“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.”

 

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