Aretha Moon and the Dead Hairdresser: Aretha Moon Book 2 (Aretha Moon Mysteries) by Linda Ross (reading books for 7 year olds .TXT) 📗

about a quarter mile, then turned and headed back the other way.  Something was pushing at my brain, something I’d seen, but I still had a bit of a headache from hitting my head on the car window, and I couldn’t dredge it up.

“Wait a minute,” I said, closing my eyes.  I tried to remember the first time Thelma and I drove to the house and what we’d seen.  Something was there at the edge of my memory.  “Further up here,” I said.  “I saw something last trip, but I’m not sure what it was.  But it was out of place.”

“You’re giving me the creeps,” Thelma said.

“Yeah, well, I’m not too thrilled either.”

We kept walking, and I scoured the sides of the road.  “Uh-oh,” Thelma said.  I looked up, and she pointed to the field ahead of us.  An animal was loping toward us, and I figured we knew that particular animal.  I sure hoped he remembered that we were friends and not lunch.

“Hey, Puddin’,” I said as he drew closer.  He stopped and lifted his nose warily, then apparently recognized us.  The tail started wagging, and he bounded to us, nearly knocking me over as he shoved his muzzle into my hand.  I obliged by rubbing his ears and massaging his shoulders.

“You are so lucky,” Thelma said.  “That dog could eat you in two bites.  Well, maybe a few more than that.”

“Come on, Puddin’,” I said.  “Don’t listen to her negativity.”

We kept walking, Puddin’ dashing ahead and then running back to us, thrilled to be doing group walkies.  I kept looking to the sides where the fence lined the field, separating it from the ditch along the road.  I knew I’d seen something before that seemed out of place, but I just couldn’t remember what it was.

Just ahead on the right I saw some plastic trash bags caught on the jagged corn stalks and blowing in the wind.  “That’s it,” I said.  “It was around here.  I remember seeing something pink leaning against a fence pole.”

“What was it?”

“I don’t know, but it didn’t look right.”

We walked a few more steps, and Thelma said, “Over here.  I see something pink just behind that weed.”

There were some hardy wild roses trying to grow along the fence line and the remains of ragweed, and there behind them and against the fence post sat a lone pink running shoe.  “That’s it!” I said.  “That’s what I saw.”

“Do you know how many sneakers you can find along the road?” Thelma asked.  “Probably dozens.”

“But this is a pink running shoe.  And Stephanie runs on this road.”

We kept looking, moving further away from the shoe.  The ditch was filled with dried leaves, and I was thinking about looking for a big stick to poke around when I saw something that made me stop in my tracks.

“Thelma,” I said in a shaky voice.  “Come here.”

She walked back and stood beside me as I pointed into the ditch.  There was a white sock lying there, and it appeared to be on a leg.  Or what we could see of a leg.  The leaves obscured the rest.

“Sweet Jesus,” Thelma said, crossing herself.

“Oh, crap,” I said.

Puddin’ made a sound like Scooby Do saying Ruh-Roh and promptly headed for home.

I pulled out my cell phone and called Jimmy.  I told him where we were and said I thought we had found a body.

“What do you mean you think you found a body?” he asked.  “Why aren’t you sure?”

“It’s pretty well covered in leaves, but I can see a sock and part of a leg.”

Jimmy sighed.  “Be right there.”

Thelma and I walked away from the ditch while we waited for Jimmy.

After some silence, Thelma said, “I don’t think I like this road very much.  A lot of bad things happened here.”

“Kara was killed at the salon, remember,” I said.

“But who knows what she was doing when she was home?”  Thelma shook her head.  “This is one bad road.”

Jimmy arrived first, followed closely by two county cop cars.  Jimmy looked grim when he got out.  I walked over to the ditch and pointed down.  Jimmy knelt and pushed aside some leaves with a pen, then called to the cops.  “There’s a body here.  Better call it in.”

“Do you think it’s Stephanie Riley?” I asked.

“I don’t know, but it’s a young woman.”

“There’s a running shoe over there,” I said, pointing to the pink sneaker by the fence.  “That’s what I saw first.”

“What were you doing out here?” he asked.

Thelma and I exchanged looks.  “We wanted to talk to her about Kara,” I said, “but she hadn’t been home.”

“You were here before?”

I nodded.  “You might as well know we walked up to the house and looked through the windows before.  There’s a car in the garage, but no one home.  And a bill has been sitting in the mailbox for probably a week.  A newspaper’s there too.”

“Anything else?” Jimmy asked sarcastically.  “I don’t suppose you went inside and checked for phone messages.”

“That would be breaking and entering,” I said tartly.  Clearly Jimmy wasn’t happy at the moment.

Jimmy sighed, something he seemed to do a lot lately.  “One of the county guys is going to want your statements,” he said.  “Then you probably ought to go home and stay home.”

“You’re still coming for Thanksgiving, right?” I asked.

He didn’t answer, but the look he gave me before he walked away made me think I’d better bake a really good cherry pie.

Thelma and I told the county guys what we knew, which wasn’t a whole lot, and we got in her car to get out of there.  My phone rang, and I saw Lorenzo’s ID come up.  The man must have radar.

“You found another body?” he asked immediately.

“Yeah.  Thelma and I did.  We