Crime and Paradise by Julie Howard

Author:Julie Howard [Howard, Julie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Amateur Sleuth, Suspense, abuse survivor, Romance
ISBN: 9781509216451
Publisher: The Wild Rose Press
Published: 2017-07-14T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

It sounded like a rifle shot. Meredith jumped in the driver’s seat and Jamie yelped.

“It’s just the car.” Meredith spoke quickly to calm Jamie and herself. “Gassy today.”

That brought a giggle and a round of farting noises from the backseat as Jamie blew through pursed lips at Atticus.

Meredith looked in the rearview mirror. A smoke cloud was billowing out from behind the car and her heart sank. It had been nearly two weeks since Brian’s murder. Surely there were things she needed to take care of, mainly figuring out how she was going to support herself and her kids. She needed to know more about the house and whether there was money owed on it. Brian had never told her. Her aim was to sell it soon so she and the kids could leave and start their new life somewhere, anywhere else.

This morning, though, she needed to pay the funeral home the balance for her husband’s cremation so she could take his ashes. For this, she had taken five hundred dollars from the box in the attic, along with another hundred for groceries. The twenty and fifty dollar bills, still holding their curled shape from being tightly wound in their sock, were radiating bad vibes from Meredith’s purse on the passenger seat next to her. She hadn’t liked touching the money, knowing it was linked to the problems in her marriage. Funeral money. Maybe the best use for it.

Her car problems were getting critical, though, and she needed money for groceries and gas. Bills needed to be paid. She didn’t have the luxury to be particular or superstitious about it. The money in the ceiling was the one thing keeping her and her children from being completely broke.

A fine mist covered the windshield as the car rumbled over the highway, clunking as it automatically shifted from one gear to the next. In the distance, a band of rain streaked down onto the far prairie. A bolt of lightning showed above the mountain range as they pulled into the funeral home’s parking lot.

Blissful, Idaho was only slightly larger than Hay City. It had a hair salon, a gas station, two churches, and a bar and grill, along with the mortuary. An elementary school, consisting of two mobile buildings and a field full of weeds, sat behind the gas station. Meredith realized this was where her kids would go to school if they stayed in Hay City.

“It’s storming over there,” she told Jamie, pointing at the mountains.

“How do you know?” Jamie peered through the window where she pointed.

“See those streaks coming down?” Meredith asked. “Those dark clouds over there? It’s a big storm. From way over here, you can see where it’s been and where it’s going.”

Jamie watched wide-eyed.

“It’s pretty.” Jamie’s mouth fell open.

Meredith watched the dark storm move over the mountains, regarding it anew. Slim bands of light shone through the clouds from above and the interplay of iron gray and silvery white thunderheads changed as the system pushed its way forward.

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