EPPINGTON: THE GUARDED SECRET by Tanya Taylor (red queen free ebook TXT) 📗

and sat on the bench in front of the window. “What about Mrs. Christie?” he said. “Do you think they’re gonna leave her body in there?”

“Hope not.” I sighed.

I’d told them how the officer didn’t appear to be completely clueless when I first arrived at the police station, but how he was totally clueless after the first minute or so.

“Poor Mrs. Christie,” Sam cried. “I wonder who did that to her.”

“Probably her boyfriend,” Rob said.

“You think?” I grimaced. “Why would Willie Reid want to kill her though?”

Sam got up and slowly walked over to one of the windows on the eastern side of the room. “Well, maybe he and Mrs. Christie had a falling out and she threatened to tell his partner all about their steamy love affair. That sort of drama happens all the time,” she said.

“Which means she’d be exposing herself,” I quickly pointed out. “She’s married, remember? So, that doesn’t make too much sense. Besides, do you really think anybody around here who’s literally spaced out twenty-four-seven has the capacity to plan a murder? I highly doubt that.”

“You did say the cop seemed to give you at least five seconds of attention,” Sam noted. “So, it isn’t too far-fetched to think someone who had it in for Mrs. Christie had the presence of mind for a short while to decide they’re going to knock her off.”

“Maybe the husband snuck home after hearing rumors and did the deed himself,” Rob suggested.

“You mean, you think he drove on in here and acted normally and wasn’t hypnotized by those dogs?” I proposed.

“I think you have a point,” said Rob. “I don’t suppose it would’ve been as easy as that.”

The debate concerning possible suspects connected to Mrs. Christie’s death continued for a while longer, then we left it alone and grabbed something to eat. The muffin Rob had bought literally melted in my mouth and went perfectly with the other junk food I’d selected from his backpack.

“So back to the subject…” Sam had a little peanut butter at the corner of her lips. I pointed it out to her.

“What subject?” Rob asked her.

“This so-called general meeting. Should we go?”

“Definitely!” I replied. “It would be interesting to see what it’s all about. Maybe we’d get some of the answers we’re looking for.”

“I hope so,” Sam said. “Don’t know how long we’ll be able to hide out here. No power, no light—nothing except for a couple of search lights, cockroaches and lizards crawling about at night, and God knows what else! Not the most ideal situation to be in.”

You would’ve thought Sam wasn’t used to this old place. We all were. Roaches and lizards showed up in the daytime too, so it was no big deal, at least for me.

“We gotta do what we gotta do,” I said. “Would you trust going home and staying in that house with your folks right now?”

“I wouldn’t!” Rob commented. “I’d have to sleep with one eye open ‘cause I don’t know what those people are capable of. As far as I’m concerned, they’re not my folks. I don’t know where my folks are.”

It sounded so strange the way he said it, but I knew what he meant.

“I feel the same way.” Sam stretched out on her mat. “I think I’d have to sleep with both eyes open at my house. I get an eerie feeling being around all of them.”

“So, we make the best of this, huh?” I was looking her way.

“Yep. Don’t have much of a choice.”

We didn’t venture outdoors anymore that day and with some trepidation, awaited the neighborhood meeting scheduled for the next evening.

10

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Winwoood Academy’s grounds was one of the most picturesque and well-manicured compared to other schools in our district. Probably because it was a private school and parents paid top dollars for their kids to go there. The meeting was set to begin at six-thirty, and the guys and I arrived there on time. We didn’t want to get there early to hang around and look awkward.

Dogs of various breeds and sizes, some on all fours and others on hind legs acted as security guards and were directing everyone to gather in one main area of the campus. I felt so out of place among so many weirdos who stood there for the most part looking like statues. I saw my folks and Carl who were standing quietly ahead of Sam, Rob and me.

“Do y’all see any of my peeps?” Sam whispered.

“I don’t,” Rob replied, glancing around. “I don’t see my folks either.”

Instinctively, I looked back and toward the left, spotted them.

“They’re behind us,” I uttered softly. “One of the dogs is right there next to them, so don’t look now.”

It was an unsettling situation for us to be in, to put it mildly. I felt like we’d willingly, with our eyes wide open, stepped into the lion’s den. Yet, we all agreed we were running out of options.

It was cool out and that was pretty much the best thing about this little gathering thus far. Inside the distillery tended to get a bit warm sometimes, even at night. I must admit though, it wasn’t too bad and the mosquitoes weren’t biting as hard.

I saw Sam turning her head slightly to the left, obviously hoping to sneak a glance at her family. It was sort of insane to know they were there among you, yet you couldn’t be with them. And considering the way they were, I don’t think any of us really wanted to. Everyone I set my eyes on out there, I knew. Miss Pinkett wore her favorite, white, old fashioned hat and a white skirt and blouse. She was in her sixties and stylish, but not in a modern way. She looked like she was always dressed for church, and that was sort of understandable since she was often there for one meeting or the other most days of the week. Her husband, Ted, had died in a car accident a few