Nearly Departed in Deadwood by Ann Charles Read Free Book Online

booked solid through the end of August.”

          I hung up, rubbing my eyes. My fingers came away with black smears from my cheap eyeliner—the waterproof stuff was too pricey for my budget these days.

          “Mona, do you know any other cleaners?”

          “Let me make a call.”

          I pulled out my compact as she dialed and grimaced at the face staring back at me. The clowns at Wolfgang’s house weren’t as scary.

          My cell phone trilled. I dug it out of my purse. Aunt Zoe’s number showed on the screen. “Hello?”

          “Mom, can I bring a friend tonight?” Addy asked, her breath quick and shallow, her voice an octave higher than usual.

          “Sure.” The more the merrier, as far as I was concerned. I was happy to hear Addy was making friends. “Is it one of the neighbor girls?”

          “No, I met her at the pool today.”

          Deadwood had a Rec Center just down the hill from Aunt Zoe’s house. It had been there since long before I’d splashed around in the pool during my childhood summer visits to Aunt Zoe’s. These days, my kids liked to hang out there when they weren’t hiking through the graves at Mount Moriah or peddling their bikes around Deadwood.

          “I look forward to meeting her.”

          “Thanks, Mom. Kelly’s been really sad since her best friend disappeared last summer. I thought it might be fun for her to see the dinosaurs with us.”

          I raked my fingers through my hair, trying to make it look less Tina Turner-like. “Disappeared? You mean moved away?”

          “No. She went missing and they never found her.”

          My fingers froze, goosebumps spreading up my arms. “If you’re joking, Adelynn Renee, that’s not funny.”

          “That’s what she told me, Mom, I swear.” There was a loud crash on the other end of the line that left my ear ringing.

          “What was that?”

          “Layne! Stop it right now or I’m telling Mom!”

          “What’s he doing?”

          “Gotta go, Mom. Bye.” Addy hung up on me.

          I sighed and closed my phone and tossed it on my desk. Addy’s comments about her new friend left an acidic taste in my mouth. Disappeared last summer? Addy must be confused. The first girl went missing this past winter—January, if I remembered right.

          “Thanks, anyway,” Mona said into her receiver and hung up. She gave me a lopsided grin. “Sorry, Vi, but every cleaner I know is too busy to take on another job right now.”

          Everyone in Deadwood but me was making money. I guess if this realty gig didn’t fly, I could always clean houses. Rather than stomp around and cry about it, I changed the subject. “Addy just said the oddest thing.”

          Mona stuffed her laptop in her briefcase. “What?”

          “That a girl went missing last summer.”

          Frowning, Mona grabbed her rain slicker from the office coat tree. “Was that a year ago already? Man, time flies faster the older I get.”

          My stomach churned. “So, three little girls have disappeared from Deadwood in the last year?”

          “Well, technically, this last one was from Lead, not Deadwood.”

          Lead. Deadwood. The same thing. The two towns sat so close together they were practically Siamese twins. “What month did the first girl go missing?”

          “It was last August, I think.” Mona slipped her arms into her jacket. “I can’t believe you haven’t heard about it. Where have you been, Vi?”

          In Russia, of course, leading the glitzy other half of my double life as a world-class spy. “I’ve been a little busy lately, thank you very much. Just explain, please.”

          “The reason Ray got so pissed about the Missing Girl sign is because this third incident has rumors flying all over town that Deadwood has its very own