Stripped Bare by Shannon Baker Read Free Book Online

an open heart. She needs to find her own way.”
    A light tapping came from the window on the kitchen door. We all turned to see the outline of Aunt Twyla’s head through the curtains. Mom slipped from her chair like a cat slinking from a roomful of dogs. She caught Dad’s eye before disappearing downstairs.
    He nodded and pushed himself to his feet. A genuine smile lit his face before he opened the door to his older sister.
    Aunt Twyla zipped into the kitchen. Unlike Dad’s thinning, gray hair, Twyla’s curls stayed thick and long, like a teenager’s, but one look at her face showed the ravages of a life of booze and cigarettes. She shoved a casserole dish into Dad’s hands. “I don’t know where to take the condolence food. I’ll be damned if I take anything to that floozy Roxy, and I’m not craving a drive out to Frog Creek.”
    Did Aunt Twyla dislike Roxy because she’d been Ted’s old girlfriend, or was the animosity merited? Aunt Twyla and Uncle Bud owned the Long Branch, the most popular restaurant and watering hole in Hodgekiss, so Twyla knew most of the goings-on—if not from firsthand witnessing, then through gossip.
    Dad nodded and took the casserole dish. “Here’s as good a place as any.”
    â€œWhere’s Marguerite?” Twyla’s cigarette-smoke-husky voice demanded.
    Dad didn’t hesitate. “Sick headache.”
    Twyla huffed her disbelief. She focused on me. “What happened at the Bar J?”
    Robert was right. It didn’t take people long to start asking. “Milo Ferguson is in charge of the investigation, and the state patrol will be involved. They have some theories.”
    Twyla eyed me. “I see the state patrol sent a woman. She got a room at the Long Branch. Channel 10 from Omaha grabbed up the other two.”
    That was fast. I hoped Milo would keep his mouth as tightly clamped about Ted, with the media, as he was with me. I planted my hands on the table and pushed myself up. “Guess the best we can do is go about our business and let them work.”
    Twyla considered me a while longer. “If you hear anything, let me know.”
    â€œSure will,” I said to her back, as she hustled out the door, nearly knocking into Mom’s geriatric next-door neighbor, Beverly.
    Beverly held a rectangular cake pan in her shaking hand. “I was afraid it might be too early, but since I saw Twyla over here, I thought I’d best bring the cake.”
    I took the cold pan Beverly had obviously just pulled from her freezer. The early bird gets the gossip. “Thanks, Beverly.”
    I had a half foot of height on Beverly and she leaned toward me, pointing her face up. “I heard you were out at the Bar J. Did you see who did it?”
    I repeated my line about staying out of the investigators’ way. Before I got free from the kitchen, though, neighbors had dropped off a ham, a five-pound can of coffee, two loaves of home-baked bread, and a batch of warm cookies. All excuses to find out who killed Eldon Edwards. Sure, they were motivated by morbid curiosity, but a thin shellac of fear coated their faces, and more than that, sorrow floated in their eyes.
    *   *   *
    The ice had already melted from the highway, so it didn’t take long to hit our turnoff. I pointed Elvis down our narrow dirt road, watching, as always, the sky, the grasses, and the hills. Last night’s storm and this morning’s sunshine seemed to encourage green tints in the meadows, while the hills remained winter gold. No loose cattle or coyotes dotted the hills. Nothing appeared out of the ordinary. Water ran in the windmills I passed, so I wouldn’t have to pitch ice. The blue sky held no warning of bad weather. My mind bounced between Eldon and Ted. Carly. Milo. Ted. Carly.
    I drove through a narrow spot between two hills, across an AutoGate, and eased on Elvis’s brakes. Out of habit, I