Cash & Carry (Mayfield Cozy Mystery Book 4) by Jerusha Jones Read Free Book Online Page B

You wouldn’t have been out there all night if that wasn’t what you were doing.”
    I stuffed half a piece of toast in my mouth. The butter hit me like a shot of old whiskey, and the last of my adrenaline tension drained away.
    “Just tell me this,” Walt said. “Is your Numero list one shorter?”
    I nodded around the wad in my mouth.
    Walt settled back in his chair, seemingly resigned to the fact that he wouldn’t get more information out of me. I’d certainly made a habit of being sparse with details, but he also knew I did it for the boys’ protection. I didn’t want to involve him in my mess any more than was necessary. Instead, he glanced at the rucksack on the floor. “Dwayne’s about to take off, isn’t he? He’s been particularly restless the past week.”
    “Last night made up his mind for him,” I said. “Will he be okay?”
    “He’ll be free. Which is all he wants.”
    Freedom was what I wanted too. Freedom from the looming threat of my husband’s former money laundering clients and their cruel tactics. For a brief moment, I was irrationally jealous of Dwayne. Just picking up and leaving whenever he wanted to. No ties.
    But my ties were the only things holding me together. Without them, I’d be a sorry, dismal woman wandering the woods by myself. If I was going to end up as a heap of bones just like Joe eventually anyway, I might as well go down fighting.
    Even though he’d correctly identified Dwayne’s rucksack, I didn’t know if Walt knew about its contents, and I wasn’t going to tell him. Yet another item in a long list of things I wouldn’t tell people, even the people I most respected and loved.
    Except this particular secret wasn’t really mine, so I wasn’t at liberty to share it. Besides, blabbing about it would only raise even more questions that I didn’t have the answers to, and I was beyond weary of questions I didn’t have the answers to.
    I straightened and pulled my mind out of its useless downward spiral. Back to the land of the living. I sucked in a breath. “In addition to all the other favors you’ve already done for me, can I ask for one more?”
    One side of Walt’s mouth lifted. Not really a smile, maybe a grimace.
    I plunged ahead. “I guess it’s two things—Emmie. Will you be her legal guardian if anything happens to me, and will you include her in your schooling program? She’s reading like crazy. There’s no stopping her. But she needs direction. And, well, math. Clarice can have her practice multiplication with sets of silverware only so often. We had to add fish forks and soup spoons last week. Emmie doesn’t even know she’s doing multiplication, but she can.” I ran out of breath and stopped.
    The light of my life—Emmie. And the most important requests I’d made of Walt yet.
    He did that smiling from the inside thing I loved so much and nodded. “I’ve been thinking the same things. Yes and yes.”
    “Today?”
    Walt chuckled. “It’s Friday. How about if we get a running start on Monday? I’ll do assessments, set up her curriculum. She’ll have company in her grade level. Odell for sure, and Purcel for a few subjects. He has some catching up to do.” Walt leaned forward on his elbows. “This has been good for Eli. He’s actually sitting down to schoolwork these days. Having kids near his own age has helped tremendously.”
    I’d been gobbling breakfast and paused to wipe a glob of scrambled eggs off my chin. “I forgot to mention that the body is six to eight weeks old. Which means none of us are in immediate danger—well, not from that , at least.” I waved my hand to encompass all that . Walt knew what I meant. “I’m so sorry to bring this trouble to Mayfield, but there’s no reason to think the boys—and you—can’t carry on with all your regular activities.”
    Walt sighed, and the worry dent for which I was solely responsible settled between his brows. “I didn’t set up this camp so the boys would be isolated