at night.
“Well, that settles it.” Lola grabbed her key ring and Stand-In Randy.
She’d just have to go now.
Chapter Six
Sheriff, we’ve got a report of a ghost in the cemetery.”
Drew had just sat down on his couch at home and had just started to regret not being able to buy a date with Wendy when the call came in from dispatch.
Flo’s deep smoker’s voice crackled over the radio, which was still strapped to Drew’s shoulder. “Do you want me to send Gary or Emily over to check it out?”
“No.” Drew spoke into the radio. “The cemetery is closer to my house.” Besides, the farmhouse was too quiet without Becky. Even in sleep, her presence made the place feel lived in. Was this how it would be if Jane won her custody battle? He got to his feet. “I’ll go.”
“That’s what I thought.” Flo should’ve applied for the sheriff’s job. She practically ran the department anyway, even though she used a wheelchair and worked from home.
Drew drove his cruiser down a deserted stretch of foggy two-lane highway to the Sunshine Valley Cemetery. The wrought iron gates had been painted a pearly white and were uncharacteristically open.
Drew drove slowly between them. Chances were some local kids were out drinking and egging each other on. He swiveled the cruiser’s spotlight around the fog-blanketed cemetery, nearly missing the ghost.
It was Lola.
She wore the same white minidress she’d had on earlier. Her skin glowed like ivory in the spotlight. She had on a pair of black rain boots and was pointing a gun at a body lying on the ground.
Drew’s pulse kicked past prank procedure to armed-and-dangerous action.
He threw the cruiser in park and shouted out the open window. “Lola!” He jumped out of the car and drew his firearm. “Drop the gun.”
Lola didn’t spare him a glance. “Hey, Sheriff.” So casual. As if he were dropping off his rent check.
“Put the gun down, Lola.” She hadn’t just gone over the edge; she’d plunged into dangerous territory. Drew kept her in his gun sights as he moved carefully up the hill. “Put the gun down now.”
He was too late. There was something wrong with the person on the ground. Their skin was the yellowish-pink color of the long dead, and they weren’t moving.
Maddeningly, the fog obscured the details.
Drew ran up the hill, weapon still drawn, his gaze darting between Lola and her victim. About ten feet away, he realized Lola was aiming at a person with no toes and no pulse. She was aiming at a blow-up doll.
He swore. With relief-fueled gusto.
In a string. With colorful verb use.
And pointed his muzzle to the ground.
“Randy never was one to give a straight answer unless he was cornered.” Lola sounded sane and sober, but the gun pointed at the plastic body contradicted that impression.
She’d taken Watch-Out-World to a whole new level.
“Put down the gun.” Drew knew better than to trust anyone with a drawn weapon.
“I decline.” She spared Drew a glance. “I need a moment alone with my husband. The widows said if I was quiet, I could hear Randy speak.”
That did it. Tomorrow he was going to have a heart-to-heart with Mims & Company. Drew took a few steps closer, gauging the distance between them. For the public’s safety and his own, he had to disarm Lola, and to do so, he had to keep her talking. “What’s Randy saying?”
“Nothing. He’s taken his secrets to the grave.” Lola shifted her stance and drew a breath, as if preparing to shoot.
Drew wrested her gun away but in the process knocked her down. They tumbled together, rolling several feet downhill until Drew’s back slammed into a headstone with a breath-stealing, bruise-making thud.
For several seconds, he didn’t move, letting the pain in his back radiate outward. He was aware of the damp earth beneath him, the smell of gardenias and cut grass, and the warm body in his arms.
“Ow.” Lola lifted her head to stare at him with blue eyes that were clear and disapproving. “Was that necessary?”
“Yes.”
“Why?” She propped herself up on her elbow. Her soft brown hair caressed his neck.
He resisted releasing a gun and grabbing a handful. “Because you wouldn’t drop your gun. Because you built a bonfire today.” Because she was just as unpredictable and emotional as his sisters. It was official. She’d made it onto his Watch-Over list.
He vowed then and there to call Wendy tomorrow. He needed a sane, conventional woman in Becky’s life, one who wasn’t a candidate for his Watch-Over list. Watching