on Noah’s expansive wraparound porch.
“What’s going on?” I ask while sipping on the hot pumpkin spice latte I just brewed. “Why do the two of you look as if you’re plotting something?”
Noah frowns over at Everett. “I was just letting Toby out to do his thing.” He ticks his head toward his furry strawberry blonde retriever as he bounds from one end of the front yard to the other, kicking up a flurry of autumn leaves in his wake. “Then I suggested Everett earn his keep around here by raking the leaves in the yard.”
“Noah.” I bump my shoulder to his. “The man broke his arm trying to save you from a burning building.” I shake my head at Everett. “Don’t you dare rake the leaves—at least not alone. What’s this really about?”
Everett’s chest expands. “I’ve got a surprise for you, Lemon. I talked to Hannah’s landlord this morning. He says he’ll rent us the house as soon as the sheriff’s department is through with it.”
I give a quick glance to the white boxy house across the street. It’s a single level and looks every bit like the house I just lost in the fire, with its white picket fence that surrounds the porch and its cheery red door.
“Oh my goodness!” I squeal loud enough for them to hear me out on the space station. “Noah, are you through with it?”
He gives a long blink. “Just finished up yesterday.”
Carlotta pokes her head out the door. “Do you got the key, Foxy?”
“I got the key.” He nods her way.
“Evie Stevie!” Carlotta warbles. “Get your shoes on, kiddo. We’re going across the street to the murder house. It’s time to pick out our rooms!”
“It is not a murder house,” I shout. “Sort of.”
Not two minutes later, the entire lot of us is migrating in that direction.
“Noah?” I catch his gaze. “Why did you close your eyes like that when you said you wrapped up your investigation here yesterday?”
His dimples dig in deep. “Because I knew as soon as you stepped into that place you’d begin yours.”
I shrug up at him. “You would be right. It’s not every day I get to roam the house of the deceased.”
Evie grunts, “Wow, deceased sounds so creepy. You don’t think her ghost is still lingering in there, do you?”
I spot Barry Honeycutt in the window, offering up a friendly wave our way.
“Not hers,” I say.
Everett wraps his good arm around me as we make our way up the porch. “Noah mentioned she has a home office,” he whispers. “I say we start there first.”
“I like how you think, Judge Baxter.”
Noah shakes his head. “You won’t find anything. I sifted that place as if I were mining for gold.”
Evie scoffs. “No offense, Uncle Noah, but my mom is a pro. She’s going to find something so incriminating it’s going to come back to bite the killer in the butt. Speaking of getting bit in the butt.” She grimaces my way. “Cormack swung by cheerleading practice yesterday and had a bunch of us a sign a petition to get the cafeteria manager fired for feeding us the human equivalent of dog food. But it turns out, it was to give you the heave-ho out of Honey Hollow, Mom. I think we need to lawyer up. Dad, it’s your job to throw the book at that dingbat.”
Carlotta nods. “Or in this case, throw the petition at her.”
Everett’s chest rumbles. “At this point she’s in hot water for getting people to sign a petition under false pretenses. I’ll give her a call.”
“No way.” I take up his hand. “She’s baiting you—the both of you.” I nod to Noah. “Send her a cease and desist letter and throw in a few good legal threats. Not that it will do any good. I’ll put a word in with the killer. I know exactly who he or she can feed a slice of poisoned pie to next.”
Evie’s mouth rounds and her eyes light up at the demented thought.
“Kidding,” I say quickly. Evie runs up the steps in front of us, and I shake my head to Everett. “I am so not kidding.”
Hannah’s old rental looks exactly like my old rental that once sat to its right, so when Noah opens the door and lets us in, an overwhelming feeling of nostalgia hits me when I see that it’s an exact cookie cutter of the home I just lost.
“Boo!” both Greer and Barry pop out from behind the sofa and shout at the very