When the Bough Breaks (Rose Gardner Investigations #6) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,20

his head. “Don’t you worry about that, little lady. It’s none of your concern.”

It was as though he were a doll with a pull string, and every other sentence was don’t you worry, little lady. I was in no mood to deal with nonsense, but I suspected we might be able to get a little more out of him. I put my hands on my hips. “It’s my concern if a man was killed two houses down from the house you’re tryin’ to sell me.”

“It might be haunted,” Neely Kate said with a nod. “We’ll need to conduct a séance, but first we need to know how he died.”

“I don’t know how he died,” Tex said. “And you don’t need to conduct the séance. It’s not haunted.”

“You don’t know that,” Neely Kate said, pouring on the drawl. “He died last night. His spirit hasn’t had time to get settled yet.” She tilted her head to the side and made a face. “All the more reason to hold a séance ASAP to stop him from gettin’ a foothold.”

“It didn’t happen at one of my houses,” Tex said. “Besides, it’s a full two houses away from mine. You don’t need to worry.”

“Of course I need to worry,” Neely Kate said. “It’s my civic duty to make sure that house is safe for the family that moves in. We very well might need to hire the ghost hunter we saw on that PI reality show.” She scrunched up her face. “What was her name?” She pointed at the contractor. “Piper Lancaster. If you like, I can find out how much she charges and get her over here.”

“I’m not payin’ for a ghost hunter,” Tex said, becoming indignant.

“That’s what I’m tryin’ to prevent,” Neely Kate said. “Which is why we should march over there right now to make sure that spirit doesn’t get a foothold. But we need to know his name first.”

Tex rubbed his forehead, looking frustrated. “Mark Erickson.”

“And you don’t know how he was killed?” Neely Kate asked.

“I heard he was shot.”

Neely Kate scrunched up her face. “I can work with that. Come on, Beth Ann.”

A smile twitched on my lips. She hadn’t used my alias for months. “You know how much I hate evil spirits,” I said. “So we’ll definitely need to get rid of it before I even consider movin’ into this neighborhood.”

“You’re gonna hold a séance right now?” Tex asked in disbelief.

“Well, yeah!” Neely Kate said. “The sooner the better!” She grabbed my wrist and started to drag me down toward the house.

“We can’t go in there, Neely Kate,” I protested in a whisper. “The crime scene tape’s still up.”

“But is it really?” Neely Kate asked. “Look, some of it’s down on the side.”

True enough, it was lower on the east side, but it was plain as day that it was still cordoned off. “Neely Kate… Joe’s gonna have a conniption.”

“He’ll be fine.”

“I’m not havin’ my baby in a prison cell!” I hissed.

“You won’t. Joe won’t let that happen. Don’t worry so much.”

“What do you hope to find in there, anyway?” I asked. “Don’t you think Joe and the sheriff’s deputies would already have found anything of importance?”

“I don’t know. Maybe, but I also know Mike’s up to something, and it’s more than cuttin’ corners on his houses.”

I pulled her to a halt in front of the crime scene tape strung alongside the street. “Why? What did those guys say?”

“They said that Mike didn’t pay them last week, and that he hasn’t shown up this week, except for a couple of times and he was lookin’ like crap.”

“Like he was sick?”

Her eyes narrowed. “He’s hidin’.”

“Hidin’? Hidin’ from who?”

“They think he owes money to someone. They don’t know who, but they think he’s scared.”

My stomach somersaulted. “Neely Kate, what about Mikey and Ashley?”

“They haven’t seen them and didn’t know anything about them being sick.”

The blood drained from my head.

“Rose,” she said insistently, “we’ll go to his house and look for them after we finish here, but while you and Joe saw Mike last night, they haven’t seen him for two days.”

“I don’t have a good feeling about this.”

“Yeah, neither do I. It can’t be a coincidence that Mike went into hiding around the same time an electrician was shot near one of his build sites.”

I tried to swallow my fear. “Agreed.”

We studied the house, and even though Neely Kate tried to convince me the crime scene tape had drooped enough to qualify the scene as open for business, I refused