When the Bough Breaks (Rose Gardner Investigations #6) - Denise Grover Swank Page 0,24

to do with this?”

“Mrs. Beauregard,” Deanna warned.

Mike’s mother turned to her in outrage. “They came around askin’ him all kinds of questions, insinuating he knew something about it. Why on earth would he have anything to do with a burglary? She left him absolutely nothing! Not even her life insurance policy to take care of the kids! He was countin’ on that money!”

“Mrs. Beauregard!” Deanna said, increasing the sternness in her voice.

But Mike’s mother wasn’t backing down. She shifted to face me. “This is your fault! You turned her against him!”

“Now hold on there,” Joe said in a slow, good-natured tone. “No one said anything about Mike breaking into Mr. Gilliam’s office. We only want to know who did. Seems to me all y’all would want to know too.”

“She left Mike and her kids with nothin’!” Mike’s mother said through her tears. “Absolutely nothin’!”

I stifled a gasp. I understood why Mike’s parents saw it that way, but what did Mike think? Did he truly believe I’d stolen his children’s inheritance, or had he figured out Violet knew what he was up to?

Joe gave her a sympathetic look and lowered his voice. “And while I know that must have hurt you all deeply, the simple fact is that your grandchildren haven’t been seen in days, and now your son can’t be located. We only want to make sure they’re all okay.”

Deanna frowned and turned back to Mike’s parents. They formed a huddle and whispered for nearly a minute. When Deanna finally stepped away from the Beauregards and approached Joe, she had a key in her hand.

“By allowing you into their son’s home, they are not confirming that their son has done anything wrong.”

“Funny,” Joe said as he took the key, “I never once insinuated that I thought Mike Beauregard had done anything wrong. For all we know, the family’s unconscious in the home. What makes your clients jump to that conclusion?”

No one said anything for several uncomfortable moments before Joe spun around and handed the key to Randy. “Deputies, after you.”

Just as they started walking up to the front door, sirens wailed in the distance. Joe looked up in surprise, although his expression quickly turned to a scowl when he saw the two Henryetta Police Department cars approaching us. The car in front was flying down the street, much too fast to be safe in a neighborhood, while the second car followed at a much safer speed.

The first car skidded to stop, but the officer must have underestimated how much distance he needed to stop, because it plowed into the rooster mailbox of the house across the street, sending mail and painted aluminum feathers everywhere.

Joe had run over and pushed Neely Kate and me against the side of my truck, shielding us with his body, which was a good thing since a flying yellow feather whizzed through the air where we’d been standing and lodged into a tree trunk.

Seconds later, we heard creaking metal, and Joe stepped away to walk around the front of my truck into the street.

Mike’s parents and their attorney had resumed their huddle on Mike’s driveaway and now stared at the scene in shock.

The patrol car’s driver’s side was smashed in, and Officer Ernie was pushing on his door with all his might, trying to get it open.

The second patrol car came safely to a halt on the other side of the street, and Officer Sprout got out, his mouth dropping open as he took in the state of Officer Ernie’s patrol car.

Officer Sprout traipsed over, making a horrified face. “The chief ain’t gonna like this, Ernie.”

“Well, there ain’t nothin’ I can do about that now, is there?” Ernie shouted, jerking on the door. “Help get me out of here!”

I sidled over to Joe, staring in disbelief. The metal rooster’s face had gone through the windshield, its body jutting out in the air, but a sudden breeze sent it bobbing like one of those pecking rooster toys.

Officer Sprout braced himself and tried pulling on the door handle. “It’s stuck.”

“I know it’s stuck!” Officer Ernie shouted. “That’s why I asked you to help me get out!”

The homeowner of the rooster’s house, an older woman in a housedress and curlers in her hair, burst out the front door, panic on her face as she threw her hands in the air. “You can’t pin it on me!”

“What’s she talking about?” Neely Kate asked, standing on the other side of Joe.

“I have absolutely no idea,” he said, “and at the moment,