Chapter 3
CHAPTER THREE
A fter a few tries, she had what she thought she needed to post.
I attended the Derby tea at Greenbrier Club and accidentally picked up the wrong hat. If you have the hat that looks like this one but realized it’s not yours, please DM me. It has sentimental value. Thank you.
As soon as she read it one more time, she posted it, with a picture, to groups in Louisville, Lexington, Shelbyville, Taylorsville, and a lot of points in between there and Corbin. All she could do was wait. After that, she called the restaurant again, but they hadn’t had anyone call to inquire about the hat.
Ten minutes later her phone rang, and she picked it up, smiled, and sang out, “Hey, babe!”
“Hi. Whatcha doin’?”
“Posting about the hat on the community social media pages. What are you doing?”
“Looking at a coroner’s report for a HazelPuckett. Two years ago.”
“Really?” Maisey was excited. They finally had a name!
“Yeah, from LaurelCounty. That’s why we couldn’t find her initially. She traveled a long way. Her body was spotted down on the CumberlandRiver by a commercial fisherman.”
“On the Cumberland? Good lord! No wonder we couldn’t find her! That’s a long way from where she went in, if it really was the bridge on Keavy Road.”
“I looked at other bridges in the area and none of them had those kinds of railings. It had to be that one. So yeah, she traveled a long way, or at least her body did. Still doesn’t explain the hat though.”
Maisey sighed. “Yeah. That’s still a mystery.”
“Yeah, well, so is the guy who killed her. So now I guess it’s time to delve into HazelPuckett’s life and see what we can find out. I’ll bring it all home with me.”
“Thanks. Let me know.”
“Okay. Later, baby.” And the phone went dead.
Maisey sat there and thought. How could she find the person who’d had the hat? There was only one way, and if Aaron found out, he’d be furious. But she couldn’t come up with another way to get the information she needed.
All of her morning appointments were finished and she stopped by a diner in town to have a little bit of lunch. She’d only been sitting there for a minute when a deep voice said, “Maisey?”
As soon as she spun to identify it, she smiled. “Oh, hey, Morgan! How ya doin’?”
“I’m great. Having some lunch?”
“Yep. Wanna join me?”
“Don’t mind if I do! I’ll just put in my order and I’ll be right back.” Maisey watched him stroll across the room with an appreciative eye. MorganWatters was eye candy extraordinaire. She was surprised a woman there in town hadn’t managed to snap him up. In a minute, he was back. “So, what’s up with you these days? Got another murder mystery on your hands?”
Should I tell him? she wondered. “Um, matter of fact, we do.”
“Oh? Who’s the victim this time?”
“Her name is HazelPuckett. Aaron just found it today.”
Morgan’s brow furrowed. “I don’t remember that name.”
“That’s because they found her in LaurelCounty.”
“Oh! Well, that makes sense then. Anything I can do to help?”
“I don’t think so, but thanks for offering. Might have to ask you to look over the coroner’s report and explain stuff to me.”
“Wouldn’t mind at all.” Morgan relaxed into his chair. “How’d you come about this one?”
“Picked up the wrong hat at a Derby event and put it on.”
“Yes, I can see how that could happen. Where was this?”
Maisey frowned. “Louisville.”
“Oh. Yeah, that’s bad. Did you try posting about it on any of the social media community pages?”
“I did that this morning. Just kinda waiting. Called the restaurant again. Nobody’s asked about it. They probably haven’t even noticed that they have the wrong hat.”
“That much alike, huh?” Maisey nodded. “Well, if you want, you can bring it to me. I’ll go over it and see if I can find any forensic evidence that might still be clinging to it.”
Maisey grimaced. “It was two years ago.”
“Ouch.”
“Yeah. I would think it would all be gone.”
A voice from the counter area called Morgan’s name and as he rose, he said, “Yeah, but it never hurts to look.”
“Agreed. I’ll bring it over.” He probably couldn’t find anything, but it wouldn’t hurt to have him look it over.
They ate and talked and before she knew it, lunch was over and it was time to get back to work. “This has been fun!”
“It has. You’re a very pleasant person to be around, Maisey. It helps that you’re not knocking yourself out to try to get into my pants,” Morgan said matter-of-factly.
“Uh, yeah, no. Not doing that.”
He let out a sarcastic chuckle. “Then you’re one of the few women in town who aren’t. I’m not all that, and you would think I was BradPitt or something.”
Maisey laughed. “It’s the accent!”
“Oh, yeah. That’s probably it.” They were still laughing and chatting when they carried their wastepaper to the bin and tossed it. Morgan held the door for her, and once it closed, he smiled. “Thanks for a thoroughly enjoyable lunch, Maisey.”
“You too. It was very nice. See you soon.”
“Yes. Just bring that hat on over anytime.”
“Will do. Thanks again! Bye.” Maisey slid into her little sedan and watched as Morgan did the same with his Range Rover. The guy had no idea how gorgeous he was, and to Maisey, that made him even more attractive.
The little car stopped in the parking spot of the lot outside her office, and Maisey climbed out. Just as she reached into the back seat to grab her messenger bag, a tone sounded on her phone, and she pulled it from her purse to check it. It was a direct message, and she felt a measure of hope when she saw it.
Hey, I saw your post on the community site. I think I have your hat. Is this it?
There was a picture and, sure enough, Maisey was pretty sure it was hers.
Yes! I think that’s my hat! How can we swap? Where are you?
Dots wiggled on her screen and then the message popped up.
I’m in Somerset.
At least it wasn’t too far away. Maisey thought for a minute before she messaged back.
Can we meet to swap?
She waited for the reply to pop up.
Don’t see why not. Public place. Maybe the courthouse parking lot?
Maisey typed as fast as she could.
Sure. Sounds great. When?
The reply only took a few seconds.
Tomorrow?
Maisey pulled up her calendar and checked it.
I’m free after 10:00 in the morning, and it takes me about an hour to get there from Corbin.
In no time, she got the reply.
Great! I’ll be there at 11:15 standing in front of the entry doors. Don’t want to go through the metal detector if I don’t have to.
That made Maisey chuckle as she replied.
That makes two of us! See you then.
“Shit! I haven’t gotten the hat to Morgan yet!” A quick look at her schedule and she decided she had time to grab it and run it over to him if she went right then, so she took off for home without even going in the office. He’d pull trace evidence from it and it could be returned to its rightful owner.
But that would be the end of wearing it. She had to think of something so the owner wouldn’t want it back. And she would. After all she had all evening. And she had Aaron. He’d help her figure something out.
One way or another, she’d get a chance to ask the owner what they knew about the hat, and maybe they’d be one step closer to getting an answer for Hazel.
“I’m so nervous.”
Aaron patted Maisey’s thigh as he drove. “No reason to be nervous. I’m with you. It’ll be fine. Did Morgan have time to work on the hat?”
“Yeah. He pulled everything from it that he could. Did you get a coroner’s report for Hazel?”
“I’ve requested it, although I had to list a reason why I wanted it. I’m not a very good bullshitter, so I hope they bought it.”
“Why did you say you wanted it?”
“Told some story about how we think we’re on the trail of somebody who’s defrauding insurance companies, and her name came up.”
Maisey shrugged. “Sounds pretty plausible to me. Morgan told me he’d be glad to translate the report into layman’s terms for us if we needed his help.”
“That’s good.”
As they drove along, they chatted about a lot of things, and one subject kept coming up―an addition to the house. They’d kicked around a dozen different ideas and hadn’t come up with a concrete idea. She knew Ross had done a little construction on the side, and she thought she might ask him for his opinion.
They pulled into the courthouse parking lot and Maisey sighed. “I dread this. You coming with me?”
Aaron stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “Are you kidding? No way would I let you walk over there by yourself to meet this person. They might be the killer!”
“I doubt it. If they killed her, they would’ve gotten rid of the hat. They wouldn’t want it around,” Maisey pointed out.
“That’s true. Well, here we go. Let’s get this over with.”
The parking lot was across the street from the courthouse, so they hit the crosswalk and started up the sidewalk. As soon as Maisey got close enough to look around, she knew who she was looking for because she remembered the woman from the tea, plus she was the only person standing around with a big red hat in her hand. “Hey! I’m Maisey!” the little brunette said and held out her right hand.
The taller woman took it and gripped it firmly. The energy Maisey felt from her was strong and positive. “Hi! I’m Terra. We’re the only two people here with red hats, so I guess that means we’re looking for each other!” she said, laughing.
“I guess so. And this is my husband, Aaron,” Maisey said, and Aaron extended his hand. After Terra shook it, he glanced at Maisey, and she knew he’d gotten the same impression of Terra. “So, could we sit for a minute? We need to talk to you about something.”
Terra looked a little surprised, but she nodded. “Sure, I guess so.” There was a bench at the edge of the sidewalk, so the two women took a seat and Aaron stood by.
“Okay, first off, Aaron’s a deputy sheriff in WhitleyCounty, but you’re not in any kind of trouble.”
The woman seemed surprised. “Oh! Well, I guess I’m glad about that. Can’t imagine that I am.”
“Well, you’ll understand why I said that in a minute. So we discovered that this hat, the one I’m holding, was involved in a murder.”
“What?” Terra jumped to her feet and stared down. “You think I killed somebody?”
“No, no! Not at all! Please!” Maisey waited until Terra had calmed down a little. “Please, just let me ask you some things. We’re trying to track down the killer, and you might be able to help us.”
“I don’t see how I can. I don’t know anything about this.” Terra finally sat back down, but she side-eyed Maisey. “I don’t even know where it came from.”
“That’s what I was going to ask you. Where did you get the hat?”
“My girlfriend found it. She was fishing with her grandpa and it was lying on the riverbank, on the rip rap. She brought it home because she thought it was something I’d like. Actually, when she brought it home, it was filthy. I took it to the dry cleaner to get it cleaned up.”
Well, there goes any hope of evidence from Morgan , Maisey told herself. “And where was this?”
“Below some bridge on the LaurelRiver. Her grandpa lives over that way, and they were out in his boat.”
“And do you remember when that was?”
Terra shrugged. “Maybe a year ago? I mean, she brought it home, I had it cleaned, and I put it in the closet. It wasn’t until I decided to go to the tea that I remembered it and took it out. Bought a dress to go with it and decided to wear it to the tea.”
“The woman that the hat belonged to fell from the bridge. She was wearing it when she died.”
“Oh, lawd! I don’t want that thing back!” Terra shrieked. That was what Maisey had hoped.
“You’re welcome to keep mine. Since all of this has happened, I really don’t want it either.”
“Thanks, but I don’t think I want it either. I think I’d rather forget about this altogether.” Terra looked flustered, and Maisey couldn’t blame her. “And to think I became a woman to go through this shit. Who would-a thunk it?” Terra was beautiful, but Maisey had suspected she was transgender, and her guess had been confirmed.
“It’s a fluke, really. It’ll never happen again in a million years, I’m sure,” Maisey said, but that sounded hollow even to her own ears.
“It’s odd though. You look familiar.”
Uh-oh , Maisey thought, wondering if Terra would connect the dots. “Probably saw me at the tea.”
“No, that’s not it. Have you been in a TV show or something?”
Shit. Shit, shit, shit. She’s gonna figure it out , Maisey’s brain screamed. “No. Not me. I’m a social worker for the state. Child protective―”
“Oh my god! You’re the woman who sees dead people!” Terra almost shouted.
“Please, shhhh,” Maisey whispered. “Oh, god, no, please don’t tell everybody.”
Terra stared at her for a second before she said, “I can see why you wouldn’t want anybody to know.”
“You don’t know the half of it,” Aaron muttered.
Terra’s face was pure compassion. “That bad?”
“Yeah. People kept leaving boxes on my porch with things that belonged to their relatives, wanting me to tell them things. They all had relatives who’d completed suicide, and they wanted me to tell them it wasn’t so. Unfortunately, it was true in every case, and it really took its toll on me. It’s been hard.”
“I can understand, honey.” Terra laid a soft hand on Maisey’s forearm to comfort her, and it really did make Maisey feel better. “So you put on the hat…”
“Yeah. I hear her talking to the person who killed her and feel her flying over the rail on the bridge. But it disappears before she hits the rocks or water, so the hat must’ve flown off as she was falling.”
“At least you don’t have to go through that final horrible moment,” Terra said.
“Exactly. So you don’t mind if we keep the hat? Because it might help us more,” Aaron asked.
“Mind? Keep that thing away from me! I don’t want no dead woman’s hat on my head!” the tall woman said with a smile. “It’s all yours.”
“Thanks. And thanks for responding to my post. At least now we know a little more. I won’t keep you,” Maisey said, standing, and Terra rose too.
“It’s quite all right, and if I can help you more, please let me know. If you need her, I’m sure my girlfriend would be glad to show you exactly where she found the hat.”
“That might be really helpful.” Maisey smiled. “It’s really been nice meeting you.”
“Same here. And you too, Aaron,” Terra said and nodded toward him. “I hope y’all get whoever it was. And if I can help, just let me know.” She handed Maisey a business card, and Maisey gave her one. Aaron did the same.
“Will do. And we’ll let you know if we solve the case.” Maisey started to put the card in her purse, but then glanced at it. “Wait. You’re an interior designer?”
Terra smiled. “Among other things.”
“I don’t know if you could help us… We’re trying to figure out how to add onto our house. Do you―”
“I used to be in construction when I was Terrence,” Terra said and winked. “I’d be glad to take a look and give you my opinion.”
“Oh, that would be awesome! We’d pay you, of course,” Maisey added.
“Look, you’re trying to find the killer of the woman whose hat I unwittingly wore on my well-coiffed head, I ain’t gonna charge you nothin’. I’ll be glad to look around and tell you what I think. You just let me know.”
“I will! Thank you so much!”
“Hope to hear from you soon,” Terra called after them, and Maisey turned to give her a tiny wave.
“Awww, she’s so nice!” Maisey whispered to Aaron.
“Yes, she is, and that handshake told me she’s a good person,” Aaron said with a smile.
“I felt the same way. So, what’s our next move?”
“Let’s find out what Hazel actually died from first and go from there. The coroner’s report should be in pretty quickly.”
“Sounds like a plan.” Maisey was hopeful. They had a little more information, and their guess at the location had been right. If they could just keep piecing it together, they’d eventually have the whole picture.
Or at least enough to know what they were up against.
“Morgan called. He’s finished looking at the coroner’s report and wanted to know if we could come by.”
“I can. I’ve got two hours before my next appointment,” Maisey said as she talked to Aaron on the phone the next morning.
“Okay. I’ll head that way and you can meet me.”
“Sounds good.” Maisey grabbed her bag on her way to the door.
Aaron’s car was already there when she pulled up, and she stepped inside. “And did you see that homer?” she heard his voice say.
“Yeah. Man, he hit that ball like a freight train! Did they clock it?”
“Yep. Eighty-eight miles an hour.”
“Wow. That’s pretty damn… Hey, Maisey!” Morgan said with a smile when she came into view.
“Hey! Sorry I’m interrupting your baseball talk,” she said with a laugh.
“You’re a good interruption,” Morgan said. “So I guess you guys are wanting the information.”
“Lay it on us,” Aaron announced.
“Okay. Here goes. According to the report, she fell from a height onto something hard and irregular.”
Maisey and Aaron looked at each other. “Rip rap,” Aaron said.
Morgan nodded. “That would do it. A lot of damage to the body, but it deteriorates much quicker where there are injuries, so that would account for it. My question is, how did it get into the water?”
“That’s for me to find the answer to, and I start with the Army Corps of Engineers. They can tell me the water levels for the river under the bridge in that time period. My guess is that the water came up and it floated away, or something dragged or knocked it in, like a dog or coyote, or it rolled after it hit the rip rap. Or maybe something with a considerable wheel wash caused it to drift into the water.”
“All of those are possibilities, but wouldn’t somebody on a vessel of some sort notice it lying on the bank?”
Aaron shrugged. “They probably would. I’m guessing the water came up. Didn’t we have some significant storms during that time?”
“I’m not sure, but it’s amazing how fast water can rise after a heavy rain,” Morgan pointed out.
“Right. Hmmm. I’ll let you know what I find out. Was there water in the lungs?”
“Not the amount that there would’ve been from drowning, although it’s hard to tell, what with the amount of decomp,” Morgan said to clarify.
“Got it. Well, thanks for the help. We’ll see what we come up with and I’ll let you know.” Aaron turned from Morgan to Maisey. “Sound good?”
“Sounds great. And thanks, Morgan. I really appreciate you doing this. I know you’ve already got plenty of your own work.”
He shot Maisey a gorgeous smile. “Oh, I don’t mind at all. It’s more interesting than Mr.Gordon falling asleep and never waking up.”
By the time they both got home that evening, it was time to scramble for dinner and head back to the school. Murielle had a school play that night, and she’d been practicing her lines every night. Maisey’s mom had made her costume―she was a sunflower―and it was adorable. When it was over, they stopped for ice cream to celebrate her stage debut, then drove home. By the time they got there, she was sound asleep in the back seat, so Aaron carried her in, and Maisey helped him dress her for bed and tuck her in.
But it was still early, so Aaron dragged all of the files in, spread them out on the table, and he and Maisey started reading through them. HazelPuckett had been a middle school teacher in KnoxCounty. According to her file, she’d never had so much as a parking ticket. Interviews were conducted with her friends. Then Aaron picked up another document and murmured, “Well, this is interesting.”
“What’s that?”
“It’s an interview with one of her coworkers. Woman named ReginaFields. She said Hazel drove a Porsche Cayman.”
“Porsche Cayman? Don’t you mean a Cayenne?” Maisey asked. She’d seen those around town.
“No. A Cayman. It’s a sports car. And a GT4 at that. We’re talking in excess of a hundred grand.”
“What? A hundred-thousand-dollar car for a teacher?”
Aaron shrugged. “That’s what it says. Don’t know how old it was, but it was pricey.” When he put that report down, he picked up another one. “Oh, this is really interesting.”
“Yeah?”
“Yeah. This interview is with a realtor. Said he was contacted three months before she disappeared and asked him to list her house. Said she was having trouble making the payments and was afraid she’d go into foreclosure.”
“Should’ve gotten rid of her car and gotten something cheaper,” Maisey said, then felt judgmental. Who was she to decide what was right for the young woman?
“Oh, I don’t think that would help. The realtor valued the house at one point five million.”
“What?” Maisey couldn’t believe what he’d just said. A million and a half for a house on a teacher’s salary?
“Yeah. That’s what it says. Something’s fishy here. On her salary, this woman should’ve been driving a ten-year-old Camry and living in an apartment. She wasn’t even making fifty thousand a year.”
“Then how was she affording all of this?”
“That’s what we’ve got to find out. I see nothing in here about financials, and that’s odd. You’d think they would’ve studied all of that. Finding out where the money came from could clear the whole thing up and give us a suspect.”
“How do we get those?”
“I request them. Might have to make a few phone calls to get them turned loose, but it can be done.” Aaron dropped the report, leaned back, and stretched his arms above his head. “It’s late. I can get back on this in the morning. I think it’s bedtime.”
“Am I putting on the hat tonight?” she asked quietly, hoping he’d say no.
Relief swept over her when Aaron answered, “No. I think we both need some rest. This is getting weird real fast, and I want to be rested so I can actually make a plan in the morning to pull all of this together. You can put on the hat tomorrow night.”
“Agreed.” It had been a long day, and Maisey was really tired. HazelPuckett had been driving an expensive sports car and living in a mansion on a teacher’s salary. That wasn’t normal. Something was wrong, and it was up to them to figure it out.
No one else had found her killer, and Maisey wanted justice for her. Hazel deserved at least that much.
Maisey had just stopped in front of a client’s house the next day when her text messaging app pinged, and she peeked at her phone screen.
Boy oh boy, this is ripe.
She shot him back a quick reply.
Sorry, babe. At an appointment. I’ll call as soon as I’m finished. Love you.
Aaron sent back heart and thumbs-up emojis, so Maisey shoved her phone back into her purse and knocked on the door.
An hour and a half later, she was back in the car, and she hit her hands-free unit as soon as she’d pulled away from the curb. “Hey, beautiful,” that deep, warm voice purred from the phone.
“Hi, sexy guy. Sorry I couldn’t talk.”
“No biggie. But what I found this morning… Real biggie. You need to see all of this.”
“You at the office?”
“Yep.”
“I’ll be there in five.” Maisey took off toward the sheriff’s office. She could barely wait to see what he’d found.
Cup of coffee in hand, she followed Aaron down the hallway and into the conference room. There were papers everywhere, and it was obvious he’d been hard at work all morning. “Got an awful lot of stuff here,” she said, looking around.
“Have a seat. You won’t believe this. So the house she was living in?” Maisey nodded. “It belonged to the father of one of her students.”
“A middle school student?”
Aaron gave a quick nod. “Yep. AlanVanderboegh.”
“What does he do for a living?”
“Data mining.”
Maisey was unsure about that. “You mean like bitcoins?”
“Exactly.”
“In KnoxCounty?” That seemed incredible.
“No. Here. In the old Howard Brothers Plumbing warehouse.”
“Oh, yeah! I remember. They were trying to get more electricity into the building.”
“Yeah, the city was all excited about it. Said it would be a great opportunity. But it never really got off the ground.”
“Then I don’t understand. How did he make money?”
Aaron grinned. “The city doesn’t want anybody to know that they bought a pig in a poke. I should say, bought into a pig in a poke.” Maisey squinted at him. “He borrowed a bunch of money to start this thing.”
“How much is a bunch of money?”
“About thirty million dollars.”
Okay, I heard that wrong , Maisey told herself. “You didn’t just say thirty million.”
“Oh, but I did. He borrowed it―from banks, from investment firms, from the city. And then made off with it.”
“Holy shit,” Maisey whispered under her breath.
“Exactly. That means when the murderer kept asking where ‘he’ was, he meant Vanderboegh.”
“So does that mean she was seeing Vanderboegh?”
Aaron nodded. “I would think so. That could explain where the car, the house, and her cash flow came from. And if he disappeared, that could be why she would panic and try to list the house.”
“Right. But who would be looking for him?”
Aaron reached over and rested his hand on top of a huge stack of papers. “Behold, the list of suspects.”
Maisey could feel her brow wrinkling. “What? What do you mean?”
“I mean, this is paperwork from all the people he owed, people he borrowed money from for the business.”
Her jaw dropped. “You’ve got to be kidding.”
“Nope. All of them. Dozens. And somewhere in this stack is somebody who was mad enough to come looking for him. We’ve just got to figure out who.”
“How do we go about that?”
“It’s got to be one of two kinds of people. The first is somebody he borrowed an enormous amount of money from. And the second is one he borrowed money from, not necessarily a large amount, but it was all they had in the world, and now they have nothing.”
Maisey grimaced. “You forgot the third kind.”
“Who?”
“Somebody who loaned him somebody else’s money and they’re in deep, deep shit over it.”
Aaron nodded. “Yeah. That makes sense too. So I guess we just start going through all of this stuff until we figure out who the most likely suspects are.”
“Good luck with that,” a voice said from behind them, and Maisey turned to find Carly standing there in the doorway.
“Hey! How’s it going?”
Carly stepped into the conference room, pulled out a rolling chair, and plopped down into it. She huffed out a long sigh and said, “It’s a bad, bad day.”
“What happened?” Aaron asked.
“I just got back from an arrest.”
Aaron and Maisey both looked up at her from under furrowed brows. “You?” Aaron asked. “What were you doing at an arrest?”
Carly pointed at the door, so Aaron got up, closed it, and sat back down before she would speak. When she opened her mouth, Maisey and Aaron’s jaws dropped. “The mayor.”
“What?” Maisey fairly shrieked.
“He and his wife got into a knock-down drag-out that spilled out onto the lawn. A neighbor called nine-one-one, but the city cops wouldn’t touch it, so they called us. When the deputies got there, it was such a fracas that they called me and asked what to do. I arrested both of their asses. I don’t care if he thinks he’s my boss. He’s not. The county judge executive is, and I called him. He gave me the go-ahead. But the two of them are going to try to rip me a new asshole.” She pressed her hands over her face. “This is the part of my job that I hate. People who think they’re above-the-law big shots.”
“Wow. So what happened?” Aaron asked. “What were they fighting about?”
“What do married couples fight about? Money, sex, kids, in-laws, jobs, cheating… They were fighting about money, but I think they mentioned a little bit of everything. Apparently wedded bliss isn’t high on their lists of accomplishments.”
“Sounds like it,” Maisey said.
“So now we’ve got to sort all of that out. But she did say something about him embarrassing her, so I’m not sure.” Carly looked around. “You making progress on this?”
“A little. We’ve found out Hazel was in bed with a student’s father―literally,” Aaron responded.
“Oh, wonderful. That’ll be fun. Well, chase it down. I don’t have to worry about that. My arrests were pretty clear cut, although I’m fairly certain a judge is going to just cut them loose,” Carly said and stood. “Guess I’d better get on it. Good luck to the two of you and if I can help you with anything, let me know. But give me forty-eight hours, okay? I’ll need that long to recover.”
“Will do!” Maisey answered, laughing, as Carly shot her a backhanded wave. “Wow. Eventful day.”
“Yeah. For all the wrong reasons. And I think I know where to start.”
“Yeah?”
“I’m going to the middle school.”
Maisey grinned. “Can I come with you?”
“I’ll be disappointed if you don’t!”
They were together. Butch and Sundance. Cagney and Lacey. Turner and Hooch. Jonathan and Jennifer Hart. Throw in Carly and they could be Charlie’s Angels, but no. She liked it better when it was just her and Aaron. They made a great team.
The best.