Table of Contents
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Other Titles by Denise Grover Swank Rose Gardner Mysteries TWENTY-EIGHT AND A HALF WISHES TWENTY-NINE AND A HALF REASONS THIRTY AND A HALF EXCUSES FALLING TO PIECES (Novella) THIRTY-ONE AND A HALF REGRETS THIRTY-TWO AND A HALF COMPLICATIONS PICKING UP THE PIECES (Novella) THIRTY-THREE AND A HALF SHENANIGANS ROSE AND HELENA SAVE CHRISTMAS (Novella) RIPPLE OF SECRETS (Novella) THIRTY-FOUR AND A HALF PREDICAMENTS THIRTY-FIVE AND A HALF CONSPIRACIES THIRTY-SIX AND A HALF MOTIVES Rose Gardner Investigations and Neely Kate Mysteries FAMILY JEWELS TRAILER TRASH FOR THE BIRDS Magnolia Steele Mysteries CENTER STAGE ACT TWO CALL BACK CURTAIN CALL Bachelor Brotherhood ONLY YOU UNTIL YOU ALWAYS YOU The Wedding Pact THE SUBSTITUTE THE PLAYER THE GAMBLER THE VALENTINE Off the Subject AFTERMATH REDESIGNED BUSINESS AS USUAL The Curse Keepers THE CURSE KEEPERS THIS PLACE IS DEATH (Novella) THE CURSE BREAKERS THIS CHANGES EVERYTHING (Novella) THE CURSE DEFIERS THIS IS YOUR DESTINY (Novella) The Chosen C
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This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, organizations, places, events, and incidents are either products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Text copyright © 2018 by Denise Grover Swank All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced, or stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without express written permission of the publisher. Published by Montlake Romance, Seattle www.apub.com Amazon, the Amazon logo, and Montlake Romance are trademarks of Amazon.com, Inc., or its affiliates. ISBN-13: 9781542048217 ISBN-10: 1542048214 Cover design by Faceout Studios
To Trace: you’ve always been too devious for your own good.
CONTENTS CHAPTER ONE CHAPTER TWO CHAPTER THREE CHAPTER FOUR CHAPTER FIVE CHAPTER SIX CHAPTER SEVEN CHAPTER EIGHT CHAPTER NINE CHAPTER TEN CHAPTER ELEVEN CHAPTER TWELVE CHAPTER THIRTEEN CHAPTER FOURTEEN CHAPTER FIFTEEN CHAPTER SIXTEEN CHAPTER SEVENTEEN CHAPTER EIGHTEEN CHAPTER NINETEEN CHAPTER TWENTY CHAPTER TWENTY-ONE CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN CHAPTER TWENTY-EIGHT CHAPTER TWENTY-NINE CHAPTER THIRTY CHAPTER THIRTY-ONE CHAPTER THIRTY-TWO CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE CHAPTER THIRTY-FOUR CHAPTER THIRTY-FIVE CHAPTER THIRTY-SIX CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ABOUT THE AUTHOR
CHAPTER ONE This felt a lot like rock bottom. I was sitting at the bar in Magnum, an upscale Vietnamese and Portuguese fusion restaurant, sipping a glass of white wine while I tried not to dwell on the fact that the restaurant was named after a condom. Okay, so it probably wasn’t named after a condom, but it might as well have been. I hadn’t had a decent job in almost eight years, and I was trying to decide whether to accept a nude photo shoot or star in my own personal version of hell—a reality TV show. I’d been looking for signs everywhere, and this seemed like a flashing billboard. My grandmother was the one who’d gotten me into the habit of looking for signs. As a lifetime member of Sweet Briar, Alabama Calvary Baptist Church, I was positive she would tell me to run far away from the photo shoot, regardless of the name of the restaurant. It didn’t matter that I hadn’t talked to my grandmother in years—nine, to be exact. She always seemed to pop up in my head when I needed tough lov
CHAPTER TWO “Shit. This is bad,” I said as I watched the video phone footage on TMZ while balancing a bag of frozen peas on the knuckles of my right hand. Lucky for me, I’d been captured on half a dozen camera phones, all showing me from various angles punching Richard Abbott, a forty-three-year-old mechanic from Omaha, Nebraska, in the face. My front door opened, and I whipped around to see Marina walk in carrying a brown paper bag. I pushed out a breath of relief. I was so tightly wound, I wasn’t sure I could handle this alone. I hadn’t called her, but I wasn’t surprised she’d come anyway even though she was supposed to be working. “What in the hell happened?” she asked, walking toward me. “I just snapped,” I said, turning back to the TV as the host discussed what had led to my emotional breakdown. “I’ll say,” she said in awe. “Have you been taking kickboxing or self-defense classes on the sly? Because that was quite a punch.” “No.” I groaned and began to pace again. “Just hot yoga.”
CHAPTER THREE Two days later, the production company put me on a red-eye from LA to Atlanta. Marina had pouted big-time when she’d realized she couldn’t come with me, but I’d promised to call her often and fill her in on the details. My plane was supposed to land around six in the morning, and Lauren’s assistant, Karen, was scheduled to pick me up on the curb at six thirty. Instead, my plane had mechanical issues that delayed our takeoff, and Karen picked up my two bags and me at seven thirty. She gave me a strained glance when I got in the car. “Lauren’s going to be pissed.” “She can’t be angry over something that was out of your control,” I said, fastening the seat belt as she punched the gas pedal and tore away from the curb. “She’s not going to be angry with me.” Her sympathetic look told me all I needed to know. “I presume we’ll start filming soon after we get to Sweet Briar,” I said, leaning my head back on the seat. I’d barely gotten any sleep on the plane. “Everyone will be rea
CHAPTER FOUR Bill, another cameraman, hopped into the back of a pickup truck and filmed us as we drove the ten blocks to the McBrides’ house. As soon as we were alone together, Dixie turned in her seat to face me. We were going about ten miles an hour—apparently it was easier to film us that way—so I was able to shoot a glance at her every now and then. “So,” she said, “Maybelline started a Facebook page for Sweet Briar gossip—” “Maybelline? The one who owns the café downtown?” She laughed. “How many Maybellines do you know?” Touché. “She hears all kinds of things at the café and then posts about them online,” Dixie continued. “People tell her things, knowin’ she’ll post their stories without usin’ their names.” “I don’t think I’m gonna like where you’re going with this . . . ,” I said. She grinned. “Today, she posted about your encounter with Luke. Someone called it a reunion of star-crossed lovers.” I rolled my eyes and groaned. “There’s even a photo. Looks like there’s still a spark
CHAPTER FIVE I found Dixie sitting on the porch step, staring out into the backyard. I sat down beside her and wrapped my arm around her back. “How’re you doin’?” “I’m fine,” she sniffed out. I leaned my head into hers. “I’ve been a really crappy cousin, but I want to be a good one now. If you ever want to talk about your parents or anything, I’m a pretty good listener.” I bent down to catch her tear-filled gaze. “And I’m pretty good at opening a wine bottle too. Even my friend Marina says so.” Dixie laughed and swiped an escaping tear. “It’s so stupid. I have no right to these feelings.” “What feelings? Grief?” I asked in disbelief. She didn’t answer for a moment. “Even if I was entitled then, they’ve been gone nine years.” “You lost your parents, Dixie, and Pawpaw too. You’re entitled to your grief.” I paused, then decided to address the elephant in the room. “Momma didn’t tell me much, but I know you didn’t intentionally start the fire. It was an accident.” “Accident or not, they’re
CHAPTER SIX After I parked on Main Street, we walked the half block to the café. Dixie opened the door and motioned for me to go in first. Walking into Maybelline’s Café was like stepping into the past. I’d spent a lot of time here when I was a kid, and even more on my trip home the summer I was seventeen. I’d gotten to know Maybelline pretty well, so I wasn’t surprised when she called out my name. “Summer!” “Hey, Maybelline.” The elderly woman with shockingly orange hair waddled toward me and pulled me into a bear hug. “I was wondering how long it would take you to show up here. You’ve been gone too long, girl.” “I know,” I said. “But I’m back now, and I’m starving for one of your country-fried steak dinners. We have to be back in about thirty minutes. Sho
uld I order something else?” Perhaps I should have for the sake of my figure, but I wasn’t doing the Alpha photo shoot, so maybe it didn’t matter too much. A mock scowl scrunched up her face, and she pointed to an empty booth. “Order
CHAPTER SEVEN We were a few minutes early, but Lauren must have put the fear of God into everyone, because we were the last to arrive. At 1 p.m. sharp, a woman showed up at the door. I was sure she was just another gawker, but Karen rushed out to greet her. Lauren looked up from her tablet. “Okay. Let’s not waste any time. That’s our next client, Mrs. Peabody.” Dixie looked surprised. “What’s Summer investigating for Nettie?” “She’s looking for proof her husband is a philanderer.” Dixie burst out laughing. “The whole dang town knows that.” Lauren shot her a withering glare. “We’re still lining up cases. We’ll need some easy ones too, to help round out the episodes.” Dixie turned to me. “I thought the whole point was to solve mysteries.” I shrugged, still trying to figure out the real point of this show. I was beginning to think Lauren and I had two entirely different expectations. I knew some reality shows were scripted, but if Dixie was right about Mr. Peabody, this bordered on ridicu
CHAPTER EIGHT We spent the next two hours at the house of the town harlot, aka Becky MacDonald, because Karen had arranged for Nettie’s husband to be there. I took the camera Lauren had provided and snuck around the house, peeking into the windows and taking photos. Then I got multiple shots of Nettie’s husband running out the front door toward his truck. Thankfully, Becky and Earl supplied plenty of drama, from her running out in her lingerie to him tripping over a tree root as he tried to pull a shirt over his head, so I didn’t catch any more grief from Lauren for being too boring. The topper was the policeman who showed up claiming someone had turned me in for being a Peeping Tom. Since he put a pair of handcuffs on me, I suspected that someone had been Lauren. The next stop was staking out the disability-claim guy in his doctor’s parking lot. That was a whole lot less interesting, so either Lauren had some surprise planned, or I was going to have to come up with something fast. Kar
CHAPTER NINE “This is harassment, Luke,” I snapped. “You’ve had officers watching us all day, and now this. You know I didn’t do anything wrong. I expected better from you.” Guilt flashed in his eyes, but his anger flared up as quickly as an Alabama thunderstorm. “You’re disrupting my town. You blew in like a tornado and disrupted my life twelve years ago, and here you are disruptin’ it again.” I searched deep for an ember of anger to stoke, anything that would overtake the pain that was about to make me burst into tears. “I have no intention of disrupting your life again. That’s not why I’m here.” “I’m the damn police chief, Summer. You’re disruptin’ the town, which means you’re disruptin’ me.” He turned away. “If I had my way, I’d kick your whole damn circus out of the city limits, but your producer promised something to Mayor Sterling and swayed the whole city council, and now I’m hamstrung.” That perked up my interest. “Promised what?” “Probably money for that stoplight he’s wantin
CHAPTER TEN “Summer,” my mother said in a snippy tone, “you’re back in town and didn’t bother to tell me.” I pushed out a breath. I was going to kill Lauren. And all this was being captured on camera. If Lauren expected us to reshoot Momma’s grand entrance, I would walk right out of this house. “Momma,” I said, trying to keep my tone civil, “I just arrived this morning.” “I hear you got a new business,” she said, walking into the room. “You’re a detective now. A real one.” My stepfather followed, staying multiple steps behind her. His black hair had gone mostly gray, but he still had the same browbeaten look he’d worn since shortly after he’d married my mother. “Hello, Summer,” he said softly, unable to look me in the eye. “Hi, Burt.” “What in the Sam Hill are you doin’ here, Beatrice?” Meemaw asked while slapping a spoonful of potatoes onto her plate. Momma lifted her chin. “We’ve dropped by for dinner.” “No one invited you.” My mother laughed. “Invited? But we’re family.” She pointed
CHAPTER ELEVEN The next morning after we got into the truck to head into town, I saw that Dixie was glued to her phone. “Everything okay?” “There’s been a murder,” she said with her eyes still fixed on the screen. “In Sweet Briar?” I asked in shock. “Yeah. It’s on Maybelline’s Facebook page.” “Who?” “She doesn’t know. Only that a body was found behind Ruby Garwood’s garage. Cale found it while he was driving home last night. Luke’s keepin’ it all hush-hush.” “When was the last time there was a murder in this town?” “The county has ’em from time to time, but I can’t remember the last time someone was killed in city limits.” She paused for a moment. “So what’s that mean for our show?” “I don’t know,” I said. “Nothing, I suppose. Otto’s disappearance seems to be the only real thing we’re investigating if you don’t count the workman’s-comp case, and honestly, I’m not convinced that’s real.” I gasped. “Do you think it could be Otto?” “Oh, golly,” she said. “I hope not.” She continued to loo
CHAPTER TWELVE We spent another hour staking out Earl at his next honey’s house. This one was less eventful, which I wasn’t sure was such a good thing given Lauren’s push for drama, and afterward we headed back to the Dollar General in the hopes of catching Otto’s cronies off guard. I wondered if they would even be there at eleven in the morning, but sure enough, they were lounging at the table, looking less clean-cut than the day before and already three sheets to the wind. Since Karen and Lauren weren’t surprised to see them, and each of the guys had a half-empty bottle of Jim Beam, it wasn’t hard to deduce what Karen had been up to when she’d disappeared for a while an hour earlier. Chuck didn’t want to risk hooking microphones up on two drunk guys, so he pulled out the overhead mike, and Dixie and I started questioning Al and Fred. I held out my hand. “Hi, I’m Summer, and I want to ask you a few questions about your friend.” Fred shook my hand with a wicked glint in his eyes. “Tiny
CHAPTER THIRTEEN The moment I met the elderly Reverend Timothy Miller, I knew he was a patient man. Lauren was pacing his office with a scowl on her face, but Reverend Miller sat at his desk quietly drinking tea while everyone scurried about his office. Tony had his camera set up behind one of the guest chairs, and Bill’s camera was to one side of the desk, practically pointed at the other one. “Where the hell have you been, Summer?” Lauren snapped. “I got lost,” I said, crossing the room to the minster’s desk. “Hi, I’m Summer. Thank you so much for meeting with us today.” With Lauren’s tight schedule and need to follow everything by the script, I had a feeling she wouldn’t approve of our questioning the Dollar General employees. Better to keep it to ourselves, especially since we hadn’t discovered anything. “You got lost in the Dollar General?” Lauren asked in disbelief. “Have you been inside the Dollar General?” Dixie asked. “There’s miles and miles of discounts.” Lauren stared at he
CHAPTER FOURTEEN Dixie was right—it was a beautiful day. It was the middle of April, and being so close to the Gulf of Mexico, Sweet Briar and Bixley County heated up a lot faster than the rest of the country. But we were enjoying a good spell—the expected high was in the midseventies, and the sun was shining. We stopped off at Mama Jane’s, a hole-in-the-wall restaurant that only sold fried chicken and the fixings out of the window of what looked like a dilapidated shack. Dixie had called ahead, and they had a huge bucket of chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy, green beans, and rolls waiting for us when we pulled up. I realized too late that I only had fourteen dollars in my wallet—not nearly enough to pay for the twenty-five-dollar lunch, and my credit cards were mostly maxed out. But Bill, in his effort to impress Dixie, was already hopping out of the truck to pay for it. The looks my cousin was giving him suggested that she was actually into him, but I worried that acting was in the
CHAPTER FIFTEEN I woke to Dixie’s voice. Something soft was under the back of my very sore head. “Summer? Oh, my God, Summer? Do something, Bill!” “I’ve already called 911,” he said, sounding uncharacteristically serious. I blinked my eyes
open and saw Dixie’s tear-streaked face staring down at me. I realized the something soft was her legs. My head was on her lap. “Oh, thank God,” she said in a broken voice. “She’s awake.” “Otto,” I gasped. “He’s over there.” She tilted her head to the side. Several tears fell down her cheeks. “We moved you away from him once we realized you’d fainted.” Was that what had happened? It all came rushing back, along with the horror of the final seconds before I blacked out. I sat upright, then winced and grabbed my head as sharp pain shot through it. “There’s someone out there.” “What are you talking about?” she asked, her eyes full of concern. “There’s no one out there. Bill looked.” I glanced back and forth between them, trying to piece everything toget
CHAPTER SIXTEEN There was a cold rag pressed to my head when I woke up, but my eyelids felt too heavy to open. My head was still killing me, and the smell of vomit made me nauseated all over again. I released a moan and tried to sit up. “Whoa,” Luke said in a soothing tone as he gently pushed me back down. “You need to lie still.” “What happened?” I croaked out. “After your amazing reenactment of Linda Blair’s scene in The Exorcist, you passed out.” The amused tone in his voice made me feel more relieved. He didn’t hate me. “And Lauren?” “She ran out screaming, and the rest of them ran with her.” “That almost makes it worth it.” I cracked an eye, relieved to see he’d changed into a scrub shirt. “You should let your momma see you wearing that,” I said. “She always wanted you to be a doctor instead of a cop.” “Momma died a couple of years ago.” I cringed. “Luke, I’m so sorry. I know how close you were to her.” He didn’t say anything, but I could tell his guard was back up. “And your dad?
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN We spent the next five minutes trying to make heads or tails of it, but murder was the only conclusion that fit. “It can’t be anything else,” Dixie said. “One, there’s no doubt he was scared last Sunday. Everyone’s said so. Something had him spooked. Two, he would never drink Jim Beam. Three, even if he died at the lake, how’d he get out there?” She narrowed her eyes. “You said the janitor at the church told you about the bike, right?” “He told me he saw it there when he was fishing yesterday.” She cocked her head, scrutinizing me. “Old Pete doesn’t fish.” “Old Pete? Why would they call a guy in his twenties Old Pete?” “Old Pete’s seventy years old.” My mouth dropped open, then I leaned my head back into the pillow, staring at the ceiling. “Then who did I talk to?” “Are you sure you talked to anyone? You hit your head pretty hard, and your memory is hazy.” I shot her a look. “Dixie, I told you about him before we even left the church.” “True.” She tapped her chin. “So
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