Aretha Moon and the Dead Hairdresser: Aretha Moon Book 2 (Aretha Moon Mysteries) Linda Ross (books for students to read TXT) 📖

“You are truly nuts,” she hissed at me.  “We don’t belong here.  We’re two elderly women, not some hot shot detectives.  You’ve been watching too much TV.”

“I can’t let this go,” I said.  “I’ve got to find whoever’s been threatening us before it drives me crazy.”

“I really worry about your gene pool,” Thelma muttered as she followed me toward the back of the barn.

We crept slowly toward the barrel, hunched over, though that was more from being scared than any attempt to be stealthy.  We could hear regular pounding inside the barn with an occasional pause.

The burn barrel was half full, and on top was a partially burned rope.  I picked up a stick from the ground and used it to lift out the rope.  It occurred to me that it might be what was used to strangle Kara.  Underneath there were some newspapers, also partially burned, and under them a cell phone.  Beside that was a blacksmith’s hammer with a wooden handle that was also scorched.  I was so startled by the find that I dropped the newspapers back in the barrel, backed up and tripped over the pile of junk lying on the ground.  An old rake fell over and banged into the metal barrel, making a loud clanging noise.  It happened during a pause in the hammering inside the barn, and Loren called out, “Hey!  Who’s there?”

Thelma and I scrambled toward the orchard as fast as we could.  I knew we couldn’t run far enough to get out of sight before he rounded the corner, so as soon as we reached a large tree I grabbed Thelma and pulled us both down on the ground.  We lay flat in the dry grass behind the tree and tried not to breathe loudly.  That was hard, because I was pretty sure I was in the middle of a heart attack.

“You kids stay away from here!” Loren shouted in the direction of the orchard.

We could hear him muttering to himself, and I was shaking so hard I felt as though I was a human milkshake.  A couple of minutes later the hammering in the barn resumed, and I let my breath out in a long, ragged whoosh.

Thelma and I got to our feet gingerly and hustled back through the orchard.  By the time we spotted the car, we were running.  Or what passed for running at our age.

“Oh, my God,” I said when we were inside the car.  “I hope I didn’t wet myself.”

“You are going to be the death of me,” Thelma said.  “Just look at us.  We’re covered in dirt and weeds.  We look like we’re homeless.  And I’m itching.  I hope that wasn’t poison ivy we were lying in.”

“Listen,” I said, “did you see what I saw?”

“I saw a man out to kill us, and I didn’t like it.”

“No, that pile of junk.  There was a small animal trap there, just the right size to catch a rat.”

“You’re worried about animal control now?” she demanded, and then she made the connection.  “Oh, the rat in your car.”

“Right.  It has to be Loren who put it there.  And I think there was blood on the handle of that hammer.  What if he strangled Kara with the rope, then bashed in her face with the hammer?  And the phone could be the one he used to text us the threats.”

We were both itching by the time we got back to Jimmy’s house.  Thelma dropped me off and said she would see me the next night for the Spyglass party.  Nancy did her little happy dance when she saw me, concluding with a couple of spins.

“Where have you been?” Jimmy demanded when I walked in the door.  “I’ve been calling you the last half hour, and you didn’t answer.”

“I had the phone on mute.  Sorry.”

“I was picturing the worst,” Jimmy said.  He looked and sounded calm, but I could tell he was agitated.

“All right.  Let’s get something to drink, and I’ll tell you all about it.”

When he had a beer and I had a Diet Coke, I took a deep breath and told him the whole story.  I could see he wasn’t happy when I said that Thelma and I had poked around Loren’s place, so I hurried to the end of the story.  “There was a pile of iron bricks in the barn like the one that was thrown through my car window.  And there was a burn barrel behind the barn, and under some newspapers there was a piece of charred rope, a hammer with what looked like blood on the handle and a cell phone.  And there was a small animal trap on the ground with some junk.”

Jimmy eyed me without even a hint of a smile.  “Do you realize what could have happened?”

I nodded.  “Thelma kept reminding me.”

Jimmy blew out a breath of air and rubbed his forehead with one hand.  “Did you touch anything?”

“Not with my hands.  I picked up the rope with a stick.”

Jimmy nodded.  “And you weren’t seen?”

“I don’t think so.  Loren came out of the barn at one point when we made some noise, but we hid in the orchard grass and he shouted at what he thought were kids.”

“Okay, I’m going to make a call.  You should go clean all those weeds off yourself.”

I could see why I was itching when I looked in the mirror.  I was covered in those tiny hitchhiker seeds.  They were all over my clothes, in my hair and even inside my coat.  I looked around the bathroom for some conditioner, but Jimmy didn’t have any and I’d left mine at home.

I went back to the kitchen and rummaged in the fridge until I found a jar of mayonnaise.  I could hear Jimmy on his phone in