Poison in the Pines by R.L. Syme

Author:R.L. Syme [Syme, R.L.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: R.L. Syme

Chapter Eighteen

Emma backed into the dark shadow of the dining area as I came around the table toward her. She gave her head a little shake and her lip trembled like she couldn’t bear for me to talk to her about it.

I pushed a breath out and waved my hand around the kitchen. “I had a break-in this morning. That’s why Malcolm is here.”

“I saw the Murphy kid in the back of Malcolm’s truck. What happened?”

“I came to help you open the store and I found the back door of the bakery open,” I said, glancing between her and Malcolm. He hadn’t stopped staring at her face and was becoming tenser by the moment.

“Are you okay?” she asked, coming toward me, and then looking down at the floor, and back at Malcolm. She stopped, pulling at her hair again. But it was too late, Emma. Malcolm saw it. I saw it.

If she gave me the I fell down the stairs routine, I was going to move straight into her house and file for divorce on her behalf. Joshua was on his last leg with me.

“I’m fine,” I said, putting emphasis on the I. She needed to know I saw, even if she wouldn’t talk. Sometime, she’d talk. I knew her.

“What did they take?” Emma glanced at Malcolm, who hadn’t stopped staring at her, and she had to look away.

“Looks like the cash register is empty.” The sheriff finally stopped his glare, looking to me with a raised brow. “Anything else?”

“I can’t really tell in here.” I gestured at the general mess. “You told me not to pick stuff up, so I don’t know for sure what’s here and what isn’t.”

“Yeah, don’t touch anything yet.” Malcolm pointed at the back door. “Let’s get you both out of here.”

I took Emma by the arm and pulled her out into the cool morning. “You can’t open the store looking like that,” I whispered. “Everyone’s going to ask questions.”

“I can’t not open the store.”

“Well, let me run the counter at least, today.”

Malcolm was herding us out and asked for my keys, locking the back door behind us. He held them up, asking if he could keep them, and I agreed. There was no reason for me to keep them, just to hand them over again.

But they were Derek’s. I still hadn’t been able to look through my purse to find mine. That reminded me. “My purse, Malcolm. Did you see it?”

“I didn’t, no.”

“Do you think they took it?”

“Can’t say for sure. Did you see any of them with it?”

I tried to remember and couldn’t. All I remembered was blurs and jingles and then getting tackled by Brandon Murphy. “I’m not sure. Will you find the other two boys?”

“I put out an APB on the car, so I would assume that they’ll get tracked down. It isn’t often we have high schoolers involved in stuff like this. I don’t think it’ll take us long to catch them, given that I saw the license plate of the vehicle.

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