to
laugh. “Are you worried about my reputation? Should we wait until Greg can go
and offer to chaperone me?”
“No, you’re
right. I’m just being silly.”
I patted his shoulder
softly. “You’re looking out for me, and normally I wouldn’t have a problem with
it, but this isn’t one of those times.”
Moose
shrugged. “Let’s go, then, but I’m warning you, if you get yourself in a bar
fight, I’m not stepping in to give you a hand.”
He was doing
his best to make up for the slight offense, and I decided to accept his
unspoken apology for treating me like a little girl. “Okay, but I don’t know
why you’d miss out on all of the fun like that.”
“You’re right
again,” Moose said. “If our family goes down, we’ll go down swinging.”
It was all
for naught, though. Against Sam Jackson’s usual habits, he wasn’t at the bar,
and the bartender hadn’t seen him when we asked about him.
Was Ellen the
only one on the run right now, or had we just lost another of our viable
suspects?
Chapter 6
“Where do you
suppose he could be?” I asked Moose as we went back out to his truck.
“Well, I
doubt that he’s with Ellen and her kids,” my grandfather said.
“Why would
she be with him ?” I asked.
Moose waved a
hand around in the air as though he was shooing away a pesky fly. “She
wouldn’t. I was just thinking out loud.”
“Well, you
might want to try curbing that a little,” I said. “Somebody might hear you.”
“Got it.
Should we head back to the diner, or do you want to try tracking Jackson down
somewhere else?”
“Let’s head
over to Opal’s place. I’m dying to know if Ellen’s there.”
“Victoria,
you haven’t changed your mind about her, have you? Do you honestly think that
she’s capable of murder?” my grandfather asked. “I’ve known that woman since
she was a little girl, and there’s no way that she’s a killer.”
“ I know that. I was thinking more about
Opal and Robert.”
My
grandfather shook his head. “Sorry, but I just don’t see it. Neither one of
Ellen’s parents strike me as a murderer.”
“Even if it
meant protecting their grandchildren from harm?” I asked. “I don’t see how we
can count Opal or Robert out until we get solid alibis for them.”
“This is
going to be uncomfortable,” Moose said as he took off toward Ellen’s mother’s
house.
“You’re not
afraid of them, are you?” I asked with the hint of a smile.
“Well, not
usually, but you make a good point about what a grandparent might do to protect
their fold.”
“Don’t worry,”
I said as I patted his arm. “I’ll be there to protect you.”
“Who’s going
to look out for you?” Moose asked with a smile.
“I kind of
thought we’d look out for each other,” I said.
“You know
it,” my grandfather said.
As he drove
toward Opal’s house, I looked out the truck window, wondering where my morning
server had gotten herself off to. Where would I run if I had two kids I needed
to protect?
“Moose, you
didn’t loan Ellen your fishing cabin, did you?” I asked.
He looked
startled by the question. “No, of course not.”
“But you
would have done it if she’d asked you, wouldn’t you?”
To my
grandfather’s credit, he didn’t even hesitate when he answered me. “Of course I
would have.”
“There’s no
chance she knows where you hide the spare key, is there?”
Moose
shrugged. “Well, I don’t exactly make a secret of it.”
“Is it
possible that she took her children there?” I asked. “She’s been to your cabin
before, hasn’t she?”
My
grandfather nodded. “Remember? I loaned it to her last year for a few nights of
R&R. She needed to get away.”
“Then she
might be there now,” I said.
“Let’s go
see,” Moose said.
As he pulled
into the park to turn around, I said suddenly, “Forget it. We don’t need to go
after all.”
“Why not?
It’s a solid theory, Victoria.”
“Maybe