anything like that.”
People found ways, but it didn’t seem prudent to tell him so. “Say, did Ashlynn come home last night?” I shot the group a glare as they continued to watch us.
“What? No.”
“Do you know where she is? Because I dropped her off…” I stopped and started again. I doubted she’d want her family to know she’d almost visited her mother in jail. “I went by the pharmacy yesterday afternoon, and she never went in to work. Her boss told me to tell her she’s fired.”
He laughed, but it sounded forced. “That’s Ashlynn. She works somewhere until she doesn’t want to work there anymore, then she just stops goin’.”
“But do you know where she was last night? Selena’s worried,” I fibbed.
He gave me a look of surprise. “You know Selena?”
“Yeah,” I said, not wanting to admit I’d just met her the day before. “Small town.”
“I guess…” he said, glancing back at his friends.
“So do you know where your sister might be?” I prodded. “Do you think she might have stayed with Chuck?”
Again, he looked surprised that I knew his sister’s boyfriend’s name. I supposed this was putting me in stalker territory. “Fuck no,” he scoffed. “The night he left, I heard him tell her he’d shoot her with his shotgun if she tried to follow him.”
“That must have been one hell of a fight,” I said.
He gave me a you had to be there look. “You don’t know the half of it.”
“Do you think he’d really shoot her?” I asked, scared to hear the answer.
He gave it a moment’s thought, then shrugged. “Maybe, but only if she hounded him. He’s kind of got a temper.”
“Do you think he could have hurt her yesterday?” I asked.
“Nah. I saw him last night. He was with Becca, and he looked pretty happy.”
“Would he look upset if he’d hurt her?”
He gave that question an alarming amount of thought before he answered. “I don’t know.”
I squared my shoulders. “I’m gonna need Chuck’s phone number and address.”
“You’re gonna go see him and ask him if he offed her?” he asked with a laugh.
“Yeah.” I crossed my arms over my chest. “I need to know that she’s okay.”
“Why do you care? All you did was give her a ride to town yesterday, right?” He shrugged again. “And no, I haven’t talked to her. I saw her get in your car. I know she was lookin’ for a ride since I wouldn’t drive her or give her the keys to my car.”
“Why wouldn’t you drive her?”
He chuckled. “That’s a good one.”
I didn’t know why that was so funny, but I didn’t press. He was volunteering information, and I didn’t want to screw that up.
“If you really want to talk to him, you’ll have better luck if you go by his work,” Ricky said. “Once he gets off work, he’s harder to pin down. Just ask Ashlynn. In fact, he’s probably workin’ right now.”
“Where’s he work?”
“At the feed store on the north end of town. Farmer’s Feed and Tack.” He gave me a puzzled look. “I still don’t get why you’re so worried. You hardly know her.”
“I’m worried because she’s pregnant and your mother’s not here to help her and her boyfriend took off. I just want to make sure she’s okay.”
He shrugged. “Whatever.”
I had a million more questions, but I worried I was pushing my luck, so I gestured toward the group. “What is this? Community service?”
“Hardly,” he said in disgust. “The youth group is cleanin’ up the church grounds for the funeral.”
“Jim Palmer’s funeral?”
Guilt filled his eyes and his chin dipped to his chest. “Yeah.”
“Do you guys usually do that? Clean up for funerals?”
“Only if they’re part-time youth leaders, I guess.”
“Wait,” I said with a shake of my head. “Jim Palmer was a youth group leader?”
“Yeah. Mostly just to help on trips. Not many of the weekly meetings.”
“For how long?”
He shrugged. “I don’t know. Ever since I’ve been in high school. Longer, I guess.”
“Did your mom help with the youth group?”
“No.” He made a face. “Gross. She watched the babies.”
“I don’t suppose the youth group does things with the babies?”
He snorted. “No.”
“Where’s Thad? Isn’t he old enough to be in the youth group?”
“He refused to come, and boy, is he gonna be in trouble when Dad finds out.” He sounded like he both admired his brother and thought he was a fool.
Melinda Palmer emerged from the door of the church and walked out to her car, and all the teens went silent as they watched her.
“We