Chapter 10
Casey continued to stare at me with an unwavering gaze. His deep blue eyes penetrated right through my lies and kick-started my adrenaline. Were these the accusing eyes of a murderer?
“It’s just… that… sometimes… relationships with moms are hard.
” I gave a quick scoff to buy myself another second and then did my best attempt at deflection.
Rambling. “My mother thinks everything I do in life has to be run by her first. She’s still trying to pick out my shoes before the first day of school. ”
Casey smiled at my ending eye roll. “I’d give anything for one more day with mine. She was pretty supportive.”
“Oh, my mother’s supportive. Just in a serial killer way.”
Shit, Elenore. Don’t mention killers.
Both our faces fell.
“But that’s how it is with moms? Right?” I asked around a forced laugh.
Although honestly, as I stood beside him trying my best not to give away my fake reason for being in Savannah, another—more troubling—thought hit me. My mother hadn’t called or texted me in over twenty-four hours. That was strange. There’s no way she’d stopped going through my boxes in her garage.
An even worse idea came to me.
What if she was sorting through things to host a yard sale? A different type of nervous tremor ran through my bones.
I had to call my mother.
Pronto.
Casey gave me another quick laugh, but I was too busy pulling my phone from my back pocket, getting ready to text my mother to leave my stuff alone. Sometimes you had to threaten a little to get her to listen.
A bright red convertible pulled into the city parking lot behind their home. The same one Casey came from. Music blasted from the speakers and abruptly cut off with the car.
“Hey!” a blonde woman yelled and gave Casey a wave.
He waited to introduce us until she’d made it through the metal gate. “This is Samantha, Selene’s sister. This is Elenore,” he said, pointing to me but without more information. “She’s in the short rental.”
From the way her eyes lit up at the mention of my name, she didn’t need more. “The newlyweds?”
I didn’t like the way she emphasized newlyweds or the hand clap she made after it. “Um… maybe?”
Did admitting it mean I’d agreed to something unspoken?
Her smile grew, stretching half her face. “Selene said you got a good view of the bathroom at Savannah Brewing.”
She laughed as my cheeks turned a bright shade of pink. Casey stared at both of us. Clearly, Selene hadn’t mentioned our meeting to him. Thank God. “If you’re into ghosts, you should visit the old theater. It’s more haunted than the bar, and it has better bathrooms. I can get you tickets.”
“Oh, no.” I held up a hand to stop her. “I’m so tired from the bar trip. There’s no way I could handle another late night like that with ghosts. Plus, when we made it home, we had to help Bud inside. It seemed like he had a long night. It will take me a week to recover from the missing sleep.”
Just thinking about the late night made me yawn. It stretched out, and I had to shake my head to remove the remnants even after my mouth had closed. I needed a nap.
Samantha’s easy-going smile faltered at the mention of Bud. “That man is an alcoholic. I’m always telling Casey and Selene to kick him out. He’s up to no good, and I swear, he has a temper. I’ve heard he tries to fight people at the bars.”
“He didn’t seem too angry.” Just very drunk.
She shook her head. “Stay away from him. He’s bad news. They need to get rid of him.”
Casey blew a loud breath out of his nose, like he’d already heard this argument from her. More than once. “He takes good care of the place, pays his rent on time, and we’ve had no complaints. I can’t just kick someone out because he gives you bad vibes.”
“He’s trouble. You can see it in his eyes.” She pointed at her own for emphasis. “Don’t believe a word that comes from his mouth. It’s probably all fake. You can’t trust a drunk.”
I bit my bottom lip in thought. Clearly, Samantha had strong feelings about Bud.
But why?
Did she know something I didn’t? Was it more than vibes?
Or did she have a way to read someone’s character?
I’d gotten bad feelings from someone that turned out to be true before, so I didn’t think it was a crazy thought.
My previous boss rubbed me the wrong way from day one.
His poor management cost the company sales and ultimately the loss of one hundred jobs—including mine.
“There you are,” Reed said as he turned the corner of the house to find us standing in a small group on the sidewalk. “I didn’t want your coffee to get cold.”
I accepted the cup from him and did my absolute best not to visualize what the black polo he had on hid of his chest. “Thank you.”
We hadn’t talked about coffee and I was too scared to taste test what he’d given me since he had no idea I needed like a quarter cup of sugar in mine. Reed wrapped his arm around my middle and tugged me close in his signature move. The more he did it, the more I liked it. And I didn’t like that.
Samantha sucked in a breath and widened her eyes. “Yeah, I see the need for a bathroom.”
“What?” Reed asked, looking at me like he wanted me to fill him in, but he really didn’t.
“Selene was right. You two are too cute,” Samantha said, also ignoring his request for more information. “It’s settled. I’m getting you tickets to the theater. I’ll get your information from Casey and send them to you.”
“What theater?” Reed asked. “Like a play?”
“Yeah, ghosts on ice,” I deadpanned. We did not have time to do another overnight ghost hunt. Also, my nerves couldn’t handle it. We had enough trouble here without inviting ghosts to the party.
“There’s also this great cobbler place you should try out while you’re here. I work part-time there every other weekend and can give you coupons.”
She worked part time at a cobbler place but drove a convertible? I had so many questions, but Samantha carried on without letting me have a second to get one inserted into the conversation.
“The peach cobbler bites are a great way to get that little taste of Savannah before you leave, and you can walk there to burn off the calories.”
Reed leaned closer, and I did my best not to breathe so I wouldn’t smell his cologne and swoon. “Sounds like we’ll have to stop in later this week. Right, babe?”
Why did my insides jiggle at a hot guy calling me babe? Also, when did he think we’d have time to stop and get a peach cobbler? We had a mystery to solve… err… well, document. No one expected me to solve the murder, least of all me.
“Well, I better get to drinking this before it gets too cold,” I said, looking for a way out of the conversation that hadn’t given me much except a reminder I had to meet up and speak with Bud.
We made quick good-byes, and Reed led us back to our section of the home. I stopped on the small porch outside the back door and surveyed the parking lot. “How do you think she drives that corvette if she’s working part time at the cobbler place?”
Reed shrugged. “She probably has a full-time job and also needs the extra work to afford the car.”
“True.” I laughed. “There is something about this city, though. Right? I like it.”
Savannah had an aura around it that made you feel at home. The weather was perfect in April, and the trees were already blooming, lighting the place up with color.
“I’ve been thinking about looking for work in a different state now that my options are open after losing my job. Oh…” I stopped abruptly, placed the untouched mug of coffee on the rail, and grabbed my phone.
I’d forgotten to text my mother about the boxes. Her being this quiet most certainly meant she was doing something that would upset me once I heard about it.
ELENORE: You never told me if all the boxes fit in the garage.
I slipped my phone back in my pocket and reached for the mug. My hand missed, my finger slipping along the side just enough to push it over the rail. The white ceramic piece toppled over the side and landed upside down on the rock-filled flower bed.
“Shit.”
Reed gave a quick laugh. “You could have just said no if you didn’t want to drink it. You didn’t need to break the dishware.”
“Did it break?” I walked down the two short steps to grab the mug, which had fallen behind an overgrown green bush. The cup sat on the landscaping, unbothered. Beside it, something glimmered between two gray rocks. “What the heck?”
I grabbed the cup, moved the rock closest to me, and pulled up a square cut ruby solitaire ring with a gold band. “Wow, this is gorgeous.”
“What is it?” Reed asked, and I handed the ring to him. He held it up to the sunshine and twisted it in his fingers.
“Good, you’re outside. Samantha wanted me to bring over the coupons for cobbler. She’s going to email the theater tickets,” Casey said as he rounded the corner of his home. “What’s that?”
“I just found it behind this bush.” I pointed to the spot for better clarity.
Casey jerked to a stop as he stared wide-eyed at the ring in Reed’s hands. “That’s my mother’s.”
Reed walked down the steps and handed the ring to Casey. “Are you sure it belonged to your mother? It doesn’t look like it’s been outside very long.”
The landlord swallowed hard as he stared at his open palm. “Mom would not have given up the search for this if she’d lost it in the backyard.”
“Maybe she didn’t realize. Sometimes you can wear rings so much you forget they’re there.” I’d had it happen before once while swimming at my grandparents’ cabin in upper Michigan. It took me until later that afternoon before I realized I’d lost the slim gold band I liked to wear on my thumb.
Casey’s expression didn’t seem like he agreed with me. “I need to call the police.”
Reed nodded with him, but my heart jumped into overdrive with the news. I hadn’t gotten a single picture of the ring in its hiding spot. I hadn’t realized it was important when I grabbed it, but I regretted not getting one for my report to Delaney.
This was a major break in the case and would definitely make the podcast. That missing ring was the entire reason the police believed Lisa’s murder was a robbery gone wrong. But it’d been in her flower garden the entire time. What did that mean for her murder?
My phone vibrated in my pocket, and I hurried to read it.
MOM: Why do you have so many lotions from Bath and Body Works? You can’t use all this in a lifetime.
Now was not the time to judge me on my lotion collection.
I didn’t have time to message my mother back about the importance of different seasonal smells. We needed out of here before the police came and started asking us questions regarding our newlywed status. Lying to Casey was one thing, but we couldn’t lie to the police. That was surely a crime.
I had to get back to our place and Google the laws in Georgia.
“The detective is on his way,” Casey said before I pulled Reed back into our rental and forced us on a plane out of town.
“Great,” I said to him and handed Reed my dirty coffee cup. I used it as an excuse to lean closer, giving me the chance to whisper in his ear. “We’re so going to jail.”