I froze, terrified of what she would say next, because I was pretty sure the wordincarcerationwas in there somewhere.
FOUR
Kency Blount stood on the other side of a row of blooming Bradford pear trees holding a leash. “Leave that grass alone. What are you doing?”
She’d been talking to her dog!
Not us. She hadn’t seen Alice and me leaving Birda’s house.
I grabbed Alice by the shoulders and threw both of us to the ground.
Alice’s expression filled with surprise, but I pointed to Kency. Alice’s gaze darted toward the sheriff. Her eyes widened in recognition, and she nodded.
I pointed at her, at me and then made a crawling motion toward the ATV.
Alice nodded.
While Kency walked her dog, Alice and I crawled in the other direction back toward the vehicle.
The grass was cold and wet, chilling my skin, but I sucked it up. The alternative was to face off against Kency and admit the two of us had been doing illegal activities.
This was one situation shortbread wouldn’t be able to save us from.
By the time we reached the ATV, I was sopping wet with a huge water stain from my neck to my toes. My skin was freezing between the giant gap where my pants ended and my socks began, but I wasn’t complaining. It was better than being towed in by Kency.
I started the ATV and headed in the opposite direction from where I’d seen the sheriff. I dropped Alice off at her house and came in for coffee.
“We’ve got to figure this out,” I said as I followed Alice into her kitchen. “How did a piece of Ruth’s jacket wind up in Cora’s hand?”
Alice started the coffee dripping. She pulled two cups from the cupboard and a peach cobbler from the fridge.
“You know you’re going to give me serious health problems if I continue to eat all this sugar.”
“I don’t have diabetes yet,” Alice said. “Though the doctor did say my sugar was up last time.” She paused but then shrugged off the thought. “You’ll be just fine. A little sugar never killed anybody.”
“A little sugar, no. A mountain of it, yes.”
“Fine. I’ll eat it by myself.”
I stared at the cobbler. I could practically taste the peaches and crust. Finally I shook my head. “Never mind. I’ll join you.”
“Good. I hate to gain weight alone.”
Alice heated up two plates of cobbler. By the time they were finished, the coffee had dripped out.
She placed a cup and a platter in front of me. I waited for her to take a seat before digging in.
It was delicious. I wasn’t going to lie. Which meant I’d have to add an extra mile onto my early morning run. That was if I awoke in time to go on it. From the way this night was looking, it would be dawn within a matter of minutes.
I spoke between bites. “If Birda didn’t cut Ruth’s jacket and stash it in Cora’s hand, then who did?”
Alice chewed for a moment. “Well, who else was there?”
“I was.”
“Did you do it?”
I shot Alice a hard look. “Yes, I killed Cora so that I could say I’d seen the banshee first in order to save our store’s reputation.”
