“The Baptist Women’s League won’t be able to do the food at Slick’s. Apparently they’d already planned on camping out at Truck’s house.”
I groaned. “But we need to get into Slick’s place. We need a reason to search it.”
“He’ll be at the funeral,” Ruth said. “The place will be empty then.”
“We can’t break and enter. That’s illegal. No. I need him to welcome us with open arms.”
I clicked my tongue. Without an onslaught of old women shoving green bean casserole under his nose, Slick would have no reason to see me. Thoughts raced through my head—should I tell him I was thinking about buying the restaurant? Tell him I left some stuff in the van?
Problem was, Slick didn’t have the van.
As much as I hated to do it, it looked like I was going to have to use scare tactics to get inside the place.
“I’ll call you back,” I said. “Let you know if I’ve got a plan.”
I hung up and pressed my phone against my forehead. The one thing I knew was that I couldn’t drag Alice and Ruth into criminal activity with me. There was simply no way. It was one thing for me to go about breaking and entering, another thing completely to coerce two little old ladies to do it, too. Even if those little old ladies wanted to be world-class ghost catchers.
Hmmm…unless there was another way.
I glanced at my watch. It was four. The funeral started at five and it would be beginning to darken then. Figures Xavier would want to be buried at night. I didn’t even know the cemetery allowed such things.
Well, I guess you pay enough money and you could do just about anything you wanted.
I pulled on a sweater to stop chills from setting in.
“You got a hot date?”
I turned to see Susan lying on my bed. Her legs were stretched out and her arms tucked neatly behind her head.
“No dates. Well, maybe a date. Do you think your friends will be hanging out tonight?”
She blew a huge Bubblicious-sized bubble and pinched it with her fingers. “Probably. They never leave.”
“Great. Thanks. And I owe you one for the other night.”
Susan winked at me. “No problem.”
I grabbed my keys and wallet and headed downstairs. It only took a second to find Roan. He was in a small office off the front entrance. I leaned on the doorjamb and opened my wallet, yanking out several large bills.
“I have to owe you close to this.”
He smiled. His dark eyes twinkled. For the first time I noticed a dimple in his cheek. “And here I thought you were going to stay and dash.”
“Stay and dash? Is that a thing?”
He shrugged. “Could be.”
“Anyway, if I owe you more, let me know.” I started to walk away.
“Blissful.”
I paused, turned. “Yes?”
“You have plans later tonight?”
My heart seized. He wasn’t supposed to ask me that. “Um. Yeah.”
“All right.”
