The Possum Hollow Hullabaloo (The Penelope Pembroke Cozy Mystery Series)
Page 15
Turning almost as one, Harry and Mary Lynn caught sight of the little girls, rose, and held out their arms.
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Sam met Penelope at the top of the stairs when she returned from midnight Mass. He sat down on the top step and snuggled her against him. “Did Brad have a chance to tell you much?”
“The girls were right there the whole time. He said you’d explain.” She brought the necklace out from under her sweater and rubbed it between her fingers.
“You didn’t hear it from me, but this is how it plays out. Ellie saw her mother die, but not at her father’s hands.”
“Archie.”
“And a cousin named Lafe. He’s the one who was giving you grief, and they picked him up the other night. Anyway, they’d gotten Jeremiah hooked into this wild scheme of finding buried treasure, but they needed more equipment to look for it. So, they got Jeremiah to agree to give him the money Yvonne had put up for coats and shoes for the girls this winter. It wasn’t much, of course, but it meant a lot to Yvonne. When she confronted Archie—or Lafe—or both of them about their idiocy, he knocked her down, picked up a shovel from the fireplace, and bashed her head in. Then he told the girls if they said anything to their father, he’d kill them, too.”
“So Jeremiah really thought she’d gone off and left them.”
“Who knows what he thought? All he’s telling the police is that he didn’t kill his wife—which he didn’t—and he went crazy when he found out the girls were gone, too.”
“That’s believable enough. It’s what goes on out there in the Hollow.”
“Maybe a jury will see it that way, but as far as Archie killing Yvonne, shooting George Harris and kidnapping Miss Maude, that’s going to send him away for a stretch.”
“So what about the girls?”
“Brad called Tonya Cisneros and told her they weren’t in any danger now. She pulled some strings to get the girls a ‘leave’ from their foster home for Christmas.”
“So they have to go back?”
“Something tells me they won’t.”
“Did you see Harry’s face? And Mary Lynn’s?”
“I saw.”
“I’m not sure they could let those girls go again.”
“I don’t think they’ll have to.”
“How can you be sure?”
Sam lifted her face. “I know things, remember?” he said before he kissed her.
Later he walked her to her door and kissed her again. “Someday,” he murmured, opening the door for her to go in before he turned and headed for his own room.
Penelope lifted the cool silver charm to her warm cheek. “Someday, Sam,” she whispered into the darkness. “Oh, yes, someday.”
Look for more Penelope Pembroke Cozy Mysteries coming soon at Amazon.
Book 5: The Larcenous Legacy
The new priest of St. Hyacinth’s brings a breath of fresh air to the parish, but something about an ordination gift from his immigrant grandfather is rattling the bones of evil past and present.
Book 6: Sam’s Last Stand
Tiny the biker, aka Sam, is back again, and Penelope is head over heels in love—but if Sam can’t let go of his dark past, they have no future.
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