by Gen Griffin
“I am,” David admitted.
“Want to try to find it?”
“You think it's still around?”
“You think he would have unloaded it knowing it could tie him to a murder?” Addison countered.
“No,” David said after a moment. “I don't.”
“It might be kind of a long shot, but I'm wondering if we might be able to figure out what exactly happened your birth mother by finding the jewelry. She was wearing a piece of that jewelry when she died.”
“We know what happened to my birth mother,” David said. “She tried to leave Ricky and he killed her. Case opened. Case closed. Still, I am pretty curious as to where that jewelry is. Especially if there are nutcases in this world who are willing to kill to find it.”
“To be fair, the only nutcase who we know was hunting for it is now dead and in the belly of an alligator.”
“We don't know that he didn't have a brother,” David pointed out. “I think you're right. We need to find the jewelry, even if it's just for our own peace of mind.”
“Where do you think we should start looking?” Addison asked.
“Well, we know it wasn't in the trailer because we would have found it when the trailer burned down. My father only owned two pieces of property.”
“You think it's in the shop?” Addison couldn't help feeling a little bit excited at the prospect of finding thousands upon thousands of dollars in missing baubles.
“I think we can borrow the metal detector that Jerry bought Pappy for Christmas last year and have a look around,” David said with a small smile. “If we find it, do you want to split the money down the middle?”
Addison grinned. “Make it three ways. Cal would be all over this if he had any idea. Besides, he was the one who found the pawn ticket and, without that, I'd never have put any of this together.”
David nodded, looking pleased as he bit into his burger. “It would make a hell of a nice late wedding gift for the two of them.”
“That it would,” Addison said. “It might even help me smooth things over with Gracie when she finds out that Mom was the one sabotaging her wedding and I didn't tell her.”
“Naw,” David said. “You're still dead on that one. She's going to be pissed. Of course, she may be in a pretty good mood when she finds out that Kerry is no longer our problem.”
“Feel like a weight has been lifted off your back?” Addison asked him.
“Damn right,” David said cheerily. “Even if he does recover, there's no way he'll be able to return to active duty as a police officer. He's done. We don't have to keep looking over our shoulders every time we so much as sneeze in the wrong direction. Dealing with Kerry has a been a total nightmare, but it's finally over. We're free and clear.”
“Then why do I feel like our problems have only just begun?” Addison asked.
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A POSSUM CREEK SPIN-OFF NOVEL
AVAILABLE SUMMER 2016
Prologue
Heather's Tanning and Nails closed at precisely six o'clock Monday through Thursday, but it was well known that Heather never went home immediately after clicking the neon open sign over to closed. The six o'clock hour was Heather's hour. Every day, the petite brunette would turn off the lights in the front of the store, go into the back room and treat herself to a solid hour of pampering. She would sit in the massage chairs in the back of her salon while treating herself to a the most expensive facial she sold. She spent hours trying different colors and designs on her fingers and toes. Sometimes she cut her own hair or played with different make-up pallets. She had her own Youtube channel and the hour from six to seven at night was when she filmed her beauty tutorials.
Thursday night was always tanning bed night. Every Thursday night, Heather would close down the store, lock the doors, crank up her favorite pop station on the radio and strip down naked. She laid down inside the vaguely coffin-shaped bed with the knowledge she'd be golden bronze by the time the buzzer went off.
Heather loved her 'me' time and she treasured it. If a girl couldn't marry rich, the least she could do was take a job that allowed her to look as if she was rich. Heather sighed with pleasure as she lowered the lid of the tanning bed and closed her eyes.
She never heard the double-keyed deadbolt lock on the back door of the shop click open. The radio drowned out the sound of the brunette intruder's high heels tapping against the tile floor of the main salon. The candles Heather had lit masked the scent of lighter fluid being poured on the floor of the front lobby.
Heather was oblivious as the brunette slipped a bike chain and padlock around the inside handles of the double front doors. She only heard the slightest thump as a heavy nail desk was pushed against the internal door that separated the tanning bed room from the rest of the building. A door that Heather herself elected to keep shut at all times, just in case one of the cars on the highway happened to get a clear view of her naked body through the front windows of the shop.
Heather disregarded the faint thump as noise from the road. Cars backfired all the time. Nothing to worry about. She was perfectly relaxed, entirely unaware of the angry, disgruntled woman in the next room.
The brunette smiled as she tossed a match onto the accelerant and the flames hissed to life. She stood at the edge of the room and watched as the letters she'd written in lighter fluid blossomed across the floor.
“Homewrecking bitch,” she whispered as the flames grew hotter. The fire reached a wall of beauty supplies. Some of them must have been flammable because they exploded in a burst of colors. The brunette had never known fires could burn green and blue before.
Another rush of hot air blew through the room. The door that separated the tanning beds from the salon began to jiggle.
“Hey! This isn't funny! Let me out!” Heather cried out. She pounded on the door. “What's going on out there? Ben? This isn't funny, Ben! Let me out!”
The brunette laughed as she stepped out the back door of the salon, locking it from the outside as she left. Flames were shining brightly in the windows now. Smoke began to slip out through the vents. She carefully walked towards the edge of the parking lot, careful not to trip in her high heels. She'd left her car parked two blocks away and she stuck to the shadows as she made her way back to the grocery store parking lot where she'd never stand out from the crowd. She laughed the entire way.
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