“Good night,” Ruth said.
As Birda walked across the lawn, Alice waved. “Good night. Oh!”
She lost her grip on the BB gun, which she was still holding. The weapon slipped from Alice’s grasp. She scrambled to right it, and when she did, she accidentally fired off a round.
“Oh no,” Alice screeched.
“Ouch,” Birda called out. “You shot me in the butt!”
Ruth cupped a hand to her mouth. “Good thing you’ve got pants on!”
Birda said nothing, but the anger in her eyes when she turned around made me think we hadn’t seen the last of her.
The three of us retreated inside. I put on a pot of coffee, and we gathered around the kitchen table.
“Someone else was here last night,” Ruth said. “What have you got, Blissful, that someone wants?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.” The smell of coffee was already filling the kitchen. I poured three large cups and settled them in front of both women.
“Could it have been a ghost?” Alice offered.
“There were footprints. So no ghost,” I said.
Alice pulled out a tin of shortbread and offered it to us. She then took a rectangle and dipped it in her coffee. “Helps me think,” she said.
“I doubt anyone’s coming tonight. Not if they saw what happened.” My gaze swiveled from the coffee cup to the rest of the room. The only things in the kitchen were regular stuff like cups and plates, my purse and Alice’s handheld video camera.
Which I still hadn’t watched to see if I could fix. That at least would be helpful, maybe get my mind off what was happening at present.
“I think we need to return to Birda’s house. See what’s inside. Even though she’s denied it, I still think she may have had something to do with Cora’s death.”
“What about Tallulah?” Ruth argued. “She sent Jeffrey into Cora’s house to steal evidence.”
“He handed over the photos,” I said.
“But not the threatening letter,” Alice reminded me. “Tallulah may not be as innocent as we think. Especially since she has a ghost working for her, yet she never offered for Birda to take a picture of Jeffrey for her book.”
“Jeffrey may have come on the scene later,” I said. I tapped my fingers against the coffee mug. “Okay. Tomorrow night we’ve got to find a way to get both Tallulah and Birda out of their homes so we can search them. Jeffrey too. He can’t be there. Otherwise you’re the police’s only suspect,” I said to Ruth.
Alice’s eyes widened. “Is that right?”
Ruth dropped her head. “According to Doris, that’s correct.”
Doris Reeves was the previous sheriff’s wife. Whenever Kency Blount found herself in a pickle, she always reached out to the old sheriff, who in turn told his wife everything that was going on.
Doris then told Ruth, since they were both members of the Baptist Women’s League.
The bond was real in Haunted Hollow.
I squeezed Ruth’s shoulder. “There’s something we’re missing. We just have to figure out what.”
The doorbell rang. I stared at Ruth and Alice. “I’m not expecting anyone.”
Alice shook her head fiercely. “Don’t look at me. I’m not expecting anyone either.”
Ruth rubbed her forehead in frustration. “It’s not your house.”
“I know that. I was only helping,” Alice mumbled.
