Spooky Hijinks by Madison Johns Read Free Book Online

as bad as it seems.”
    I said it, but didn’t mean it as I glanced over and saw that Curtis and Curt Hill were standing near the door, motioning me over. Oh, great. Andrew would find out more than I wanted him to know for sure now. I nonchalantly got up. “I hafta pee,” I announced. “Come with me, Eleanor,” I added.
    She was chomping on french fries when I gave her one of my legendary looks that meant business.
    “Oh, okay. Sure.”
    “In that small bathroom?” Dorothy said from her table.
    I raced across the room and headed straight out the door once Andrew and Mr. Wilson seemed to not be paying us too much attention.
    Eleanor came through the door after me and then spotted the Hill boys. We followed them back to their truck, and I asked, “What’s going on here?”
    Curtis whipped a palm through his hair. “Oh, nothing except that damn kid, Robert, turned up missing.”
    “How can you be sure?”
    “Well, because the sheriff came out with that son of yours, asking questions.”
    “Stuart? Why would he come out? He works for the FBI.”
    “Exactly my point. Apparently, he’s been watching Robert’s activities as part of some kind of sting that we walked right into.”
    “Oh, no. What did he say?”
    “He wants to know if we did something to Robert is what. His mother, Vivian, told the sheriff that we might have wanted her son dead,” Curtis said. “I bet you’ll be questioned next. Well, I wanted to at least give you a heads-up.”
    “Thanks, but you didn’t do anything to Robert, did you?”
    “Look, I might be involved with the militia, but I’m not like that. I’d never kill a kid just because he stole our guns—which we got back, thanks to you.”
    “What did they say about the guns?”
    “Nothing, which makes me wonder why Vivian never mentioned that part, at least not yet. I’m not going up the river for harming that kid. Maybe you should investigate his disappearance. Of course, if he was working for someone else, he very well might be dead.”
    “Don’t say that. He’s just gone into hiding, perhaps. If I found out some militia member knew that I was the one who had stolen their guns, that’s what I’d do.” I made eye contact with Curt now and asked, “Hey, Curt, how are you?”
    His face was white, and he rubbed his leg. “Okay. Your granddaughter sent someone out to the house to dig out the shot. Seems she didn’t want to get involved with doing it herself. So for that, I’ll have to thank her. You can tell her that I said thanks. I hardly want to tangle with Trooper Sales.”
    “Aww, he’s not so bad.”
    I watched as Curtis and Curt got back into their truck and left with a trail of gravel behind them, since there was no snow on the ground as of yet. When I turned around to go back inside the restaurant, Andrew was standing by the door. I smiled as I passed him.
    “Why were you outside talking to the Hill boys?”
    “They just stopped by and thanked me for dropping their mother off earlier when they were stranded on the side of the road.” Not a total lie.
    “I wonder,” he said. “But I’ll let it drop for now.”
    Eleanor and I went back to the table and finished our dinner in silence. The entire time, Andrew gave me quite the look, and I knew this wasn’t over by a long shot.
     

               Chapter Four
    When we left the restaurant, Andrew drove again. Knowing that we were headed to Elsie Bradford’s house, I protested when he headed onto 55. “Elsie doesn’t live on 55. She lives on Plank Road,” I said.
    “Not anymore. Haven’t you heard that Elsie and Jack Winston are shacking up?” Andrew said with a laugh.
    I shot Andrew a shocked look. “Surely you must mean that they’re simply seeing each other, or dating casually.”
    “Nothing casual about Elsie moving in with Jack out at the place his son bought for them.”
    “That makes no sense. Why, Elsie has a great place on Plank Road. A real nice place, I might