be first degree murder, but it would still be murder.” Not that I wanted to take away from the fact Craig was killed, but it could be in Alicia’s defense that it was self-defense, which would lessen the charges. “But it also tells me that since Alicia is shorter than me, she’d practically have had to take a leap in the air just to make it up that high and land it perfectly right here.” I patted on my head the exact same spot Tex showed me where the blow had to be to lead to sudden death.

“I found her over the body,” Tex did remind me.

“Where exactly were you when you heard the arguing?” I asked. He pointed. “Can we walk over there?”

The client was still on the chiropractic table, and that’s the general place Tex was saying he had been when he heard the yelling. I didn’t want to interrupt the client or even invade their privacy, since during these Reiki sessions, the client generally spilled their guts to Tex. I knew I had, and it brought up a lot of memories.

“Did Alicia say anything to you about a picture and Craig beating her up over it?” I asked. “The only reason I ask is because you mentioned you overheard them arguing over a picture.”

“I wish I could tell you what Alicia and I talked about, but there is a thing called doctor-patient confidentiality.” Tex played his card on me to stop that conversation.

It didn’t mean I couldn’t ask Alicia.

“I was standing here.” He stopped and turned to face the woods. He lifted both arms like he was showing a clear path before he took a step. “This exact path.”

I followed him and tried to play out what he had heard from his perspective as he recalled the story.

“I stopped right here on the edge of the woods and listened.” He actually showed me how he leaned in. “Take a listen.”

I leaned in as well, and we stood there for a few seconds.

“Can you hear birds? Rustling tree limbs?” he asked and nodded. “That’s the issue. There are so many sounds that between here and there, they had to have been yelling pretty loud.”

“I’ve got an idea.” I took my phone out of my pocket and scrolled through the screen until I found the clock timer. “How long did you wait between them yelling and then the rustling of the branches or whatever it was that you heard before you decided to go ahead and see what was going on?”

“About a minute.” His lips pressed together.

“I want to time how long it takes you by your standards of walking to get from here to where you found Alicia over Craig’s body.” The reason I mentioned Tex’s standards was the fact that he didn’t wear shoes, and it took him longer to walk in his bare feet than it took me in my tennis shoes.

“You ready?” He looked back at me.

“Go.” I hit the start button on the timer on my phone and let him lead the way.

It wasn’t like it was an easy trek. It wasn’t a straight shot with a clear path. Tex had made sure that when he built his camp, he was well off the beaten path, and it took us about three minutes to get to where the deputies were still hanging out at the crime scene.

“Right through there is the spot.” He pointed through the trees to where the deputies were standing.

I hit the stop button and noticed it was at almost exactly three minutes.

“Okay. Can you do me a favor and wait a couple of minutes right here? I’m going to go back to your camp and stand on the edge of the tree line where you stood and overheard the yelling. You said you heard some branches snapping, which told you someone was still here. I want you to step on some branches.” I twisted around to look for some fallen branches for him to snap with his feet. “Do you think you can do that with your bare feet?” I asked and walked over to pick some up off the ground to bring back to him.

“Of course I can. I’m not sure what this is going to do, though.” His eyes lowered.

“Let me see first, then I’ll tell you.” I laid the branches next to his feet. “Give me a couple of minutes to get back.”

It didn’t take me as long to go back to where we’d started because I did have shoes on and didn’t need to watch for any sort of snakes or poison ivy. Both were all over the place out here, and if you didn’t keep watch out for both of them, they could make your life very miserable.

I stood there and listened but didn’t hear anything that sounded like feet crunching on leaves or snapping branches. It was a very distinct sound, different between humans and animals. It was something that I’d learned since I’d been living here.

According to my phone, I’d been standing there for three minutes. I gave it another minute before I decided to head back to Tex, and I found all the branches were mere twigs now.

“I didn’t hear anything.” I looked down at the ground.

“I stomped the heck out of them. Now, the birds can pick them up for nest making.” Tex put a positive spin on it, making me smile, but I grinned harder when the facts were the facts.

“Now I want you to go back, and I want to stomp on some branches to see if you hear me.” I wanted to make sure what I was thinking was correct. “I have on shoes, so maybe it’s louder.”

“Okay.” He walked off, and I watched the time on my phone. I kept glancing between the phone and the deputies, wondering if I could pump Al for some information. Because if my theory was right, there was no way the person Tex had heard walking away from the crime scene was Alicia. And that told me the killer had walked off in the woods so they wouldn’t be seen, and Alicia had happened upon Craig’s body just as Tex was trying to see what was going on.

Wrong place at the wrong time.

When the clock hit the three-minute mark, I started to stomp on any branches lying around that I could find. I was stomping so hard, Al came over and peered into the brush.

“Mae, what are you doin’?” His nose curled. His right brow cocked.

“Hey, Al.” I lifted my hand up to greet him. “I’m going around the crime scene to head on over to see my friend Tex.”

It technically wasn’t a lie. I was about to go see my friend. I just left out the part I was doing my own investigation.

“I see y’all still have it all roped off. Sad.” I frowned and calculated my next move with him. “Are you going to run for sheriff in the fall?”

“Oh, I don’t know.” He shrugged one shoulder. “Doesn’t Hank want to? I mean, now that my uncle appointed him sheriff, doesn’t Hank want the job?”

“Oh, I don’t know. I think time will tell. He was pretty happy with just being a detective.” I smiled. “Say, did the autopsy come back for that guy?”

“Hank didn’t tell you?” He shot me a suspicious look.

“Nah. He doesn’t talk about work. I’m sure you don’t either when you go home.” I gulped after I realized what I’d said, knowing his last girlfriend had passed away. “I mean, when we come home from work, the last thing we want to do is talk about it. I don’t care what line of work you’re in. Right?”

“Yeah. He was struck in the head.” Without telling me where, and probably without realizing it, he lifted his hand and patted the exact spot. “According to Colonel Holz yesterday, it appears to be one of them subdural hematoma. Where the blood just collected and killed him.”

I wasn’t a doctor, but I was sure there was more to it than just blood collecting. That wasn’t what was important to me. What was important was the fact I was right. Craig had been hit in the back of the head, which supported my theory that Alicia being able to reach him there was nearly impossible.

There were a few snaps that echoed behind me, causing me and Al to turn around as Tex walked back up.

“Well? Did you make some noise?” Tex asked. “Hello there.”

“Make noise?” Al looked at me and questioned me.

“Al, do you know Tex?” I introduced them to avoid answering any of their questions.

“Yeah. We talked yesterday.” Al watched me intently with question in his eyes.

“It was good seeing you.” I grabbed Tex’s arm. “Let’s go back to your camp.” I rolled my head around on my shoulders. “I can’t wait for my appointment. My neck is so crunchy.” I looked behind me and said goodbye to Al.

“What was that?” Tex asked.

“I didn’t want Al to know what we were doing.”

“I thought you were helping them.” Tex had it all wrong.

“You assumed it. I’m helping Mary Elizabeth. She asked me to help find the real killer because she knows in her heart Alicia didn’t kill Craig. And I think with this little experiment, you, Craig, and Alicia weren’t the only ones out there that day.”

Chapter 12

After I got Tex back to camp and took a different hike through the uncharted woods to get back to my car in the parking lot of the Old Train Station, I decided to drive over to the department to see Alicia before I called Mary Elizabeth to let her know what I’d discovered.

My phone rang on my drive over, and I pulled off the road to one of the scenic overlooks where tourists could stop for photos. I answered it after I saw it was Jami Mackenzie.

“Hey there.” I smiled when I answered. “How are the babies?”

“Big. And happy.” It was good to hear her voice. “What are you doing?”

“Driving. I pulled over when I saw it was you.”

“Are you investigating the death of Craig Sutton?” She didn’t waste any time.

“How did you guess?” I laughed.

“I think I know you pretty well, and we are a little tied now that you delivered my babies.” She brought back a bittersweet memory that I hadn’t planned on revisiting. “Anyways, I called because I’m sure you know Alicia Becker was one of Mary Elizabeth’s foster kids after you left.”

“Yes. I did know, and she’s why I’m looking into it.” I looked out the windshield to take in the scenic view, but there were some tourists who had stopped on their motorcycles and were standing on the limestone wall taking pictures, ruining the view.

“Are you looking into it for Craig or Alicia?” Her question took me back.

“What do you mean? I didn’t realize it was an option.”

“Oh. Didn’t Mary Elizabeth tell you that Craig was also one of her foster children after you left, and that’s why Bobby Ray had been put in jail?” My eyes popped open wide. “What? No! Neither of them said a word about it.”

“Maybe I shouldn’t either.” Jami sounded nervous on the other end of the line.

“Jami, tell me.” I wasn’t sure if I wanted to hear it or not. “Does this have to do with Bobby Ray hitting on her?”

“Okay. Now what is that about?” she asked.

“Alicia claimed that Bobby Ray hit on her while she was in Mary Elizabeth’s care.” I hated to even think of the possibilities, but I already knew it happened all the time in foster homes. Not that it was right, but we couldn’t be blind to some of the things that went on in the system.

“You’ve got that wrong. It was the other way around, from what I’d heard. And it was Craig who found them while she was hitting on Bobby Ray. When he walked in, Alicia told Craig it was Bobby Ray because she and Craig and been a secret item. She didn’t want Craig to know that she had hit on Bobby Ray.” As Jami talked, I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing. “That’s when Bobby Ray got hauled off to jail for beating up Craig, but what I really called about was Craig going to the state penitentiary for trying to kill someone.”

“Who?” I asked.

“I’ll have to check, but I do know it was the penitentiary near Normal.” She gave me some great information.

“I looked him up on Jail Tracker, and it did show he’d spent a lot of time in the Perrysburg jail. It didn’t list the penitentiary charges.” It could’ve, and I didn’t see it. I was too busy trying to find him on there to see the details.

“Yes. He was always in trouble for stealing and starting fights. I guess that’s when he started taking things out on Alicia. I thought you might want to see if anyone in the pen did him in, since it’s pretty local to you.” She made a good point.

“Thanks for the information. I was heading over to Mary Elizabeth’s now. I’ll be sure to question her on all of this.” I really wasn’t going over there. My plans had changed.

“Let me know what happens. Don’t be going and getting yourself hurt, because I need you here for the babies’ christening. We can’t have a dead godmother.”

“I-I—” I stuttered. “I’m the godmother?” There was so much excitement trilling through my veins.

“Of course you are. You saved our lives. Go solve crimes. I’ll call you back with the details once we get them planned.” The line cut out.

Even though the information should’ve kept me on cloud nine the rest of the day, when I turned the engine to my car back on, that excitement faded to anger and questions as to why Mary Elizabeth hadn’t told me the full truth about the relationship between my foster siblings.

The entire drive to the other side of Normal on the way to the Milkery had me filling with anger. Did Mary Elizabeth really think she could keep this from me?

The more I thought about it, the heavier my foot got, meaning I was driving so fast, I got there record time.

No sooner did I drive past the Milkery office and up to the bed-and-breakfast than Bobby Ray was walking out to his truck. Mary Elizabeth was standing on the small porch off the kitchen, waving him off as she did all of us when we left her.

“You got a hitch in your giddyap?” Mary Elizabeth nervously grinned. “You were driving so fast.”

“Just the two people I wanted to see.” I pointed directly at Bobby Ray then slid the finger at Mary Elizabeth. “I reckon the two of you thought I wasn’t smart enough to figure out that Craig Sutton was also one of my foster brothers.”

“Now you want to call them brother and sister?” Mary Elizabeth’s tone told me she was here to play ball with me, and I wasn’t about to let her know that I was going to win this one. It didn’t matter how much she tried to play the guilty-daughter-leaving-her-at-midnight card.

I was way past that guilt.

“Listen, don’t be going and getting upset at Mary Elizabeth.” Bobby Ray stopped me from going on a rampage. “It was my idea for you not to get involved, but Mary Elizabeth apparently didn’t listen to me.”

“Did you kill him?” I asked Bobby Ray point-blank. “I know Alicia didn’t. According to Tex’s account of what he heard and saw, there was no way with the timing it was Alicia.” I crossed my arms across my chest. “Did you kill Craig Sutton?”

When neither of them said anything, I shifted my weight.

“And you weren’t going to tell me that Craig was one of your foster children and Bobby Ray had been put in jail after a fight?” I uncurled my arms and threw them up in the air. “Or that Craig had spent some time in the state pen just down the road? I mean, this could change a lot.”

“So you’re not accusing me of killing Craig?” Bobby Ray was leery.

“I don’t know if you did or not. I guess we need to make sure you have an alibi, because Hank will dig into Craig’s past. He will because he’s been named the interim sheriff, so if he decides he likes the position, and I’m sure he will, then he will go to the depths of the earth to find out who killed Craig if he doesn’t have a strong case against Alicia.”

“Is Alicia free?” Mary Elizabeth gripped the door handle. “Get on back in here.”

“I don’t know if she’s free, but what I was saying”—I followed her and Bobby Ray back into the house—“was that if Craig spent some time at the pen, maybe he made someone mad. They are out of jail, and somehow, they knew he was in town or something. They could’ve killed him.”

Mary Elizabeth and Bobby Ray sat down at the table while I grabbed three glasses, filled them with ice, and poured each of us a big glass of sweet iced tea.

“It wasn’t like I was proud that three of my foster children didn’t fare well.” Mary Elizabeth tried to put it kindly, but I knew what she meant. “After Alicia, that’s when I decided no more foster kids, and me and Bobby Ray did just fine.”

She reached over the table and patted Bobby Ray on the hand then picked up the glass I set in front of her to take a gulp.

“Woo-wee, that wets my whistle.” She licked her lips.

“Bobby Ray, where were you—” I started to say, but he interrupted me.

“Any time away from work, I’m with Abby. If she’s at work, then I’m at the library with her or I’m at work. I did not go anywhere near the Old Train Station, nor did I know Craig was in town until all this surfaced.” He didn’t give off any indication that he was hiding anything, and I believed him.

It definitely wasn’t out of his normal routine. I’d seen he and Abby were stuck together like glue. I would still check it out with Abby just in case Hank did try to pull something on Bobby Ray.

My phone chirped a text, and I took it out of my pocket.

“Who is it?” Mary Elizabeth asked.

“Ava Cox. She is asking me to go see Alicia.” I looked up from the screen. “Do you need me to tell her anything?”

“Just tell her I believe in her.” Mary Elizabeth teared up. “I just want everyone to be happy. Look at Bobby Ray. He finally found his wife, and you have the, um, campground.”

I could tell she wanted to say my husband, but Hank and I had nowhere near gotten to that stage. Especially since he’d made it clear he for sure didn’t want any children, which I’d thought I didn’t want either until I had hired a local young man to weed the campground. Turned out I liked children. At least children who could go the bathroom on their own, feed themselves, and actually have a conversation.

Maybe I liked grown children. Anyways, my stance on children wasn’t clear, and before I let myself go down the rabbit hole of thinking about getting married, I had to explore my own wants and needs.

“And take her some sweet tea.” Mary Elizabeth got up from her chair and went over to the pantry to retrieve a jug so she could fill it with the sweet tea. “I’m sure Agnes will let her have some.”

“I’m sure she will.” I helped her screw on the lid before I picked it up by the handle. “Bobby Ray, I’ll see you and Abby tonight. And you.” I kissed Mary Elizabeth on the cheek. “Don’t worry. I’m going to find out everything I can about Craig and who he talked to in town. Which reminds me, he did stop in the Cookie Crumble and asked about you, so make sure you keep an eye out for anyone suspicious in case there is someone out there still looking for him.”

“When do you think Alicia will be out of jail? I want to fancy up her room with a few of her belongings so she feels at home.” Mary Elizabeth was too worried about Alicia and her comforts, more than her own safety.

“She has belongings?” I was a little surprised since Alicia had said she’d just come from a women’s shelter.

“Just a few odds and ends she could carry with her.” She shook her head. “After an entire time of her being on her own, the only things she has to show for it are a little knapsack and knickknacks.”

“Don’t worry.” I kissed her one last time and headed out with only a few of the details I’d collected here, which seemed to be a little fuzzy on Alicia’s end.

At least I would give her the benefit of the doubt and try to believe that her recollection of what happened between her and Bobby Ray was not what really happened. I had a feeling that she was trying to make Craig jealous, and I couldn’t help but think if she’d done it once, she was capable of doing it again, which could’ve led to where we were today.

Chapter 13

On the way over to the department, I made a quick hands-free call to Dottie to make sure everything and everyone was doing their part to have the campground ready for the engagement party. I assured her the cake was okay in the car and I’d be home right after I went to the department to visit with Alicia.

She assured me everything was good, and Blue Ethel and the Adolescent Farm Boys were already there setting up. Gert had already dropped off the donated coffee, and Ty Randal and his siblings had put up the conference tables so they could have the donated meats in big family-style tins for the guests to have a buffet-style atmosphere.

It was a relief to know I only had to get the cake there before the happy couple, which would be no problem at all.

Dottie also told me Al Hemmer had shown up to get some fingerprints off the storage unit. She mentioned how he told her Hank was pretty upset that someone, even if it was a drifter, had taken the liberty to break in. Al said it was best to get the fingerprints, even if they didn’t come back in the system as belonging to someone, so the next time this person broke in somewhere around Normal, their prints would be on file.

With the jug of tea in my hands, I headed into the entryway of the department and tapped on the window so Agnes knew I was there. I glanced around, when I noticed her pop up from over at the filing cabinet. She was already headed in the direction of the door to let me in.

“I can’t believe you’re here.” She smiled and held her hands out to take the jug. “I told Ava you had that party to get ready for, but she said you’d come. But she didn’t say you were bringing some tea.”

“Help yourself. I was with Mary Elizabeth, and she insisted I bring some to Alicia.” I patted Agnes’s back. “Any word on the case?”

“Hank still doesn’t have anything but Alicia standing over the body with that darn rock. What are you thinking?” She winked and turned to go put the jug down on her desk.

“I’m not sure she did do it.” I told her my theory on Alicia’s height being a factor when it came to actually hoisting a rock above her head and hitting him with it hard enough in the perfect spot. Not to mention the fact that what Tex had heard would have been someone moving away from the scene, because the actual crunching of leaves and sticks at the site of the murder couldn’t be heard from where Tex was standing. The yelling, yes, but the actual footsteps of someone leaving were just too far away to hear.

“Which tells me there was a person who saw Alicia coming and took off in the opposite direction so she didn’t see them. The real killer didn’t realize Tex was there or even that the camp was there.” As I continued to say this theory, the more it stuck with me and just sounded like a strong possibility. “I also found out Craig had spent some time over at the state pen, so I’m going to see if I can get in there and ask around.”

“You should ask Betts. I think the Bible-thumpers are going there this week.” Agnes shuffled over to her pocketbook and pulled out a church bulletin. “I read in last week’s bulletin that they were going to minister.”

She opened the small brochure that was handed out at the beginning of each service at the Normal Baptist Church so the congregation could follow along with not only the service taking place but the weekly activities.

“Yep. Right here.” She shoved it in front of me. “Looks like it’s tomorrow morning. I’m not sure if there’s a spot, but I bet you can ask Betts.”

“Good idea. Speaking of Betts, I’ve not heard a lot from her all week.” I wondered what was going on. I generally heard from her daily, but over the past week or so, she’d not been calling or texting.

It was spring, and she had the side gig of cleaning. She always mentioned how busy spring was because all her clients had her doing what they called “spring cleaning.” She must have been busy.

“Is she coming tonight?” Agnes asked.

“She said she was. Which reminds me that I have to get the cake there on time, so can I go see Alicia?” I asked, knowing I could stand here for hours and gab with Agnes.

“Go on.” She poured some of the tea in a cup, which she had to do since I couldn’t take the jug back there. Against the rules.

The hallway leading back to the room that was called “the cell” was quiet. It had to be the shake-up going on around here that had the deputies doing their darndest to be on their best behavior in fear the new sheriff was going to enforce some new rules or something. It always seemed to happen that way when there were new people in positions.

Little did they know how Hank actually worked, even though he’d been there for years. Hank was laser focused, and the other little noises never penetrated his thought process when he was on a homicide.

“Knock, knock.” I pretended to put on a happy face when I walked up and looked in between the bars.

“I’m so glad you’re here. Is that—” She was surprised when she noticed the tea.

“Yep. Mary Elizabeth sent you some good tea.” I handed it to her between the bars. “You doing okay? What’s on your face and neck?”

“No. I’m not. I didn’t kill Craig. I’m telling you that I found him like that.” She took a big sip of tea, almost drinking it down halfway. “I’ve got poison ivy so bad and also mosquito bites all over me.”

“Oh gosh.” Memories of her walking in the woods to get to Tex and smacking away the bugs shot into my head. “Do you think it was from the trail?”

“Trail? You mean the woods? Yes.” She nodded her head. “This is going to kill me. I’m itching so bad, and they said they’d call me a doctor. You didn’t get anything?”

“No. I did when I first moved here. The no-see-ums get a lot of people, but I guess I’m too onery for them now.” I tried to joke because poor Alicia wasn’t only still nursing the bruised eyes; she now was covered in bug bites and poison ivy.

“If I’d known I would come up with these, you could’ve just left me for dead.” Alicia half joked, but she did remind me of what she’d said to me when we were walking through the woods.

“You did say to me on our way to see Tex that morning that someone could be killed out there and no one would find the body.” I hated to remind her, but I found it best in murder cases that I’ve gotten myself wrangled up in to be up-front and honest. Get it all out on the table so there were no surprises along the way.

“Boy, was I dead wrong about that one,” she said sarcastically, drinking all the tea this time. “Ahhh.” She smacked her lips. “I needed that. When am I getting out of here?”

“I’ve got some really hard questions I’m going to need to ask you, and you have to be honest with me and tell me the truth if you want to get out here anytime soon.” I leaned against the bars.

“Anything. I’m an open book.” She took a seat on the cold floor on her side of the bars.

“I know that you are the one who came on to Bobby Ray in Mary Elizabeth’s house.” I slid down the bars and sat on the ground across from her.

Her chin fell to her chest.

“That was probably the beginning of Craig’s abuse.” She was practically whispering. “It was after that that he knew my power of persuasion. He knew that I did it to make him jealous, and he used it against me.”

“How so?” I asked.

“He made me do things so he could commit crimes.” Slowly her head lifted. “The last time, he had me distract the loan officer in a bank while he went to rob the teller. We actually did this a few times until he got caught, and that’s when they hauled him off to prison.”

“What about you?” I asked.

“He never ratted me out. I went to visit him, and that’s when he told me if he ever got to me, he’d kill me.” Her lips quivered. “He went to prison, and when he got out, he found me at the women’s shelter. I’m not sure how he found me. But I left with him because he said he knew where Mary Elizabeth was and he’d kill her if I didn’t come with him.”

“How did you get away?” I asked.

“Like I told you, he gambled and he drank. So he came back to the house and just beat me up. For no reason. He did start in on me about that stupid picture and how I didn’t have respect for his things. He’s lucky I never got rid of the darn thing when he went to prison.” She winced in pain when she leaned back on her hand to shift her body to the other side.

“Are you hurt?” I asked.

“No.” She rubbed her shoulder. “I had surgery on my shoulder after he broke it when he twisted my arm behind him so hard it snapped. I had to lie to the doctors in the emergency room and tell them I fell. The nurse knew different. She told me the doctors had asked her if I’d said anything to her about him beating up on me because the type of break didn’t go with my story.”

She lifted her arm halfway up.

“I can’t barely lift it to here.” She shook her head and put her arm back in her lap.

“You can’t lift both arms above your head?” My mouth dropped.

“No. Why?” She tried to lift it again to show me.

“Then you couldn’t’ve killed Craig.” I smacked the floor with my hands and pushed myself up. “He was hit over the head with that big rock you did pick up, but if you can’t put that rock over your head, then you couldn’t’ve hit him on his big noggin’ with it.”

She jumped to her feet and wiggled around.

“I love this, but I’ve got to pee.” She jumped around, doing the pee-pee dance.

“Hold on,” I told her and ran back down the hall to grab Agnes. “Agnes, she has to pee, but more importantly, she didn’t kill Craig, and I can prove it. Get Hank.”

“Okay. Here.” She reached across her desk and tossed me the keys.

“Wow. Great throw.” I was shocked at how good of an arm she had at her age.

Impressive.

Chapter 14

It took much longer than I had anticipated to get Hank to the department as well as Ava Cox so they could get Alicia’s final statement about what she had told me. Even though Hank had told her he was going to get her medical records to corroborate her story, he was releasing her from custody since he didn’t have enough evidence to charge her with murder.

He followed up by telling her not to leave town, though I wasn’t sure where he thought she’d go. Everyone she had lived right here in Normal.

“Let’s get you to the party.” I knew I was going to be late to the engagement party I was throwing if I didn’t hurry up.

“I don’t have a thing to wear.” She looked down at the clothes she’d had on since she’d gotten here.

“Don’t worry. I have an entire storage unit filled with clothes you just might like. You might have to sort through them.” I didn’t bother telling her about the break-in at the storage unit since Al had looked over the scene and collected the evidence they needed from it.

Alicia was so happy to be out of the jail. She didn’t stop talking the entire way back to the campground, and it had nothing to do with her being in jail or Craig. It was like she’d put it out of her mind—but not me.

While she rambled on about how good it was to see Mary Elizabeth happy and Bobby Ray finding his true love, my thoughts were still wrapped around Craig and who killed him.

There would be plenty of time, now that she was out of jail, to explore the possibilities of who it could be, but for now, I’d let her enjoy the freedom of one night and show her just how much fun owning a campground really was with the big party.

Before we even made it up to the entrance of Happy Trails, Blue Ethel and the Adolescent Farm Boys echoed throughout the park.

Alicia must’ve heard them, because her fingers tapped along the sill of the open passenger window.

The setting sun was on display with the vibrant orange and red. It would normally catch my full attention, but it didn’t.

I pulled up to the office and parked.

“The storage unit is over there.” I gave her the number so she could find it but kept my eyes on what I couldn’t believe I was seeing.

“Is that Kenny Jolly?” Alicia asked. “From Perrysburg?”

“And Jami.” My shock turned to joy when I noticed my two friends from Perrysburg were here. “Go get changed and meet me over there.”

“Surprise!” Jami threw her hands out to the side when she noticed me practically running toward the group standing around the campfire. I was careful not to drop the cake.

Mary Elizabeth had taken off to go help Alicia while Coke had grabbed the cake from me and made her way over to the cake table that was decorated with a small wooden camper where guests could put their happy engagement cards.

“I went to get my meds from the pharmacy and saw that big guy there. He asked if I’d talked to you lately, and then one thing led to another, and we decided to do a quick road trip.”

“Hey, Mae.” Kenny smiled, and I swore I could hear Betts’s, Queenie’s, and Dottie’s hearts flutter out of their chests. “I hope you don’t mind I came without calling.”

“Not at all.” I uncurled my arms from around Jami and took couple of steps to give Kenny a hug. His usual smell of cologne, which I loved, wrapped around us like a blanket, sending me way back to when we sort of dated. I gulped and quickly pulled away. “You two are welcome here anytime.”

I clasped my hands in front of me and looked at Dottie.

“I’m guessing Dottie got you two settled in somewhere.” I wasn’t sure where, because from my records, all the bungalows and campers were already rented for the week.

“She put me with you and Kenny with Bobby Ray. If that’s okay. I mean, Mary Elizabeth offered us to bunk up at the Milkery, and I guess with Craig…” She clicked her tongue rather than say the word “dead.” “There’s probably a room at the Old Train Station Motel. We could stay there.”

“I don’t think your husband would like that.” Kenny’s southern drawl was one of the things that made the girls swoon, and he certainly hadn’t lost his touch.

“Don’t be ridiculous.” Dottie shook her head. “We are used to bunking up around here.” She elbowed me. “Ain’t that right, Maybelline?”

“Hank is going to kill you,” I whispered to her through my teeth, which were covered up by a smile.

“This might be just what he needs to get a good quick swift kick in the butt, because this should be your engagement party.” She said her piece and walked away.

“Where’s the happy couple?” I asked and looked around, though it was hard to see with all the sun now behind the trees.

“Let’s go find them.” Jami curled her arm in mine and dragged me away from the group. “Are you mad? Don’t be mad. I really was going to get my meds, and when he asked about you, I knew it would be so good for me to get away.”

“Are you sick?” I asked and greeted the campers as we passed by. I couldn’t help but look at their campfires and make sure they were properly lit and that the campers had enough wood so that they wouldn’t go out into the woods themselves and try to gather something to burn.

This was the time of year, February through April, that was considered spring fire season in Kentucky. The season brought light winds and breezes that helped fuel any sort of flame. I sure didn’t want the campground to have any part in starting a fire. It was devastating to not only the business but the wildlife and forest community.

“I have postpartum depression so bad. I had to get out of the house and leave the babies with Hunter. He told me to get away. If it weren’t for Kenny and his drugs, I don’t know what I’d have done to myself.”

“I’m so sorry. Why didn’t you tell me?” I asked.

“You know me. The good Southern gals our mamas brought us up to be. Slap some lipstick on it and cover that mess up. No one wants nothing but a smiling face, two well-dressed babies, and a put-together first lady from the mayor’s wife.” She was right. It was awful to admit, but when Jami had married Hunter Mackenzie, he was our mayor’s brother. She had known she was expected to play a role.

I just never thought Jami Burkfield Mackenzie would ever be in this position, though. It just showed that you could never tell by how someone appeared what they were truly feeling inside.

“I’m so glad you’re here, but Kenny?” I asked.

“You know Kenny. He has always just been so sweet, and when I told him I was going to come up here one day and surprise you, he said he’d keep me company.” She laughed. “We know that he’s only here to make sure my mental health is good. But one thing led to another, and before you know it, here I am.”

“I’m so shocked.” I truly was shocked. I wasn’t sure how Hank was going to react. The last time I’d seen Kenny, he had actually helped me get into some places, using his pharmacy name to help get some information about the death of my family. Hank didn’t like it at all.

In fact, Hank had showed up, and though he knew nothing was going on between me and Kenny, I wasn’t positive that Kenny knew that. Kenny did bring up all the good times we had shared, which felt happier to him than me, but still, it was my past that Hank was not part of.

On the other hand, maybe Dottie was right. When Hank did see Kenny, I had to wonder what was going to happen. It was one of those things that was going to be interesting to see how it played out.

“This place is amazing. No wonder you never moved back to Perrysburg after your life turned upside down.” Jami and I stopped.

She took a moment to look around. It was gorgeous. The band was up on the stage near the tiki hut. There wasn’t any room on the dance floor for another person. Abby and Bobby Ray were right in the middle, dancing to the line dance Blue Ethel’s band was playing.

The flames of each campfire danced in the night. In the distance, I could see Mary Elizabeth and Alicia had joined my group of friends. It wasn’t too long after that that I noticed Alicia was walking around the lake toward us with Kenny by her side.

“Besides, you kinda gave me the sleuthing bug, and when I heard about the murder and called you, you told me you were looking into it, which got me all excited. I hadn’t felt that way in a long time. I felt alive. That’s when I knew I had to come see you. I didn’t know it was going to be so soon.” She reached down and squeezed my hand. “You’re not mad, are you?”

“Heck no. I’m happy to have you here.” I could feel Kenny and Alicia walking up on us before they were right there.

“Kenny is going to call me in a prescription for this ivy.” Alicia scratched the side of her neck.

“I told you to stop itching.” He swatted playfully at her hand.

“It’ll spread,” Jami warned.

“No, it won’t.” Kenny went into a long discussion of the controversy about how poison ivy spreads, and he picked the side of once it’s in your body, it spreads through the bloodstream, not the oozing goo the blisters create.

“I’m telling my kids it spreads when they get it.” Jami crossed her arms and shrugged. “Southern-mama guilt was used on me, and I’m going to use it too.”

“Poor kids.” My comment made us all laugh since we all had some sort of Southern-mama guilt coursing through our veins.

“Can I use your landline to get in touch with a pharmacy? I know they are probably closed, but at least I can leave it on their machine for them to fill as soon as they open,” he told me. “My cell isn’t getting service out here.”

“Yeah. That’s the curse of relaxation. You should try it,” I teased him, knowing he was a workaholic. “Come on,” I told him. “You two go grab some food while I take him to the office to use the phone.”

I quickly told them how each camper had something different cooking over their campfire to share and how they could get a little from each. It was a great way to spread community in the campground, and it was a perfect event to do it at.

“It’s nice what you’re doing for Bobby Ray. And Alicia.” He threw in the last part. “I guess it’s okay about Alicia.”

“Bobby Ray deserves to be happy, and you met Abby. She’s great.” Out of the corner of my eye, I noticed Dottie staring at us when we walked past them on the way to the office. “Alicia is another story. I’d never heard about her. I had no idea Mary Elizabeth had another foster child after I left. It just goes to show how conceited I was to even think she wouldn’t have one.”

“Don’t talk about yourself like that.” The soft tone of his voice penetrated the darkness like a sweet melody. “You’re special. You had reason to act the way you did. You had a loving family that was taken from you. I would’ve acted the same way.”

I took my keys out of my pocket to unlock the door. He playfully kicked my shoe with his foot.

“You were perfect. You gave me a lot of fun and entertainment.” I gulped at his flirtatious tone because I knew it so well. “How’s Hank?”

“He’s good. He’s been promoted to sheriff, so he’s all over the case. He has been great about Alicia and Mary Elizabeth. Very helpful.” I blabbed on out of nervousness.

“I see that you’re looking into Alicia?” He noticed the wipe-off board.

“You know me. After what happened to me, I have a hard time trusting people based on just meeting them. I’m not sure where or when the idea of making people prove to be trustworthy before I trust them came from, when I should trust them from the beginning of meeting them.” I seemed to be really rambling. “Now that she’s a suspect, I need to just erase this and figure out who really had a motive to kill Craig.”

I tried to hurry past him so I could erase the board.

“Stop.” Kenny put his hand on my arm before I could get to the board. “I know you. Why are you so jittery around me these days?” His warm touch lingered there. “It’s me. Kenny.” He grinned. “Ever thought about leaving this behind and coming home? We were pretty good together.”

“I love it here. I have Mary Elizabeth, Bobby Ray, and Hank.” My mind started to get foggy.

He slid his hand down my arm and took my hand in his. I added, “‘Pretty good together’? I’m with Hank.”

“I don’t see a ring on this finger.” He brought my hand up and kissed my finger.

Quickly, I jerked it away when the door to the office opened, and Hank stood there, a blank look on his face.

Chapter 15

“That was awkward, Mae,” Hank said after we excused ourselves from the office so Kenny could make his phone call. “What was that kiss about?”

“Kenny is an old friend—you know that.” I didn’t know what the weird kiss to my finger was all about. “I was telling him about how I needed to trust people, and he told me to stop.”

“You were confiding in him? I think you trust the people who you need to trust.” He sounded perturbed. I was glad it was dark so he couldn’t see my face.

I was just as shocked as he was about the whole thing.

“I don’t know, Hank, maybe I was speaking some truth.” I didn’t really know what he wanted me to say. “In truth, I’m not even sure where we stand.”

“What?” He grabbed my arm, bringing me to a stop. “What does that mean?”

“It means exactly what it sounded like.” I jerked my arm away and headed toward my friends, who were standing under the awning of the recreation center near the area where the cake and gifts were set up. “I can’t talk about this now. Bobby Ray and Abby look about ready to open the presents.”

The smell of campfires generally made me feel warm and fuzzy inside. During this time, the weather turned a little nippy at night, and it was always fun to end the night sitting in front of a fire wrapped up in a blanket and Hank’s arms. From the way things were going with Hank tonight, it appeared like I was going to be ending the night alone.

“There you are.” Abby shoved our sleuthing notebook in my hands. “I didn’t have another notebook with me. Do you mind writing down who gave me what, and we can just rip it out of there?”

“Sure.” I took a seat on one of the picnic table benches closest to the couple.

“I’ll take your bows and put them on plates,” Betts volunteered—it was the Southern bridal shower tradition where the bridesmaids’ rehearsal boutiques were made from a paper plate and the various bows from the shower gifts. “Don’t break a bow,” Betts said when Abby picked up the first gift.

Abby ripped the bow right off, breaking it all the way around.

“I’m going to break them all,” she told Bobby Ray and crinkled her nose, waving the broken bow above her head, which led to everyone laughing and clapping.

“Good! I need a lot of grandbabies.” Mary Elizabeth wasn’t teasing when she glowed with delight with the old wives’ tale in her head that said that the number of bows the bride breaks was the number of babies the couple would have.

One after the other, Abby ripped into the gifts after she’d opened the cards and yelled over to me who each gift was from.

I was quickly writing down who the presents were from and what they were, but in between the oohing and aahing, I was flipping over to the page where the Laundry Club Ladies and I had already started to write about the murder.

Our standard diagram on the paper was the victim’s name written in the middle of the page with several arms drawn out labeled with possible suspects.

I honestly didn’t know who to write on the page since nothing made sense, so I started to journal what I knew.

Alicia Becker has been in some sort of unstable relationship with Craig Sutton for a very long time. He started to abuse her after she made him believe there was something going on between her and Bobby Ray. Alicia had a baby with Craig, and they didn’t want the baby nor were they in any sort of shape to care for a child. Craig had a gambling problem. Craig had gone to jail several times. While he was in jail, Alicia got rid of some of his belongings, including a picture she gave to the neighbors. Once he was out of jail, Craig forcibly got the picture back, and he beat Alicia up.

“Mae,” Bobby Ray said with force, and I looked up. “Thank you.”

“Oh, glad you like it.” I was pleased with how good of shape the pewter plates were in, and I was thankful for Buck dropping them off. I shifted my focus back to the notebook.

After Craig robbed the bank, he was sent to the state penitentiary. After he got out, he found Alicia in a women’s shelter and coaxed her into going with him. He ended up abusing her. She escaped and showed up at the Milkery.

All of these details were vague. Now, in light of the theory I had about Alicia being too short and her condition with her shoulder, I knew she hadn’t killed him, though would I blame her if she had?

Still, it was considered a crime, and now that my interest was high—though I wasn’t happy with Hank right now—the itch for me to discover the truth was gnawing at me.

I continued.

Which makes me wonder who he met in there and if they possibly had a hit put out on him?

What was the significance of the picture?

These were two questions that needed to be answered.

I looked up from the notebook at the happy couple and tapped the edge of the pen on the paper.

“What picture?” Kenny asked and sat behind me.

“Oh, nothing.” I didn’t want to involve him. Hank would definitely throw a fit if I did. Plus, he and Jami were probably leaving soon, which brought to mind a good question. “When are you and Jami going back to Perrysburg?”

“I think in two days. She said she wanted to look around the shops, so I thought I would take in some trails.” He scooted a little closer. “Did I cause problems between you and Hank?”

“No.” I shrugged him off, though he could probably tell I was lying. “He’s got a lot going on. He’s a bit on edge. Being a detective is hard.”

“Yeah. I can imagine.” Kenny playfully nudged me. “If not me, then he’s a good guy. I’m happy for you if you’re happy. I had to try. You know, what my mama said about me never dating another girl since you could be right.”

His mom told Mary Elizabeth that I’d ruined him.

“It was the best thing that happened. Look at you. You even said it yourself the last time I seen you,” I reminded him.

“Yeah. What was that?” he questioned.

“You said that if I’d not left Perrysburg, you probably would’ve stayed in town and not gone to college. You’re a big pharmacist and owner of your own drugstore. See, things do work out the way they’re supposed to.” I brought the conversation away from us. “Did you get the prescription called in?”

“I did. Alicia will be feeling better a couple of hours after she takes it.” He adjusted his back and scooted away from me. “I guess I better get up. Your boyfriend is staring at me, and he looks like he could take me down with one punch.”

“I’ll see y’all later,” I told him.

“If I don’t see you tomorrow, maybe we will see you tomorrow night. Mary Elizabeth wants to cook for us, and we are going.” The sound of that made my mouth water for a good home-cooked meal.

“I’ll be there.” I didn’t think I had anything on my calendar. Plus, some time with him and Jami before they left would do me some good.

Abby was beyond thrilled with the five plates of broken bows Betts had put together. She continued to touch them and arrange them, and even had all of us hold one to see what they’d look like for her rehearsal.

“Smile!” She snapped a photo of me holding one. “Hashtag ‘soon-to-be sister,’ hashtag ‘wedding,’ hashtag ‘happy couple.’”

Then Abby went down the line, taking a photo of Betts, Queenie, Dottie, and Dawn Gentry.

While Abby continued to take more photos of her own engagement party, the Laundry Club Ladies and I sat around the campfire chatting about what else? Alicia Becker, while she and Mary Elizabeth took a walk around the campground.

“What’s going on with you? You seemed really preoccupied.” Betts was always so good at reading me. I didn’t want to talk about Kenny or Hank.

Instead, I decided to shift the focus on the Bible-thumpers.

“I heard you’re going back out to do ministry at the penitentiary.” She shifted uneasily in her camping chair. “What is wrong?”

“Nothing.” She shook her head then focused on the campfire. “Okay. It’s something.”

“You don’t have to tell me if you don’t want to.” A little concern flicked in my gut. Betts wasn’t generally this closed off.

“I’ve been going to see Lester more and more. It was him that asked me to come back with the church, because you knew that he’d been doing some ministry in the house.” “The house” was what she called jail. “And he said that he believes he’s making a difference.”

“You’ve been to visit him as in just visit, not in a professional manner?” I was referring to the Bible-thumper part.

“I guess you didn’t hear what I said about restarting the ministry.” She laughed. “Yes. I’m lonely. I know he’s a criminal. I know he cheated on me, but I had a life with him. I moved here for him. I know in my heart that he’s a good person.”

I really wasn’t sure what to say, but I did know that I wasn’t surprised she was lonely. There was no way she couldn’t’ve been. I understood that very well. I guess what took me aback was that she hadn’t confided in me.

“I’m sorry I made you feel like you couldn’t tell me how you are feeling.” I reached out and touched her on the leg. She gave me a smile. “I know how lonely it is. When Paul was hauled off to jail for the Ponzi scheme, I’d never felt so alone in my life. Then to have everything ripped out from underneath me was even worse, or so I thought at the time. What is it you always tell us and your Bible-group friends? Everything happens for a reason, and here I am. If not for the valley of sadness I went through with Paul, I wouldn’t be here with you and be an ear for you to talk it through.”

I picked up one of the s’mores rods and stuck a couple of marshmallows on the end so I could twirl it around in the fire.

“I know my story is different than your story and situation, but I’m here just like you are for me. I’m just sorry I didn’t make time to see you were going through something.” I took out the flaming marshmallow and held it in front of her face, where she blew it out. Then she carefully pulled it off the stick.

“You know exactly how I love my marshmallows,” she mumbled behind her grin with a delicious gooey mouthful. “And I know you are here, but with everything that’s been going on lately, I hate to dump on people.”

“I’m glad you are going. Maybe Lester is right and the prisoners need the ministry to start back up. You know Lester, and yes, he did do unthinkable things, but ultimately, he’s not judged by you.” I used her churchy words on her that she liked to throw around at us in hopes she’d feel better.

“You’re right.” This time, she reached out for me to hold her hand. I took it. She squeezed. “I should’ve come to talk to you and let you know what I was doing. I was going to see Lester no matter what anyone said. He’d been writing me letters and telling me exactly how prison is, and sometimes, I just can’t even believe he’s there. Yes, I know he killed someone and it wasn’t planned, and I know that he had the affair.” I wasn’t really sure what she was trying to say or if she was trying to justify just why Lester was behind bars, but I didn’t need to know.

I was there as a sounding board and glad to keep my lips tightly closed, careful not to judge or say something that would make her upset with me.

“I’m going tomorrow with the Bible-thumpers for our first time back.” She sounded a little uneasy.

“I’d love to go,” I chimed in. “So if we are being honest, I can’t say that I’m going to teach the good news like you. And as a friend, I have to tell you that I have an ulterior motive, because you know the last thing I need is for Mary Elizabeth to get wind that I’m teaching some sort of Bible group. You and I both know if she thought that, she’d have me down at the Normal Baptist Church teaching Sunday school.” I made Betts laugh, because she knew Mary Elizabeth was always trying to get me to go to church, and when I did, Mary Elizabeth claimed the world was coming to an end.

Over the last couple of months, I’d started showing up here and there. When Mary Elizabeth would start in on me about it, I told her that I was keeping her on her toes.

“Good old Baptist guilt.” Betts winked and stood up when the rest of the ladies came over. “We will be leaving the church parking lot at nine o’clock sharp.”

“Are y’all ready to continue the party?” Abby held up a bottle of champagne and wiggled it in the air.

“It looks like she’s got enough party already in her for all of us.” Dottie blew out a steady stream of smoke from the lit cigarette. “I don’t think I’m gonna sleep over.”

“I’m certainly not going to stay. I’ve got to get up early to cook breakfast for my guests.” Mary Elizabeth looked at Dawn. “You can stay.”

“Fun.” Dawn’s shoulders jumped up and down as she reached over to Abby for the bottle. Abby took a swig then handed it to Dawn, who took her own big drink from it. “I’ll grab my stuff out of Mary Elizabeth’s car.”

“Me too.” Alicia followed suit.

“Who invited her to stay for the sleepover?” Dottie questioned.

“I don’t know. Just go with the flow.” I shook my head and changed the subject when Jami seemed to be shying away from the group. I didn’t want her to feel depressed or have any anxiety moments. “Jami, are you ready for the best pedicure around here?”

“Am I. Yeah.” She reached across the group and took the bottle from Abby to take a drink, showing solidarity with the ladies.

“The Pamper Camper should be here any minute.” Everyone cheered and clapped even louder when the headlights coming up the entrance of the campground were those of the Pamper Camper van with Glenda Russel at the wheel, Tex right next to her.

Chapter 16

The Pamper Camper was the perfect addition to the engagement party. The guys hung around with Tex while Glenda rotated the ladies in and out of the manicure/pedicure chair for the services they wanted.

As part of my engagement party fun, I thought it would be a blast to let everyone choose one or the other then end our night with a mini–bachelorette party in my camper. I didn’t figure Alicia would be there, or Jami, so tight quarters it was going to be in my tiny home on wheels.

“This is so cool.” I was sitting in the fancy chair that was full of buttons. I didn’t push any in fear I would hit the wrong one and suddenly be launched out into space. It was that fancy.

Glenda was filing down what I had left of my nails. “You’ve got to start taking better care of your hands.”

“I am always fixing something with a camper or cleaning. It’s too hard for me to keep nice long nails.” It was true. My nails had taken a beating since I owned Happy Trails. Long gone were the days where I’d go to a fancy New York City spa to get the works, let alone make time to get my nails done.

Glenda pushed one of the side buttons on the chair to start the vibrating and rolling-pin feature along my back.

“Have you been busy?” I asked Glenda, noticing her eyelashes were much longer than I remembered.

“You wouldn’t believe how many people who hike want their toes done because, you know, hiking all day is hard on the feet. I am glad I can give them some comfort. The last time I was here was for the party package one of your guests had bought, so that was fun.” Glenda held out a slew of nail colors for me to pick from.

I pointed to the yellow.

She continued to talk about all the appointments in and around the Daniel Boone National Park she had and even the idea of opening up another truck. The more she leaned in to my hand, the closer the look I got at her eyelashes. They were fake—something I never thought I’d see on Glenda now that she’d embraced the life Tex was leading.

“Helen Pyle has been driving me crazy.” Glenda tsked, batting those lashes. “She has been checking with the committee to see if I’ve been getting permits to be at all of these places.”

“I never even thought Helen did a lot of nails.” I’d been there several times for my hair and maybe once for my nails. “I know she’s always booked for hair.”

“She didn’t barely advertise the nails until I started doing them. Now, she’s got all sorts of deals running in the Normal Gazette, which reminds me”—she twisted the lid back on the polish, giving it a good shake before she reopened it and got started on the other hand—“did Violet Rhinehammer get in touch with you? She’s been in the woods going over the crime scene, Tex said, now that the sheriff’s deputies have cleared it.”

“No. I had no idea they cleared the scene.” Thoughts of Hank swept over me.

This was something he’d normally bring up, but he was pretty upset about Kenny kissing my hand. I looked down at my hand and could feel Kenny’s soft lips. I closed my eyes to remove the image and gulped.

“Oh. I assumed you knew.” Glenda looked up from underneath those big lashes at me. She shrugged and went back to focusing on painting my nails. “Anyways, she told Tex that she had a lead. I wonder what it is.”

Glenda sat up, screwing the top back on the nail polish, and blew on my nails.

“Who knows. Sometimes, I think she lies just to see what she can get out of people.” Not that I was condemning her for falsifying the truth. I’d done it many times to get answers I needed. Only I didn’t call it lying. I called it manipulating the situation to help people out by getting to the bottom of the truth.

At least it made me feel better to think that way.

“Tex told me about Alicia.” Glenda had that look in her eye that she wanted to tell me something but wasn’t supposed to. She pushed her rolling stool away from me.

“Yeah? Lucky you. I only wish I knew more of why she was here. And if she has a motive. I was checking into all of that when Craig was murdered, so now I’m focused on that since Mary Elizabeth asked me to help solve it so Alicia didn’t go to jail.” I lifted one hand and blew across it like a harmonica.

“Here, put your hands under here.” She pushed a cart up to my chair with one of those drying nail lamps.

Glenda continued to talk about Tex and being back out in the wilderness for the spring and summer as she worked around the Pamper Camper. She had taken out the entire interior of the drivable camper and had two fancy black leather pedicure chairs in the far back. She’d kept the sink but replaced the cabinets and counter with a more modern marble top with open shelves that had bungee cords, which were to keep all the supplies from rolling around or falling off when she drove.

She was busy cleaning the tools she’d used on me.

“I am going to tell you something that she told Tex. Of course, he said Alicia told him she let it slip, but Tex believes she wanted someone to know in case something happens to her and Mary Elizabeth.” When Glenda mentioned the safety of Mary Elizabeth, it made me shuffle in my seat.

“You have to tell me. If something happens to Mary Elizabeth, I’ll be going to jail for the murder of Alicia.” I was dead serious.

“That’s why I feel like I need to tell you.” She towel-dried the tools as she was putting them back in her rolling cart to get ready for Queenie, who’d just popped into the camper. “Come on in, Queenie.” She pointed to the small table that she’d installed with a few snacks. “Help yourself while I get your pedicure chair ready.”

Glenda walked over to the chair next to mine and pulled a small drawer out of the base that was a small soaker tub.

“Isn’t this the cutest? They make the best things for mobile businesses now.” Glenda leaned a little closer and whispered to me, “I’ll have to tell you later about what Tex said.”

I nodded with pinched lips, a smidgen aggravated that Queenie had interrupted, but there wasn’t anything pressing about what Glenda had to tell me, or she would’ve.

She had me pull my hands out from the dryer and lightly touched my fingernails.

“All good. What do you think?” she asked me.

I held my hands out at arm’s length to get a good look.

“I think they look great. Thank you.” I got up, and before I headed out, I grabbed a handful of mixed nuts from the snack table and stuffed my mouth with them.

Betts, Jami, Alicia, Abby, Dottie, and Dawn were sitting at my picnic table underneath the rolled-out awning on my camper. Fifi was on her leash, which was clipped around Dottie’s ankle.

“Thank you for letting her out.” I really didn’t need to thank Dottie, because she had told me several times not to, but I wanted her to know she was always appreciated. “I’m going to take her for a quick walk. Jami, you want to come?”

“Yeah. I’d love to.” She jumped to her feet.

I wanted the opportunity to let her talk to me about what was going on with her, and walking around in nature was always a good time for that. But night was even better. People seemed to really open up during these hours. It was like the darkness made a veil over everyone’s faces so when or if they did show any emotions, the dark of the night kept them under cover.

“It sure is gorgeous out here. You’ve made a nice living for yourself, May-bell-ine Grant,” she teased by drawing my name out in her southern twang.

“Thank you. You know you’re always welcome.” I watched Fifi run about, causing the leash to extend to its limit.

“Did Kenny talk to you?” she asked.

“You knew?” I couldn’t believe she knew how he felt and hadn’t warned me.

“He didn’t tell me, but when I told him I was coming, he jumped at coming with me. It was a clear indicator that he wanted to come. When we pulled into Normal, he was nervous. He said he loved hiking and that’s what got him through pharmacy school before a test, so I had him drop me off at the adorable shops downtown while he went on a hike. He seemed so much better when he got back. That’s when he made mention that he needed to tell you how seeing you in Perrysburg reignited his memories of the two of you.” She stopped, and I stopped. Fifi didn’t want to stop, but the leash forced her to. “I know you have a life here, but Kenny could provide you with a very nice life, and you’d be in Perrysburg with me and the babies.”

“Thanks, but you can see that I love it here. I have great friends, and Mary Elizabeth is now established here.”

“You’ve not mentioned Hank.” She reminded me of the horrible scene Hank had walked in on at the office. We started to walk again, this time heading toward the small pier on the far side of the lake.

“I’m not really sure where we stand. He did walk in on Kenny kissing my hand earlier, and I pretty much told Kenny I wasn’t interested in rekindling anything, but Hank and I were already having a few issues before you and Kenny came to town.” I started to realize our little walk was geared more toward me opening up than Jami opening up to me about her issues that brought her here. “Hank doesn’t want children.”

“And you don’t either.” Jami had always known my stance on children. The opinion I’d had as long as I’d known her.

“That’s what I thought. You know—” We took a left onto the pier and took a seat at the edge. Both of us slipped off our flip-flops and dangled our feet into the water. Fifi was good and sat down between us, thankfully not jumping into the water with her leash attached. “I never wanted children because I hurt so bad after my family died. I couldn’t imagine losing another person I love. The love between a parent and child is something I can’t even put into words. But as I’ve gotten older, I think the love that is given from having a child outweighs the hurt.”

“Look at you with all your big philosophical views. I don’t know all about that, but I do know that what I feel for the twins is definitely something out of this world. And Kenny is ready for a family. And he clearly wants one with you.” Even though I knew Jami had good intentions with all this talk about Kenny, there wasn’t a single part in my heart that wanted to even try to love him.

“If I loved Kenny Jolly, I wouldn’t have gotten out of his car when he dropped me off at the Greyhound bus station the night I left Perrysburg.” I watched the water ripple with each tap of my toe.

Chapter 17

After my talk with Jami on the dock, I knew my feelings for Kenny were not the same as the ones he had for me. The only love I had in my heart was for Hank, and I was going to have to find a way to deal with the fact he didn’t want children and accept it, or not accept it and figure out how to move on with Hank not part of my life.

The latter was almost unfathomable, which made me put it out of my mind so I could enjoy the rest of the sleepover.

By the time we’d gotten back to the camper, Glenda had finished up with Queenie and taken off, which meant I’d have to wait to hear what she was going to tell me about Tex.

There was barely any room in the camper for me and Fifi, so I grabbed a couple of things in a bag and headed to the office to see if I could grab some shut-eye there.

Fifi had no problem curling up in her doggy bed, and I did my best to make a small pallet on the floor and was never so happy to see the sun coming up through the office windows so I could get up and feel like the day could start.

It wasn’t too long after I’d gotten the coffee brewed that the office door opened. Queenie, Betts, Abby, and Dottie walked in. Abby had the notebook under her arm.

“I told them you’d be up with coffee.” Dottie shuffled over to the coffeepot and made us all cups of coffee. “When did you leave this morning?”

“I slept here.” I pointed over to the wadded-up blanket that Fifi had now taken over. “When Jami and I got back from our walk, we saw y’all were all asleep.”

“Don’t remind me.” Abby rubbed her head like the champagne had some effect on her this morning. “I wanted you to know that I loved the party. Bobby Ray and I are thrilled. So to show you my appreciation, I told the gals that we needed to help you with this.”

She thumbed through the notebook and held it out. It was the page with all of the notes I’d taken while I was sitting on the picnic table while Abby and Bobby Ray were opening presents.

“I got all the gifts and givers,” I told her.

“I know, but we thought we could just go over some things out loud so you can hear all of it in your head.” Betts walked over and put her arm around my shoulders, giving me a little squeeze. “I already made the call to put you on the list of visitors to the prison today.”

“And I will make sure I’m here all day so you can run off and do that with her. Then make sure you go over to Mary Elizabeth’s, because Jami won’t be able to stay for any sort of meal. One of the twins is a little sick with a cold, and she decided to go on over to Mary Elizabeth’s and get ready. I told her not to leave until you got back from the prison.” Dottie sat down in her chair, and the squeak made Fifi jump up and beg for a treat.

Dottie gave her two.

“You go potty,” I told the frisky pup and opened the door of the office then made my way over to my desk where I sat with the notebook.

“It looks like you’ve got more questions than answers.” Abby took the notebook back and read what I’d written out loud while Queenie sidestepped it over to the wipe-off board to write it all out. “Craig was hit in the head, and it had to be someone that was pretty tall and strong since you drew this awful diagram of how he was hit in the head. So we know Alicia did find him.”

As Abby read, Queenie made all sorts of bullet points and arrows that pointed back to Craig. And she made a lot of question-mark notations.

“We also know there were some footsteps closer to Tex’s camp because you did the experiment where there was no way Tex heard the sound of footsteps where the body was found. He could hear screaming or yelling, but only the voice of a man.” Abby looked at Queenie. “Which we believe was Craig.”

“Correct.” I gave a hard nod.

“You’ve come to the conclusion that whoever killed Craig heard Alicia coming and took off into the deep woods, which is where Tex heard the noise.” Abby looked at me.

“Yes. But I have no idea where the person took off to, so I wonder if Violet got any information from the scene.” I wanted to see what she knew. I reached for my phone and thumbed through the contacts, hitting the send button when I got to her name.

I put the sound on speaker so everyone could hear.

“Good morning. You were on my list to call” was how she answered the phone. “What’s Hank saying about the killer?”

“He’s not said a word, but I’ve also not talked to him since I had the engagement party last night. Which brings me to one of the reasons I called.” I heard her give a big sigh.

"Look, before you get all huffy on me, I had to run with the story. I’m sorry I couldn’t cover the engagement, but I promise I’ll do the wedding.” Abby looked up with big eyes and melted into a smile.

“You won’t if the next big story comes along.” I wanted a solid promise.

“I promise, Mae. How did the party go?” There was a genuine tone to her voice.

“It was great, but I heard from Glenda Russel that you’ve been snooping around the crime scene.” I decided to let the social page article she didn’t write go because Dottie was rolling her hand for me to hurry up.

“I have been. There wasn’t anything that I found, but I did follow the strangest thing, and I am going to get some answers to it today.”

“What did you discover?” I asked.

“You know how Alvin Deters has those awful plastic bags he uses in Deters Feed-N-Seed?” She was referring to the plastic bags in most grocery stores, only in the forest shops, we tried not to use plastic. The rangers had been putting out bulletins saying that when the bags got into the forest, animals had been trying to see what was in them and ended up eating some of the bags, which killed them.

“Yes. Did you find some of his bags? There are so many hikers right now that anyone could’ve gone in there to buy something to hike with.” Deter’s Feed-N-Seed carried anything you’d need for camping, down to food and snacks.

“It looked like someone had marked a trail from the cascades to the actual crime scene itself.” Violet sucked all the air out of the office.

All the Laundry Club Ladies and I glanced around at each other to see what the others were thinking.

Shock.

“What was interesting was that the marked trees were off the trail path, so I wonder if someone had premeditated the killing and knew they had to get back into the water so they could get away?” She posed a very good question.

“This means that if this does have to do with Craig, the killer isn’t from here, because if they were, they would’ve known their way back through the woods.” Which totally eliminated Bobby Ray. Even though he already seemed to have an alibi, it just made me feel better to have more questions around him answered if he did end up being a suspect on Hank’s list.

“I’ve got to call into Alvin. I’m hoping to go down there and see if he’ll let me look at his security cameras. I just want eyeballs on people.” She had a good plan that I loved.

“Sounds great. In the meantime, I’m going to go to the prison to follow up on Craig’s little stint he did behind bars and see what his fellow prisoners knew of him.” We clicked off the phone after we had a plan.

I slipped my phone back into my pocket.

“This sounds like a plan.” Betts took a deep breath in. “I’m going to get showered and ready. I’ll meet you in an hour at the parking lot of the church,” she reminded me.

“Oh, I’ll be there.” I glanced over at the wipe-off board, more confident than ever that my theory was correct, that someone heard Alicia coming and took off the way they got there, through the woods, leaving a little trail so they could find their way back… to their freedom.

Chapter 18

Instead of having to go meet Betts at the church parking lot, I was able to hitch a ride with her, and she’d just bring me back later.

The Bible-thumpers were a totally different set of friends Betts had outside of the Laundry Club Ladies. They were what I’d consider the do-gooders of Normal. Whenever there was a birth, they baked sweets for the happy family. Whenever there was a death, they used their best cooking skills and made their most tasty casseroles for the family as well as did the repass, which was the supper held in the basement of the Normal Baptist Church. They also had what I called a gossip hotline, only they called it their prayer chain. It was where they would call with the gossip going on in Normal, or if someone had gotten ill, in a wreck, or just plain needed some prayers—they were on it.

There was no denying they were do-gooders in the community with all their food preparation and praying and all, but they did love to stick their noses into situations. Not, like, sniff out the details, just talk about them.

Today on the bus on our way to minister to the prisoners was no different.

“I heard that you have a long-lost foster sister,” Carol Wise asked from over the back of the seat of the school bus the church had converted by painting the outside and having Betts stencil the church name onto the side.

I twisted around in the pleather seat and looked back at her with a nod and friendly smile.

“And that she was all bruised up.” Carol tsked, giving me a side-eye. “Obviously, we do not know her, but we love Mary Elizabeth and hope one day she’ll join us in our Bible study group.”

“She is a good one.” I wasn’t about to give Carol Wise any more information than she had. I didn’t want any part of the gossip chain discussion, and I was sure she had sat deliberately behind me just so she could get the information firsthand.

“Mm-hmm,” she ho-hummed. “She sure is. That’s why we were so surprised when we heard about Alicia.”

I slowly turned around in hopes she’d take it as a hint that I wasn’t going to discuss.

No chance.

The tip of her sharp fingernail indented my skin between my shoulder and neck as she poked harder and harder to get my attention.

I sucked in a deep breath and found myself praying for this woman’s safety, because if she poked me one more time…

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I hurt you?” She must’ve seen by the look on my face that I was wincing in pain, though I tried to hide it. “Let me rub that out.”

She took the liberty to come out of her seat and try to come around to sit with me. But in a flash, someone had beat her to the punch.

“Ellis!” I was as shocked as anyone would be to find Ellis Sharp, Hank’s sister, sitting next to me, but I was really taken aback to see her on the Bible bus.

She plopped down in the seat and laid her Bible in her lap. She nudged me.

“I figured you needed some saving of your own, and this here,” she whispered for the sake of Carol not hearing before lifting up her Bible, “was not going to save you unless you knocked Carol Wise over the head with it.”

“What are you doing on here?” I could feel my shock contort my face upon seeing her.

“I’m sorry. Am I not a child of God like you? Do I have to have a motive?” She squirmed.

“Yes.” I nodded.

“Why are you here?” She threw my own question and observation back at me. “Are you telling me that you’ve joined the Bible-thumpers?” She wagged a finger. “I don’t think so, but I sure can ask my brother why you’re here.”

She reached into her purse, appearing as if she was going to pull out her phone.

“Don’t.” I put my hand on top of hers. “You tell me why you’re here, and I’ll tell you why I’m here. Maybe we can help each other.”

Now, this was a line I never had thought I’d cross. Actually joining Ellis Sharp on the same side of agreeing was not familiar to me. Ever since Hank and I had started dating, she’d been more than eager to get Hank’s eye off of me and on to her best friend, Natalie Willowby.

“You go first.” She beat me to the punch. “What are you keeping from my brother?”

“How are you, Ellis? Still living at home?” When did we forget such formalities when we ran into dear old friends? I thought to myself.

“Really, Mae? Such things don’t need to be discussed.” She went to reach into her purse again.

“Fine. I’m sure you already heard about—” I started to say but was rudely interrupted, which was one thing she did often that wasn’t very becoming of her.

“The dead body. Yada yada. Natalie told me about it.” She sighed, looking down her nose at me.

I forced myself to keep from making any sort of face when she mentioned Natalie. The fact that she mentioned Natalie didn’t bother me. It was the idea that Natalie had talked to her about the case, which meant she had some sort of interaction with Hank, that bothered me.

“Did you also hear my foster mom—” I began again.

“Yes. I heard all about the poor girl with the bruises that initially was pegged as the killer, but now they aren’t so sure.” She crinkled her perfect little model nose. “What does the dead guy have to do with you going to prison?” Her jaw dropped, and her eyes lowered. Her fake lashes cast a shadow down her cheek. “Are you here to investigate? Because if you are, Hank is going to fly off the handle.”

“Hank isn’t going to know.” At least I was hoping Hank wasn’t going to know, but I couldn’t rely on Ellis keeping it a secret. “He was a prisoner here, and I love Mary Elizabeth, just like you love your mom and dad.”

She snorted. The woman had no idea how lucky she was to have one parent living, much less both. Ellis hadn’t been the nicest daughter to the couple. She certainly was a horrible granddaughter to Agnes and a terrible sister to Hank, but I wasn’t one to judge. Especially when I was sitting on a converted school bus with a group of Bible-thumping women and Ellis.

“When Alicia was the main suspect, Mary Elizabeth had asked me to snoop around a bit.”

“We all know you’re really good at that.” She lifted her hand and gestured around us. “It looks like you’re in good company. Or as my friends and I would say, you found your tribe, Mae West. Exactly where you need to be.”

All of her snarky and rude comments fell off of me because I couldn’t let her get into my head when my head was already filled with crazy notions about me and Hank as well as this murder. There was no room for Ellis Sharp up in there.

“Go on.” She folded her hands on top of her Bible.

“Lester Hager”—me mentioning his name made her chuckle—“said he had talked to Craig in here, so I’m going to see if there was someone on the inside that wanted Craig dead on the outside.”

Ellis leaned back and gave me a good hard stare for a few seconds. That’s when I let my skills of keeping my mouth shut kick in. It had been one I’d discovered when I was a suspect in one of Hank’s cases. The longer the silence, it got uncomfortable, which made someone speak first.

No one liked to be in an awkward situation, and I was happy to see Ellis was in one now.

“Hmm, interesting. And you didn’t tell Hanky,” she said, calling him by his nickname that he wasn’t fond of, “about it?”

“No. I will tell him about it if I find something out. There’s no need to worry him with it now. He’s already got a lot on his plate taking over as the new sheriff.” I had told her what she wanted to hear, and now it was my turn. “Why are you here?”

“Not as juicy as what you’re doing. I’m here to help beef up my resume. My agent said that I didn’t have anything on there that showed I cared about others.” She lifted her hand to her chest. “I deeply care for others.”

Liar.

“And she said that I needed some sort of documentation to show it, and then I could start to try to get on boards of various charities. A lot of models are spokespeople, and I think I’d be very good at it.” She tossed her hair over her shoulder. “Don’t you?”

“If that’s what you want to do.” I felt Carol’s nail dig into me. I was now finding myself happy to turn around to avoid Ellis when I had originally thought Ellis had saved me from Carol.

“Back to what I was saying before we were rudely interrupted.” Carol’s eyes gave a quick shift toward Ellis. “I also understand the young man who was murdered was the man that beat up Alicia.” She shook her head with a frown on it. “What on earth?”

Politely, because that’s what happened in manner school, I gave a hint of a shrug like I had no idea. Ellis jerked around.

“You know, I feel really bad for everyone involved. Let’s hope our new sheriff brings the killer to justice really fast.” Ellis wiggled her brows before she turned back around.

“I did hear your brother was the interim sheriff. I’m not sure why they didn’t just appoint Al Hemmer. He is qualified, and it’s his own uncle who appointed Hank. I wonder if they are having a little tiff in the family or something.” Carol was baiting, and I was in no mood to go fishing. “I will definitely vote for a Hemmer. They’ve done so many good things for the community. Mae, you should know. You sit on the board with Judge Executive Gab Hemmer. He’s so delightful. He comes up to me after every church service to check on how I am feeling.”

“You wouldn’t vote for—” Ellis started to say.

“Ahem. Is that a new lipstick you’re wearing?” I asked Ellis because I knew it wouldn’t be good for Hank for her to sit here and start running her mouth. It was one of those situations that would be brought up if Hank did run for the sheriff, which he’d not even mentioned to me.

“Mae, you do notice things about me. Hanky told me that you didn’t care about those things anymore.” She winked. “But you and I both know that when you get a taste for the finer things in life, it’s hard to go back to beans and rice. Men too.”

Her words almost made me sick to my stomach because she was dead wrong about me. She had no idea who I was, and if I wanted more than beans and rice, I’d have taken Kenny up on his offer. Ellis Sharp was full of herself, and I was so glad Hank wasn’t a bit like her. I attributed that to Agnes Swift. She’d raised Hank while Hank’s parents went all over the United States with Ellis to all the big pageants and various modeling gigs just because they thought she was going to make it big.

And here we were. Side by side on a small-Southern-town church bus on our way to see prisoners.

“Ladies, remember that you are not to touch the prisoners. You are to preach the verses you were given, and do not give them any advice. You are not allowed to take with you any messages for loved ones for them. Do not give them any personal information about you, and do not let the conversation go into any details of why they are here.” The warden of the state pen had jumped into the bus when we pulled up to the massive chain-link fence. He barked out all the rules and orders.

“We are lucky he let us back in after the stunt Lester pulled.” Betts frowned from the memory of how Lester had smuggled in clothes and some materials for an inmate to escape.

Not that Lester had wanted to. He had been in a desperate situation from being blackmailed.

I just did what everyone else on the bus was doing—all but Ellis. She was too busy gawking around and looking at the prison. I’d been here a handful of times, so I knew what to expect. By the look on Ellis’s face, this was her first experience.

The warden had us follow him into the massive block building along the fence line that was on the other side of the outside yard, where there were some prisoners out smoking.

“We’ve already got the men who have requested to be seen by you in the rooms.” The warden talked as we gave our IDs and paperwork Betts had had everyone fill out to a person at the table, who checked us in and gave us visitor stickers. The warden gave a few more instructions while the deputies searched through the Bibles and we each walked through a metal detector.

When it was all clear, a guard took each one of us separately to a different room that didn’t look any different than what you’d see on TV when someone came to visit someone in prison. There was a small desk with a glass between me and what would soon be the prisoner brought in. There was a phone that hung on each side, which was how we’d be communicating.

My heart sank when I saw it was Lester Hager who had come through the door and sat down on the other side of the glass.

He looked so thin and different than he had when he was the Normal Baptist Church preacher. As much as I wanted to not like Lester for his terrible choices, I couldn’t forget the kindness he’d showed me by giving me one of the cars they gave out to congregation members in need of getting around.

He smiled. The tremor on the edges of his lips didn’t go unnoticed. He pointed for me to pick up the phone.

“Mae, it’s so good to see you.” The strong voice I was used to hearing him with as he belted out Bible verses from the church podium was not there. It was quiet and meek. “It’s been a while. When Betts told me that you’d offered to come, I was glad.”

“How are you, Lester?” I asked.

“I’m doing all right. I guess when we think of our future, we never see ourselves straying off the path and down the road which brought me here. Just like our dear friend Sraig Cutton.”

It took me a minute to figure out what he was saying.

“You know Sraig.” His gaunt eyes stared at me through the glass. “He just couldn’t get off drugs. I figured his fate would come down to paying the piper.”

Sraig Cutton. Craig Sutton.

Lester must’ve seen the light bulb go off in my head.

“Poor Sraig. I’m sure his girlfriend will get that picture that was his most prized possession.” Lester frowned.

“I’ll have to check with her. I’m actually going by the Milkery when we get back from here.” I knew there had to be something to that darn picture Alicia had told me about. I’d even made a note in our sleuthing notebook about it. I would definitely ask her about it this afternoon.

“How is Mary Elizabeth?” Lester asked in a sincere voice.

As I sat there and talked to him, I realized I could see just how much Betts missed him. Sometimes, bad decisions turned someone into something they weren’t. Though I’d never understand how Lester had turned into a killer, I did see he was still the same sincere man that I’d been helped by when I first drove my beat-up campervan into Normal. Nor would I ever be able to repay the kindness and friendship his wife had given me.

After we’d made it back onto the bus, I made sure that I sat in the way back and slumped down in the seat so no one would see me. I squeezed my knees up on the back of the bus seat in front of me and let my legs dangle like I did when I was an actual student. I took out the notebook and opened it to Craig’s sleuthing page with all of Abby’s notes on it.

With my thighs as a table, I wrote down all the tidbits Lester had given me, even though I knew they were in code because he was letting me know there were other people listening on the other end.

“So?” Betts stood over me. “I figured you were hiding somewhere.”

“Please sit down so no one can sit here.” I scooted myself up on my seat, turned my body toward her, and curled my leg up under me. “Lester.” I pulled the notebook up to my chest. “Oh, Betts. I’m so sorry. I wish I could take away your loneliness.”

“You can’t. Besides, you’ve got Hank to worry with.” She tilted her head. “Did Lester help you?”

“I don’t know how you got me to get Lester, but he did. I was just about to write down the clues.” I flicked the pen top and started to write. “Craig was either a drug dealer or taking drugs. I’m not sure what the code Lester was using was, but I do know it was one of those. Then he mentioned Craig’s prized possession. A picture.”

Betts eyes grew big.

“Didn’t Abby read something from the notebook about a picture?” She looked down at the paper.

“Yes. Alicia told me that when he’d gone to jail before and gotten out, he was more worried about the picture than seeing her or being home. She’d given the picture to a neighbor, and that’s when he went down there and got it. I don’t remember how that turned out, but I do know that he didn’t want her getting rid of it.” I circled the word picture I’d written down so it would stick out when we all got back together to talk about the clues.

“And if we can just get ahold of that picture, I think there has to be some answers.” Betts didn’t say anything that wasn’t already in my head.

“And that’s what I plan on doing when I go to the Milkery to say goodbye to Jami and Kenny.” I folded the notebook closed and put it back in my purse.

“Speaking of Kenny…” She let his name dangle in the air.

“Hank, more importantly.” My chin lifted, and I looked out the school bus window. “I don’t know what’s going on with that. But Ellis is here.”

“Yeah. She called me asking if she could join. She told me why she wanted to join. Can you believe she had the gall?” Betts laughed.

“Yeah. I believe it.” We snickered in the back seat for a few more minutes before I finally broke down to let her vent. “Tell me about what’s going on with Lester.”

“You know, I’ve always wondered how killers get wives in prison after what they’ve done. Then I go back to my situation, and I can relate.” Her face softened, and there was a tear on the edge of her eyelid. “I never thought I’d be a preacher’s wife. So that took a lot of soul-searching when that happened. I thought my trials and tribulations were paid. Boy, was I wrong. When all that went down with him and put him in prison, I really thought that was my trial and tribulation. Boy, was I wrong again.” She laughed as a tear fell from her eye. “Loving a man who killed someone and cheated on me…” She shook her head because she was unable to speak.

“Girl, that’s your real trial and tribulation,” I finished for her, letting her know I was right here when she needed me.

She tilted her head and lay it on my shoulder. Both of us sat there in silence for the remainder of the ride.

Chapter 19

The silos of the Milkery were a much-welcomed sight after the morning I’d had. Being with the people I loved and good memories from my past was just the break I needed until I went back to the campground, where I knew I would see Hank.

I wasn’t sure if Ellis was going to keep her mouth shut, but I knew in order to beat her to the punch, I was going to have to tell him myself—something I wasn’t looking forward to.

Hank did embrace that nosy side of me, but he did have a line that he didn’t want me to cross. I was pretty sure going to jail to snoop was crossing his line.

Warm smells of cinnamon and sugar floated through the kitchen’s screen door and around me when Betts let me out of her car.

“Something smells so good.” Her eyes grew big.

“Are you sure you can’t come in?” I asked. “I bet Mary Elizabeth is baking something very good.”

“No. I have to get back to the Laundry Club, but be sure to text the gals so we can go over the new clues and how we can get our hands on that picture,” she said.

“Don’t worry. The first thing I’m going to do when I get in there is question her. Well, maybe I’ll grab a snack first then question her.” I winked and shut the door behind me.

While I was walking up to the door, I sent Dottie a quick text to check on Fifi, and she texted back a quick thumbs-up emoji.

“Hello,” I trilled into the screen door before I opened it to announce myself. “What’s going on?”

“Hey!” Jami popped up from the kitchen table. “You’re just in time. We were talking about the time you and Kenny were supposed to go to that dance and how—”

Kenny interrupted her. “How you weren’t going to go, and I was insistent on it because I was a good boy. But you reached across the car and jerked the wheel, almost hitting the brick sign of the bank.”

Kenny made me laugh. “That’s not how I recall it.” I really didn’t remember it at all, but I still played around.

Alicia came into the kitchen.

“While you tell your version, I’m going to use the little boys’ room.” He got up and took a second to look at Alicia. “The prescription seems to have worked well. Are you still itching?”

Alicia stuck her arms out for him to look at. “No. I’m all good. I think last night, I had the best night of sleep I’ve had in years. Thank you.” She sounded very sincere. “And my bruises are going away too. The makeup is really covering them up now.”

She came over to the table and showed me, Jami, and Mary Elizabeth.

“You are healing well.” Mary Elizabeth looked pleased.

“What are your plans?” Jami asked a great question for Alicia to answer. I wanted so badly to jump in and ask about the picture but didn’t.

“I’m not sure. I think I’m going to just hang here for a few.” Alicia looked over at Mary Elizabeth. “Which means I’m going to have to haul up the duffel bag.”

Alicia winced when she walked over to the bag in the corner.

“Don’t fiddle with that. Maybelline is strong, and you’ve got that bruised rib.” Mary Elizabeth snapped her finger then pointed me to the bag.

“Fine.” I rolled my eyes before I walked over to get the bag.

“She’s staying in the second room at the top of the front stairs,” Mary Elizabeth told me.

The Milkery bed-and-breakfast was a pretty neat old house, and it was Dawn Gentry who had come up with the idea to maintain the historical integrity of the old mansion but add those little comfy and modern touches. Those upgrades brought the building back to life.

The rooms were each decorated to be warm, cozy, and welcoming. The room Alicia was staying in was decorated with items that related to the Daniel Boone National Forest. So when I walked in and noticed a picture on the wall that was abstract, it caught my attention.

“Thank you so much.” Alicia walked through the door.

“You’re welcome.” I twirled around, hoping she didn’t think I was snooping around in her room. “I want you to know that I went to prison to see if anyone had anything on Craig and had a motive to kill him.”

“And?” She was eager.

Kenny passed by, and when he noticed us in the room, he took a couple steps backward and stopped at the door.

“Oh, I’m sorry. Did I interrupt?” he asked.

“No.” Alicia waved him in. “Mae was telling me how she went to the prison where Craig had gone, and she was just about to tell me what she found out.”

“Yeah. It seems Craig was either a drug dealer or a drug addict. I’m not sure which one he was in prison, but—” My jaw dropped. “Is this the picture you were talking about when you said Craig had gotten upset when you gave it to the neighbors?”

“Yes.” She nodded, her eyes wide-open.

“I was told by a very reliable source that this was a prized possession.” I walked back over to the photo in the glassless frame.

“I have kept it because I just didn’t know if I’d ever go back to him. I’m ashamed to even admit that.” She gulped. “When I got here, I just took down the buffalo photo that was there and hung it up.”

“May I?” Kenny had walked over and gestured taking it off the wall.

“Sure.” Alicia didn’t seem to be hiding anything, while if she were the killer and there was something there, I’d sure have thought she wouldn’t want anyone to touch it.

“Fancy frame.” Kenny ran his hands along the outer edge and stopped. “Here.” He held out the frame. “There’s two little screws here.”

“What kind of screwdriver?” I asked.

“Let me go see if Mary Elizabeth has a Phillips-head,” Kenny said on his way out the door, shutting it behind him.

“Do you think it’s some sort of secret compartment?” Alicia looked over my shoulder as I took a closer look.

“It looks like it is.” I tugged on the frame to see if I could pull it apart. “I guess you don’t care if I break the frame?”

“Here.” She took it from me and smacked it on the ground.

The frame didn’t break, but it cracked on the corner.

She looked at it, shrugged, and smacked it on the ground again, causing the frame to break completely. A bunch of little pieces of paper fell out.

I picked up a couple and noticed they were doctor scripts.

“Was Craig going around to different pharmacies and collecting pills to sell?” I lifted them in the air and noticed the script was from a doctor in Perrysburg.

Alicia gathered up the other ones.

“They all look to be from the same doctor. There’s a number on it,” she noted.

“I’ll call it.” I pulled my phone out from my pocket and pulled up the phone app to punch in the numbers and hit send.

My heart stopped. Literally, I felt like I was going to faint when I noticed I already had the number plugged into my phone.

Kenny Jolly.

I quickly hit the red off button.

“We have to get out of here.” I grabbed Alicia by the arm and practically dragged her over to the door. “Kenny is Craig’s killer,” I said and opened the door to find Kenny on the other side.

“I’m guessing we all need to have a little talk.” Kenny took a step inside, making us take a step backward. He looked down at the prescription pad in my hand. “I’ll take those.”

“Kenny, what happened?” My brows pinched together. I didn’t fear I was in danger. It was Kenny Jolly. My friend.

“Being a pharmacist has its perks, and one of those is having ready access to many sought-after drugs. When you’ve got a junkie like Craig Sutton who will do practically anything for a fix, then you can run a pretty profitable business, even when he is in jail.” The lovable Kenny had suddenly turned into a devil right in front of my eyes. “The laws changed. There is no more writing scripts. Everything is done over the internet, so it really cuts down on little side hustles like mine.”

“Is that what drug dealers are calling it nowadays?” I could see where he was going with this whole line of thinking, and I didn’t like it. “Come on, Alicia. We are calling Hank.”

Kenny took a step in front of the door to block us and shut it quietly behind him.

“Move, Kenny,” I told him.

“You might be the love of my life and super adorable, but I’m not going to let a lowlife, as my mama liked to call you, from the wrong side of the tracks bring me down.” He had the screwdriver in his hand. He brought it up and twirled the sharp end on the pad of his pointer finger of his other hand. “Pretty sharp, and I know exactly where this needs to go for sudden death.” He stuck it up to his neck to indicate the carotid artery. “It will be sad to have to tell everyone how I went to the bathroom and found both of you in here, dead. I picked up the screwdriver and accidentally got my fingerprints on the handle. It’s a shame that all this time, Mary Elizabeth believed Alicia had turned her life around, but she’s still the same strung-out little girl who got pregnant and couldn’t care for her own daughter.”

“I see her.” Alicia was letting him get under her skin. “I did the right thing by letting Doris Jean raise her up. I did the moral thing. You, on the other hand, you are a murderer.” Alicia’s hands were fisted at her sides.

“Kenny, honestly, do you think you’re going to get away with this?” I asked. “Did you come here with Jami because you wanted to make sure that I didn’t find you out? All that we’d-be-good-together stuff was all lie, wasn’t it?”

“I guess you did get you an education in the streets, since you never graduated from high school,” he mocked me. “My mama was right after all of these years.” His gaze moved to the tip of the screwdriver, and he lunged forward.

The door popped open off its hinges, and a shot rang out. Me, Alicia, and Kenny fell to the floor.

I kept my head covered with my arms and heard the sound of footsteps as someone circled me.

“Are you okay?” I heard Hank’s voice and felt his familiar hand on my back.

“Hank.” I jumped to sit and threw my arms around him. Over his shoulder, I noticed Kenny was on the floor, holding his knee to his chest, blood pouring out of it where Hank had shot him.

Al Hemmer was putting him in cuffs while the EMT was addressing the wound.

“Make sure you stop the bleeding. I want to make sure we escort him to prison, where he belongs.” Hank was very pleased.

“That’ll teach him not to go after your girl.” Alicia snickered, making me and Hank smile.

She didn’t know we weren’t on the best of relationship terms, but at this moment, I was very grateful he was here.

“How did you know?” I let him help me out of the room so they could conduct the rest of their investigation and get Kenny ready to transport.

He took me back down to the kitchen, where everyone had been cleared out and into the yard. Hank sat me down in a chair at the kitchen table. He opened the screen door and waved someone in. It was another paramedic.

“I want you to get looked over.” Hank took a step back from me and let the EMT do the usual vitals check, flashlight to the eyes, et cetera.

When the paramedic had cleared me, Hank came back over with a bottle of water and unscrewed the lid before he handed it to me.

“Drink this,” he told me then started to tell me how he figured it was Kenny who killed Craig. “Violet Rhinehammer beat you to the punch.” He smiled. “She was on the trail Kenny had marked through the woods. He’d gotten in contact with Craig and told him to meet him on the trail near the Old Train Station. Kenny had dropped Jami off downtown to shop, and it gave him enough time to drive to the motel after he’d stopped into Deters Feed-N-Seed to pick up some trail mix for a snack. He ended up getting to the motel a little early and took the trail down to the cascades, where we believe he figured it would be a good idea to come up through the woods. That’s when he started to tear up the plastic bag to leave a trail for him to follow.”

All of it was making sense.

“We also believe Craig was going to blackmail Kenny about how Kenny had Craig going from pharmacy to pharmacy to fill the pain medications. He would sell them for Kenny, and Craig got a cut. Kenny even funneled the pain meds to Craig while he was in jail. We’ve got Kenny on camera at the jail, and we have him on camera at Deters Feed-N-Seed.”

“That’s how Lester knew about the drugs.” I started to connect what Lester had said in the jail to what Hank was telling me. It all was coming together like a puzzle.

“Lester?” Hank questioned.

“I’d heard Craig was in the jail because Betts had been going to visit with Lester. Lester told her he knew Craig from prison, so I went with the Bible-thumpers to go see Lester and what he knew.” I could tell by Hank’s firm jaw the news didn’t sit well with him.

“Mae, I’m not going to talk to you about this right now. But you know my feelings on you going to the jail. Snooping around with gossip is one thing, but going into a federal prison with real killers who will snap you in two is another.” His nostrils flared.

“Your sister was there too.” I thought I could bring up Ellis being there and it would lessen the feelings he harbored around it.

“You aren’t Ellis,” he said, his voice cracking. “I don’t know what this is.” He gestured between us. “This is much bigger than me not wanting you to go to an all-male prison where who knows what could happen to you. Do you know what goes on in there, Mae? Why can’t you just use your head for once and not your heart?”

I stepped back. Dumbfounded, I blinked at him in disbelief.

“Mae.” He reached for me as he called my name in a soft tone. I jerked my hand away. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean that. If I didn’t care for you, then I wouldn’t be so upset that you went to the prison.”

“You of all people know that I am loyal to the ones I love. I will do anything to protect them, and if going to a jail to question an ex-preacher is part of that, I’m going to do it. If my boyfriend’s job is on the line because of a murder”—I brought back the time Hank’s job was on the line and, once again, I risked my life to come face-to-face with the killer to save him from being fired—“I’m going to do all I can to keep him from losing his job.”

I stood up and started to walk toward the door.

“Mae, please.” He stopped talking when I turned and put my hand up in his face.

“I’m not sure where I stand in this relationship, and I need some time.” I walked over to the screen door and opened it.

Mary Elizabeth had taken me home, where I was greeted by a very happy little puppy. I was too tired to answer the calls from the Laundry Club Ladies and told them I’d meet them in the morning. I assured them I was okay, life as we knew it was good at Happy Trails Campground, and we could now focus all of our energy on Bobby Ray and Abby’s upcoming wedding.

I also knew Hank wouldn’t be back to the campground anytime soon, because he was at the scene of the crime and transporting Kenny was his number one goal for right now.

The day quickly shifted into night. Before it was even nine o’clock, Fifi and I got curled up in the bed and flipped on the television to get in some mindless relaxation.

The rumble of a truck revved up outside, and I peeled back the bedroom-window curtain to see which campground guest was leaving the campground early.

It wasn’t a guest.

It was Hank, his camper hitched to the back of his truck. The taillights faded into the dark night.

THE END

Um…wow! Did you see that coming? Want to find out what happens next? I’d love for you to extend your camper rental at Happy Trails! Grab Outdoors, Oars, & Oath today on Amazon or FREE in Kindle Unlimited.

But wait! Readers ask me how much my cozy mysteries and the characters in them reflect my real life. Well…here is a good story for you.

Whooo hooo!! I'm so glad we are a week out from last Coffee Chat with Tonya and happy to report the poison ivy is almost gone! But y'all we got more issues than Time magazine up in our family.

When y'all ask me if my real life ever creeps into books, well...grab your coffee because here is a prime example!

My sweet mom's birthday was over the weekend. Now, I'd already decided me and Rowena was going to stay there for a couple of extra days.

On her birthday, Sunday, Tracy and David were there too, and we were talking about what else...poison ivy! I was telling them how I can't stand not shaving my legs. Mom and Tracy told me they don't shave daily and I might've curled my nose a smidgen. And apparently it didn't go unnoticed.

I went inside the house to start cooking breakfast for everyone and mom went up to her room to get her bathing suit on and Tracy was with me. All the men were already outside on the porch.

The awfulest crash came from upstairs and my sister tore out of that kitchen like a bat out of hell and I kept flipping the bacon. My mom had fallen...shaving her legs!

Great. Now it's my fault.

Her wrist was a little stiff but she kept saying she was fine. We had a great day. We celebrated her birthday, swam, and had cake. When it came time for everyone to leave but me and Ro, I told mom that she should probably go get an x-ray because her wrist was a little swollen.

After a lot of coaxing, she agreed and I put my shoes on and told Tracy, David, and Eddy to go on home and we'd call them.

My mama looked me square in the face and said, "You're going with that top knot on your head?"

I said, "yes."

She sat back down in the chair and said, "I'm not going with you lookin' like that."

"Are you serious?" I asked.

"Yes. I'm dead serious. I'm not going with you looking like that. What if we see someone?" She was serious, y'all!

She protested against my hair!

Now...this is exactly like the southern mama's I write about! I looked at Eddy and he was laughing. Tracy and David were laughing and I said, "I can't wait until I tell my coffee chat people about this."

As you can see in the above photo, the before and after photo.

Yep...we went and she broke her wrist! Can you believe that? We were a tad bit shocked, and I'll probably be staying a few extra days (which will give us even more to talk about over coffee next week).

Oh...we didn't see anyone we knew so I could've worn my top knot! As I'm writing this, you can bet your bottom dollar my hair is pulled up in my top knot!

Okay, so y’all might be asking why I’m putting this little story in the back of my book, well, that’s a darn tootin’ good question.

This is exactly what you can expect when you sign up for my newsletter. There’s always something going on in my life that I have to chat with y’all about each Tuesday on Coffee Chat with Tonya. I hope you join us by clicking here and signing up.

Recipes and Camp/ing/er Hacks

Alicia Becker’s Homemade Dog Treats

Preheat oven to 350.

Ingredients

2.5 cups of wheat flour

1 egg, beaten

.50 cup of nonfat milk powder (dry ingredient)

Flavor with either broth or water from a can of tuna. (You’ll need enough to make the dough stiff.)

Directions:

1. Combine the flour and powdered milk.

2. Add in the egg and the flavor of choice to the dry mix.

3. Use your hand to mix so you can see if the dough is too stiff. If it is, you’ll need to add some more of the flavoring of choice.

4. Flour a surface and roll out the dough to about ¼ inch thick.

5. Cut the dough using bone cookie cutters. Or really any cookie cutter, but a bone is fun!

6. Line your cookie sheet with baking paper, put your dough cutouts on it, and place it into the oven.

7. Bake for 30 minutes.

Allow to cool before you give it to your fur baby! Watch them wag their tails for more!

Hack #1

We love to drink out of plastic cups when we go camping. But sometimes while sitting around a campfire or even just driving in the RV, we tend to spill our drinks or even get bugs in them.

We have discovered a way to turn any cup into a traveling cup using the Press’n Seal paper you see in the baggie section of the grocery store. You will cut a square big enough to fit over the mouth of your cup. Place the square over the top of your cup and press the edges to stick to the outside of your cup. It’ll form a seal over the mouth of your cup.

Use a straw to poke a hole in the middle so you can drink from it, and voilà! No more spills and no more bugs!

Omelets in a Bag

Ingredients

1 freezer bag

2 eggs

½ cup of omelet fillings of your choice – sausage, bacon, onions, mushrooms, peppers, anything

¼ cup of cheese

Directions:

1. Crack eggs into the quart-sized freezer bags, or smaller, if you want, but I’ve found the bigger are better.

2. Add your fillings of choice.

3. Seal bag and shake to scramble and mix the omelet.

4. Fill your pot halfway with water and hang over your campfire to boil.

5. Once the water is boiling, put the sealed omelet bag in the boiling water for about 15 minutes.

6. Take the bag out of the water, gently open it, and slide the omelet onto your plate. It’s done!

So fun, and enjoy!

Hack #2

Campers are always asking me what is a good natural way to keep bugs and pests away from campsites. Of course I like to use the easy over-the-counter sprays that have chemicals in them, but I also do have a little secret that involves some household natural items you probably have handy before you go camping.

Sage and rosemary combined make a great natural way to keep those pesky mosquitos and bugs away. Simply add them equal parts into aluminum foil packets. You can make several packets beforehand so they are ready to use when you get that campfire going.

After you have your campfire ready, wet the aluminum packet and poke a few holes in it. Place the foil pack in the campfire. The pack will smolder all night and keep those bugs away for a good night’s sleep!

Foil-Wrapped Campfire Hot Dogs

I don’t know what it is about hot dogs cooked on a campfire that I love, but I do! Now…make them at home and I don’t want one, but a campfire hot dog is really something good.

You’re going to love this one!

Ingredients

Hot dogs

Pillsbury crescent rolls

Condiments of your choice.

Directions:

1. Put the hot dog longways on the skewer.

2. Open the crescent rolls and unwrap them.

3. Wrap the long end of the crescent roll triangle around each hot dog.

4. Wrap the hot dogs loosely in aluminum foil with the stick out of the aluminum foil.

5. Hold the hot dog by the stick over the fire and keep turning it.

6. Keep over the fire for about 18 minutes. They are done when you notice the crescent roll is brown like it would be if you had them baking in an oven.

7. Carefully unwrap and enjoy with whatever condiments you want to use on them.

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About Tonya

Tonya has written over 175 novels, all of which have graced numerous bestseller lists, including the USA Today. Best known for stories charged with emotion and humor and filled with flawed characters, her novels have garnered reader praise and glowing critical reviews. She lives with her husband and a very spoiled rescue cat named Ro. Tonya grew up in the small southern Kentucky town of Nicholasville. Now that her four boys are grown men, Tonya writes full-time in her camper.

Learn more about her be sure sure to check out her website tonyakappes.com. Find her on Goodreads, Patreon, Facebook, BookBub, and Instagram

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This book is a work of fiction. The characters, incidents, and dialogue are drawn from the author’s imagination and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental. The cover was made by Mariah Sinclair. Editing from Red Adept Editing Services.

Copyright © 2020 by Tonya Kappes. All rights reserved. Printed in the United States of America. No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission except in the case of brief quotations embodied in critical articles and reviews. For information email Tonyakappes@tonyakappes.com