Insects, Ivy, & Investigations: A Camper & Criminals Cozy Mystery Series Book 17, page 30
Insects, Ivy, & Investigation
A Camper and Criminals Cozy Mystery Book 17
Tonya Kappes
Contents
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PREVIEW
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
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.
