Melissa Katzen. Don’t suppose you disguised your voice like a
woman’s and called in the tip?”
Not me, Sheriff,” Tyler said, raising an eyebrow. “Who did you
say? Melissa Katzen?”
Yep, that’s right. You remember her, Tyler? Didn’t you go to
school with her? Your ages are about right.”
Tyler slowly lowered Sam to the porch and watched him wander
over to a low table that held a stack of books, some of them
very old indeed.
“Melissa Katzen.” Tyler frowned. “Yes, I remember her. A real
sweet kid. I think she might have been in my high school class, or
maybe a year behind me. I’m just not sure. She wasn’t really pretty,
but she was nice, never said a bad thing about anybody, as I remember.
You really think she could be the skeleton?”
“Don’t know. Got an anonymous call about her.”
Tyler frowned a bit. “I think I remember hearing that she was
going to elope, yeah, that was it. She eloped and no one ever heard
from her again.”
Sheriff Gaffney said, “Yep, that’s the story. Now DNA will tell
us, at least if what those labs claim is true. Well, it’s time for me to
see the power company. Then I’ll call that Jarvis guy in Augusta, see
what they’re doing.”
Sam was holding a small, thick paperback in his hands.
Adam dropped down to his knees and looked at the little book
with a fancy attack helicopter on the cover. He said, “It’s Jane’s Aircraft
Recognition Guide. I wonder what Jacob Marley was doing with
one of Jane’s publications?”
“Jane?” Sam said.
“Yeah, I know, that’s a girl’s name. Hey, they’re Brits, Sam.You’ve
got to expect them to do weird things.”
Becca said,”Hey, Sam, you want a glass of lemonade? I just made
some this morning.”
Sam looked up at her, didn’t say anything, but finally nodded.
Tyler said, his chin up, a hint of the aggressor in his voice, “Sam
loves Becca’s lemonade.”
“I do, too,” Adam said. “Now, I’m out of here. I’ll be back
tonight, Becca.”
She wanted to ask him where he was going, who he was going
to talk to, but she couldn’t say a blasted thing in front of Tyler.
“Take care,” she called out after him. She saw Adam pause just a
moment, but he didn’t turn back.
“I don’t like him, Becca,” Tyler said in a low voice a few minutes
later in the kitchen, one eye on Sam, who was drinking his lemonade
and looking for the goody in the box of Cracker Jack Becca
had handed him.
“He’s harmless,” she said easily. “Really harmless. I’m sure he’s
gay. So you knew this Melissa Katzen?”
Tyler nodded and took another drink of his lemonade. “Like I
told the sheriff, she was a nice kid. Not real popular, not real smart,
but nice. She also played soccer. I remember once she beat me in
poker.” Tyler grinned at some memory. “Yeah, it was strip poker. I
think I was the first guy she’d ever seen in boxer shorts.”
“Rachel makes good lemonade,” Sam said, and both adults
looked at him with admiration. He’d said four whole words, strung
them all together.
Becca patted his face. “I’ll bet Rachel does lots of really good
things. She rented me this house, you know.”
Sam nodded and drank more lemonade.
After they’d left ten minutes later to go grocery shopping, Becca
cleaned up the kitchen and headed upstairs. She made her bed and
straightened the bedroom. She didn’t want to have anything to do
with Adam Carruthers, but she sighed and walked down to his
bedroom. The bed was neatly made. Nothing was out in plain
sight. She walked over to the dresser and pulled out the top drawer.
Underwear, T-shirts, and a couple of folded cotton shirts. Nothing
else. She pulled his dark blue carryall out from under the bed. She
lifted it on top of the bed and slowly started to pull back the long
zipper.
The phone rang. She nearly leapt three feet in the air. The
phone rang again.
She had to run downstairs, as that was the only phone in the
house. Her cell phone had run out of power and was recharging.