Farmer in the Dead by CeeCee James

Author:CeeCee James [James, CeeCee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2020-02-27T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 16

I walked downstairs where Emma was already seated at the table. She had a butter knife covered—and I mean covered—with jelly. As I watched, a sticky blob ran down the handle and onto the little girl’s thumb. She licked it off and continued to plaster a piece of toast. Scattered across the table were crumbs galore.

“What are you doing, feeding the chickens?” I asked with a smile.

“What chickens?” Her brow furrowed.

I laughed. “I’m just teasing. How did you sleep?” I walked over to the coffeemaker.

“Fine.” She crunched on a bite. “I saw Freckles this morning. Look what he gave me.”

I jerked my head to see and then yelped as I nearly scalded myself by over-shooting my mug.

“Geez!” Emma yelled as I scrambled to get a towel.

“What did he give you?” I said as I mopped the floor. Down there, I was confronted with the reality that Jasper was not fulfilling his duties as crumb cleaner.

“A four-leaf-clover. And he said he wasn’t sorry Adam died. He was a bad man. He made Momma worry.”

“Except that…” I paused to think of how to word it to make sure I wouldn’t worry her. “The police might question innocent people regarding his death. I’d like to not let that happen.”

“You mean like Momma?”

Dang, that kid was sharp. “I mean anyone at all.” I walked to the washing machine to toss in the wet towel and somehow in the process caught a stray dog kibble between my toes.

“I thought they weren’t looking at Momma anymore,” she said matter-of-factly and then licked the knife.

“Yes, I think that’s correct. So did your mom see Freckles as well?”

“No. He disappears when she shows up. He told me to pretend he’s a ghost. I was feeding my bunnies, and she said to come inside and have breakfast.”

“Well, you better hurry. It’s almost time to catch the school bus.”

Tilly stomped in then. She shivered as she rushed over to the sink and frantically squirted soap in her hands.

“Everyone up and at ‘em?” I asked.

She nodded, lathering up. “Those little piglets are so cute. It’s going to be hard to let them go.”

“Where are they going, Momma?” Emma asked.

“A couple 4-H kids have already purchased them. They’ll be raising them for show. Hurry and eat and go wash your face. I swear you’re wearing more jelly than what’s in the jar.”

“Did you see Freckles?” I asked, lifting my eyebrow.

Emma crammed the last bit of toast in her mouth and hopped off the stool so fast that it rocked. Seconds later we could hear her pounding up the stairs.

“Oh yeah, you mentioned that. So she has an imaginary friend named Freckles? That’s so funny. I had one named Jimmy Bean.”

“Hilarious. Mine was called Rodeo.”

Tilly grinned while wiping her hands. “You never told me that.”

“Well you never told me yours, either!”

She looked like she was about to cough up a good story when she glanced at her watch. “Good grief, the bus will be here in ten minutes. Where’s her lunch bag?”

She grabbed out an insulated bag from Emma’s backpack.

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