Songs, Scams and Skeletons (The Melody Magic Series Book 3) by Constance Barker

Author:Constance Barker [Barker, Constance]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Constance Barker
Published: 2022-12-07T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

After a quick call, Jasmine rode downtown with Carolyn and Joyce. None of them spoke. Reality seemed to spread out like rain clouds, covering everything in shadow and deepening the gloom. Joyce had parked behind the bank. Carolyn parked in an employee space. “Do you want me to drive you back to the store, Jazz?”

“No, thanks. I’m getting a ride.” She wanted to say more, wanted to comfort the two women. She couldn’t come up with anything positive to say. Instead, she walked around the bank and up the street. The sidewalk had been cleared. Not even snirt, the mix of road dirt and frozen snow, lined the street. Why did she think it would be sloppy downtown?

If you kept walking up the street from downtown, you ran into Zane Grey High School. In between here and there was the library. She saw her own Honda parked outside, Alley stepping out of the driver’s seat. “Mom!” she waved.

“Thanks for picking me up, honey,” Jasmine said. “Do you have a few minutes?”

Alley shrugged. “Sure. It’s my day off. I thought you were going to Panda Dragon.”

Painters Hollow’s small restaurant district was a block away, the selection limited. Food wasn’t on her mind, although her mind had locked on a single word: fill. She and Alley headed into the library.

The interior had that friendly hushed feeling Jasmine found comforting. Beyond the checkout desk and the reference stacks was a door marked with a tiny plaque. This was Painters Hollow Historical Society, a small room jammed with books about local history and artifacts from the small town’s past.

Betty Barczak, a tall woman with gray chasing the red from her hair, looked up from a book. “The musical Mazurskis! How can I do you for, ladies? I hear there’s some excitement going on up to the theater.”

Betty had been on the library staff as long as Jasmine had been living in town. Both of her daughters grew up knowing no other librarian. Now, the staff had increased to three, giving Betty more time to pursue her passion—local history.

“A snowplow uncovered a skull on the grounds. Now Ohio State is digging everything up,” Jasmine said.

Betty eyed her. “Why, that doesn’t make any sense. All the old timers around here know that the Hill District used to be a quarry. That’s all landfill up there.”

“We know it, but OSU doesn’t seem to,” Joyce said. “I was hoping we could track down where the original fill came from. Maybe get them looking someplace else.” She avoided talking about the murder. It was both too raw in her mind, and she felt like she’d be talking out of school.

“It was from all over the place, really,” Betty said. She stood up and walked over to a sepia toned photo of the Little Theater’s grand opening. But it was the few pictures near it that she pointed to. Photos of the canals in town.

“Back then, the country was really expanding. Soil was cleared to make the canals. The National Road came through.

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