"Go away," I shouted.
When we were finally alone, just me, Jack, Aunt Ruby, Uncle Mike, and my little sister Shelley, Shelley tugged on my sleeve.
"Is Aunt Lorraine in big trouble?"
I hugged her. "No, honey. We're going to figure this out. That's what we do, right?"
Eleanor, my friend and part-time employee at Dead End Pawn, rushed across the street toward us, leaving Bill Oliver—her "gentleman caller"—on the bench with his niece.
"What happened?"
I started to answer, but Aunt Ruby beat me to it. "They found Earl Packard."
Eleanor's eyes widened. "No! Where was the son of a b… biscuit?"
I gasped. Eleanor was not known for foul language.
"Technically, they found his skeleton. Susan seems to think somebody had murdered him way back in 1970," Jack told her, and I had the feeling that he was watching her carefully to see her reaction.
It was a doozy.
Eleanor's eyes rolled back in her head, and she fainted.
Luckily, Jack's a tiger shifter who has fantastic reflexes in both tiger and human forms, so he jumped forward and caught her before she could hit the sidewalk. Then he lifted her in his arms and pinned Uncle Mike with a hard stare.
"Seems like there's something going on that we need to know."
Uncle Mike, much to my surprise, nodded. "Not here. Come to our house. Sounds like we'd better have this out now."
"Havewhatout?" I demanded, exasperated, but he just shook his head, took Aunt Ruby's hand, and strode off to where we'd parked our cars.
Bill was racing across the street toward us, a panicked look on his face. When he reached us, he held out his arms, as if to take Eleanor from Jack.
"What happened? Is she okay? Should we call an ambulance?" His face was red, and he was breathing hard, which made me wonder if we should call an ambulance forhim.
"She's fine. She just had a little too much excitement," Jack said gently. "I'll carry her to your car if you can take her home?"
"Of course, of course," Bill said, still panting.
His niece Win arrived, holding her purse and Eleanor's massive tote. "What happened? Is she okay?"
"She's fine," I said, glad to see that she seemed to genuinely care about the answer. Not that Win had known about it, but Eleanor had been convinced for a few days that Win was a scheming hussy out to steal Bill away from her.
This had led to the Great Spying Caper and Snake Attack, not that we would ever, ever speak of it.
Ever.
"Okay, let's get out of here and take you home," I told Shelley, taking a firm grip on her hand. "Jack?"
"Someone’s still blocking my truck in. If you give me a few minutes, I'll meet you at your car. Or I could just run out to Mike and Ruby's."
He wasn't kidding about running. It was only about eight miles to their farm, and a Bengal tiger could run forty miles an hour. Heck, knowing Jack and his long years as a rebel soldier and then commander in the battles against the vampires, he could probably run eight miles in hishumanform pretty quick.
Still. Better for him to ride over with me.
"We'll wait for you, Jack," Shelley piped up, giving him an adoring look. Her hero worship hadn't abated since the day he'd jumped into a burning building to save her life, and it probably never would.
He glanced at me over Eleanor's unconscious form, and I nodded. "We'll wait."
