Advance Notice (A River Valley Mystery, book 2)

by Cynthia Hickey

  I glanced out the window into the gathering dusk. Stacy stood next to a pillar on the patio, phone to her ear, arms waving with punctuation to her conversation. Why did that woman show up everywhere I went?

  “Don’t even think about it.” Duane set his fork and knife on the edge of his plate.

  “What?”

  “It’s killing you not to rush out there and find out what has her so upset.”

  “Yes, but that doesn’t mean I will.” I reached for my iced tea. Seriously. People were always thinking the worst of me. You’d think I had no sense of my own.

  “She’s dealing with a lot right now.” He leaned on the table. “Since her mother suffered that stroke, Stacy is struggling to work her own job, keep the store going, and watch out for her younger sister. That’s a lot for one woman to have to do alone.”

  “I did it alone for years, Duane.” From the moment my husband died to Duane’s return, I’d been a single mother. Sure, I had my mom’s help, but I could sympathize with Stacy.

  “Not everyone is as strong as you.” He crossed his arms and leaned back in the booth.

  “Maybe not, but everyone appreciates a little help now and again.”

  He sighed. “Are we arguing over the fact I left town and didn’t return until a few months ago?”

  “I don’t know. Are we?” I raised my eyebrows.

  “Is that why you’ve held off setting a wedding date? Because you’re afraid I’ll leave again?” His face fell. “I love you, Marsha. Someday, you’ll accept the fact you can be loved for the wonderful person that you are, and you’ll accept the gift. For now, I’ll wait.”

  My insecurities wanted me to ask if he’d wait forever if that’s what it took, but that wouldn’t be fair to him. “I’m sorry. I really don’t know what’s gotten into—”

  Duane reached across the table, dragged me across the polished surface, scattering dishes to the floor as he dove

  Chapter Seventeen

  Duane half-carried, half-dragged me toward the kitchen as a green sedan crashed through the window behind where I’d sat. Glass rained on the table and onto the floor, crunching under my feet. Screams rent the air. The car’s alarm blared.

  “Are you okay?” Once behind the swinging doors of the kitchen, Duane turned and cupped my face. “You aren’t cut anywhere?”

  I shook my head. “No, a few bruises maybe, but I’m fine.” I stood on tip-toe and peered out the glass circle in the door. “We should go see if anyone needs any help.”

  “Stay close.” Duane took my hand, and we re-entered chaos.

  What poor fool had lost control of their car? I pulled free of Duane’s grip and rushed toward the car, him close on my heels.

  No one sat slumped behind the wheel. I searched the floor and surrounding area. Had they walked away? Been moved by someone? “There’s no one here.” Without touching the car, I peered through the window. “Duane, come look.”

  An elastic cord stretched from the steering wheel to somewhere under the seat. A rebar was propped on the gas pedal and wedged against the seat. Pretty old school, but effective. “Someone ran the car through the window on purpose.” And right toward the table where Duane and I were eating.

  Somebody meant to run over me. Since I’d still been checking obituaries regularly, and hadn’t spotted my name, I must have been closer to solving the mystery than I thought. If his pale face was any indication, Duane obviously had the same thought.

  He knelt to help a woman cut by flying glass, the muscle in his jaw ticking. Poor man. First, we almost get into an argument, then we’re almost killed, and then we were surrounded by people with minor bleeding wounds. I moved to help, and stopped.

  Duane was almost killed.

  Someone was after me.

  The man I loved had also become a target.

  I sagged against a table. How could I get out of trying to find the killer? If doing so put Duane in danger, I wanted nothing more to do with any of it. Not even if it meant Dottie might be harmed. She was Bruce’s responsibility. Duane was mine. For the first time I could remember, I contemplated quitting something.

  “What’s wrong?” Duane righted a chair and helped me into it. “You look really pale.”

  “I need to find a way out of this.” Panic rose in my throat, threatening to choke me. To take away my breath and cloud my mind. Of course I was pale. We’d almost been squashed by a runaway vehicle. “You’re in danger. My family is at risk.” I gripped his shirt. My breath caught. “How do I get out?”

  “Settle down.” He crouched beside me, taking my hands in his. “You can’t. Not from the moment someone shot at you.” He exhaled slowly, the sound as sad as the escape of someone’s hope. “All we can do is try and stay safe until the culprit is caught.”

  I shook my head hard enough to send my hair flying around my face. “It’s impossible. Someone I love is going to be hurt.” His face swam in front of me, followed by Lindsey’s and Mom’s. A sob rose in my chest, constricting my breathing. Not usually prone to anxiety attacks, I couldn’t breathe, which only served to increase my panic.

  Duane noticed my distress. “Did someone call 9-1-1?”

  “I did,” an older woman said.

  “Me, too.” A teenager squatted next to a man in black slacks, the sleeve of the man’s arm stained with blood.

  The room looked as if a bomb had gone off. My chest tightened, and my vision grew blurry. What was wrong with me? I slumped forward.

  When I woke, I was lying on a stretcher in the middle of the parking lot with an oxygen mask over my face and Bruce frowning down at me. Not a sight I thought I’d ever wake up to. I pulled the mask away from my face. “What do you want?”

  “Oh, good, you’re alive.” He pulled out his notebook. “So, someone tried to kill you?”

  “Who told you that?” I struggled to a sitting position. My head spun.

  “Duane said you said something to that affect then passed out. The paramedic said you most likely had an anxiety attack, and they’d take care of you after they patch up the bleeding folks. So, here we are again, me asking you questions because someone no longer wants you around.”

  “There are others who aren’t going to be around much longer if you don’t start doing your job.”

  “We’re short staffed, Marsha. I’m doing the best I can. No one has forgotten about the threat against Dottie.”

  My shoulders slumped. “You’re right. I’m sorry.” I had no choice but to see this thing through. Lives depended on me.

  “Mom?” Lindsey barreled through the onlookers and threw herself at me. Behind her, rushed Mom and Leroy.

  “Bruce called us,” Mom explained. “Are you all right?”

  “I’m fine.” I tightened my arms around my daughter and held on for dear life. What if I’d never seen her beautiful face again? Witnessed that teenage roll of her eyes whenever I annoyed her?

  Mom petted my head. “We have to stop this. People were only injured today, but they could’ve been killed. This parking lot looks like something out of a nightmare.”

  “All because someone wants me to stop investigating.”

  “They won’t stop now.” Mom shook her head. “There’s too much at stake. They’ll still go after Dottie. They’ll most likely keep coming after you, so we’ll keep searching. How do we get mixed up in these things?”

  “There is no ‘we’, Mom.” I struggled to my feet. “I’m doing this alone now.” I glared at Bruce, daring him to contradict me.

  He closed his eyes and shook his head. “I never thought I’d say this, but I need all the help I can get. Even if the only help available is a nosey woman.” Still shaking his head, he meandered off to interview someone else. I could’ve sworn a pig flew across the sky at that moment.

  “Oh, no, you don’t.” Mom planted fists on her hips. “We’re in this together. Except for Lindsey. We don’t want to risk her. She’s young and still has her whole life ahead of her.”

  There went the eye
roll from my daughter I loved so well. I held out my hand. “Help me up, kid.”

  Lindsey grabbed my hand and yanked. “Anyone want ice cream?”

  “Me, just as soon as the paramedics are convinced it’s safe for me to get out of here.” I spotted Duane by the ambulance and waved.

  He trotted to my side. “Ready? They said you could go home.”

  “We’re going out for ice cream.” I put my arm around Lindsey’s shoulders. “To celebrate life. You want to come?”

  “Wouldn’t miss it.” He slipped an arm around my waist. “We all have some plans to make.”

  Oh, I liked the sound of that, maybe. Wait. What if the plans were for Duane to become more involved in finding the murderer? No, I couldn’t sit back and let him put himself in more danger. I’d stop him somehow.

  Lindsey rode with Duane and me to the local ice cream parlor. My body ached from Duane’s tackle, and it would sport a variety of colored bruises tomorrow, but if my daughter wanted an ice cream with me, then that’s what she’d get. Time spent together became more rare the older she got.

  We all managed to squeeze into a large booth at the ice cream parlor, me squashed between Duane and Lindsey. After asking what everyone wanted, Duane left to fill our orders.

  “Were you scared?” Lindsey peered sideways at me.

  “I didn’t know what was happening until Duane yanked me across the table. Thank God, he saw the car coming.” If he hadn’t, we’d both be in the morgue and my precious daughter would be staring at my lifeless body.

  “Playing football gave that boy fast reflexes.” Mom tapped a straw on the table. “We could use him on our sleuthing team.”

  “I don’t want anyone else involved.” I squared my shoulders. “Someone is after me. If one of y’all get hurt or killed because of a choice I made, I’ll never be able to live with myself.”

  “Don’t be ridiculous.” Mom drew air through her nose loud enough for me to hear. “I’m your mother. If I want to help you, I will. Same goes for your future husband.” She patted Leroy’s shoulder. “Not even a loving husband can keep a momma bear away from her cub. Leroy won’t say a word to stop me.”

  He opened his mouth to say something, then closed it and shrugged instead.

  I smiled, her words warming my heart. “We’re not arguing about this. Now, anyone have any idea whose car went through the steak house window?”

  “Not a clue,” Leroy said. “But, I’ll be asking around tomorrow. My guess is that the car was stolen. Somebody is pretty smart in these parts. Takes some skill to blow up houses and rig up a car the way that one was.”

  “Oh, pooh.” Mom smacked his shoulder. “You can learn anything on the internet. Everyone knows that.”

  “Maybe so, but I still don’t think we’re working with a dummy.”

  I agreed with Leroy. We weren’t working with a dummy. Now, to find out the identity of that non-dummy.

  “Any great crime solving discussed while I was gone?” Duane handed out chocolate-covered-peanut-caramel pieces of heaven on a stick.

  “No.” I bit into my treat, relishing the taste of frozen chocolate. “But I’ll be keeping an eagle eye open at Lindsey’s party tomorrow.”

  “Don’t embarrass me, Mom.”

  So much for daughterly concern. “I promise I’ll be subtle, sweetie.”

  “Yeah. Right.”

  I’m pretty sure if Duane didn’t have her blocked in, she would have scooted out and deserted us. A few months ago, she’d gone sneaking past the very window I now looked out of while chasing a boy who happened to be a primary thief suspect. Instead, he’d turned out to be a nice boy, one she got tired of rather quickly and dumped. Or maybe Bobby dumped her. Either way, their relationship didn’t last long.

  Not only had she gone chasing after the boy, but she’d caught me in a compromising position with Duane after we attempted to chase her down. Oh, the delights of being a mother in love with a teenage daughter who I constantly kept on the verge of ridicule from her friends.

  “How many of your classmates are coming tomorrow?” I asked.

  “Pretty much all of the Sophomore class.”

  “Oh. How many exactly is that?”

  “About ninety.”

  I needed to buy a bigger cake. The ice cream sat like a cold stone in my stomach. And we’d need a few more sub sandwiches.

  Lindsey giggled. “Just kidding. I didn’t invite everyone. Only about eighty.”

  Oh, well, that was so much better. Eighty teenagers and assorted adults meant the party would have to be moved outside. Good thing we’d had good weather so far.

  Maybe Leroy and Duane could man a fire pit and we could add S’mores to the menu. I really should have bought invitations for her to hand out so we could’ve kept a better handle on the amount of people invited.

  The only good thing I could come up with for that many people is the amount of information I might be able to gather. Surely with half the town in my backyard, somebody would have a clue what was happening in River Valley.

  Chapter Eighteen

  The lines were drawn.

  High school kids goofed off around one fire pit, adults huddled around another, and the numbers were vastly uneven. With the amount of young people in attendance, Lindsey might as well have hung up a sign saying, “Party at my house.” Half the school seemed to be there.

  With twinkle lights strung on every tree and bush, tables laden with food and plastic crates full of iced soda, there wasn’t much else the youngsters needed. Duane had even set up a badminton net at one end of the yard and some kids had a healthy competition going on.

  I’d kept the door to the cottage open, with the bedroom doors locked. Easy access to the restroom and peace of mind for me.

  I settled back in a lawn chair and prepared to enjoy a time of people-watching. Nothing was more fun than watching teenagers when they didn’t know they were being watched. In a while, once the guests were comfortable and conversation flowed freely, I’d make the rounds and see what information I could dig up.

  “Mom.” Lindsey glared down at me. “Are you going to sit there all night?”

  “I was planning on it. Why?”

  “Someone needs to stand by the punch bowl. I’ve already dumped it out once, and since it’s my party, I don’t want to spend it supervising.”

  Uh-oh. “What’s happening?”

  “Someone keeps spiking the punch.”

  My daughter is the best thing since sliced bread. “Do we know who the culprit is?”

  “If I knew that, I’d have Uncle Duane kick them out.” She gave me one of those teenage looks signifying I was as bright as a box of rocks.

  Sighing, I pushed out of my chair. “I’ll watch the table. I’m very proud of you, sweetie.”

  “Don’t embarrass me.” She glanced around to make sure no one was watching, then hurried back over to a group of girls.

  I shrugged and headed to my assigned position. Maybe supervising the snack table would allow me to snoop without attracting unwanted attention. I’d managed to garner quite a bit of info at Mom’s and Leroy’s engagement party a few months ago, while trying to solve the mystery of things disappearing, literally under their owners’ noses. Of course, that party was mostly adults, but sometimes kids knew things they weren’t aware they knew.

  Once I reached the table set up on the side of the house, I sniffed the contents. Still suspicious, I poured a small glass, took a sip, and promptly spewed it into the bushes. Darn, those kids. Well, no more punch. If we’d already wasted two bowls full, I wasn’t about to make any more. Sorry, Lindsey. The guests would have to be satisfied with water and soda.

  The chip bowl was empty, so I reached under the table for a full bag. Straightening, I dumped the bag into the bowl just as Darla and the man who had flipped Dottie off in the diner parking lot strolled onto my lawn.

  Over by the main house, Danny stood in the shadows talking to Amber. If Darla spotted him, fireworks would fill the sky. J
ust when I thought things couldn’t get any more interesting, Stacy sauntered into view, hanging on the arm of some stud-muffin of a stranger. Lindsey giggled from something her ex-boyfriend, Bobby, whispered in her ear.

  Was this a birthday party or a dating service?

  “Hey, good looking.” Duane snuck up and nuzzled my neck.

  “Hey, yourself.” I turned into his arms. “Is this not the strangest sweet sixteen party you’ve ever seen? It’s more like a Valentine’s Day party.”

  “Hmmm.” He turned me to where my back was to him and rested his chin on the top of my head. “Most likely it’s just people feeling good because it’s one of the few nice weather days left before winter sets in.”

  “But where did they all come from? I’m sure Lindsey didn’t invite Stacy or Darla. Danny, maybe, and Amber, but where did the adults get notice?”

  “Word travels fast.” His arms tightened, snuggling me closer. There was no better feeling in the world than having my beloved’s arms around me. Pretty much the way it felt to have God’s arms around me: Safe and loved. “People hear the word ‘party’ and show up in droves.”

  “If Darla sees Danny rubbing Amber’s belly, we might have another murder on our hands.” I reluctantly slid free of Duane’s hold. “I’d best warn him to take his little cozy conversation somewhere else.” What I’d really like to do was tell his mother to leave, but I was pretty certain Danny was the easier of the two to face.

  Before I made it to his side, Dottie stopped me. “Okay, Marsha. Now that the day of my imminent death is drawing near, I must confess I’m getting a bit nervous. I’d like you to stay with me on the 30th and the 31st day.”

  My mouth opened and closed like a fish on land. As much as I didn’t want anything to happen to the older woman, staying with her for two days would put me in the line of fire. I was pretty sure Duane wouldn’t allow me to guard her.

  “I see your reluctance, but I’m begging you.” She took my hand, her skin soft and paper thin. “I’m pretty sure nothing will happen, but why chance it? The other women died alone. I live at the retirement home, but…my name did appear in the obits. I’ll just tell the aides at the home that we’re having a sleepover.”