Page 28 of Peril in Piney Woods

“Everything’s fine. I dropped Pepper at the vet’s. Griff is going to take her in when she’s ready to be picked up.”

“Aww, that’s great. Pepper will love it there. Griff is such a great guy.” She waggled her eyebrows as she joined Meg behind the counter. “You know he’s really stuck on you. I mean, seriously stuck.”

Meg smiled sadly. “He’s a great guy for sure.”

Jodie rolled her eyes. “Just pretend I didn’t say the rest.”

Now or never. “There’s something I need to show you.”

Her friend and employee picked up on the nuance of disquiet in Meg’s tone. “What’s going on?”

“You know,” Meg began, “I don’t have any family.”

Jodie nodded slowly. “You told me, yes.”

“After what happened on Saturday night, I got a little worried about things.”

Jodie’s face scrunched with worry. “Not to mention those guys busting in here yesterday. That had to be terrifying.”

Meg nodded. “A little.”

Jodie grinned sheepishly. “But you did kick their butts.”

“I did.” Meg pushed aside the images that immediately popped into her head. “Anyway, I wanted to make sure you knew about this.” She reached into the cash register, lifted the cash tray from the drawer. She set it aside and picked up the unmarked envelope she’d tucked last year. “About six months ago, I started thinking about this, and I decided to do something about it.”

Meg opened the envelope and removed the three-page document. She handed it to Jodie. “If anything were to happen to me or—” she shrugged “—if I just disappear, this shop and the business are yours.”

“What in the world?” Jodie looked from the document to Meg. “Are you going somewhere? Has something happened that I don’t know about?”

“No,” Meg lied. She’d grown very good at lying over the years. “I just don’t have anyone to leave things to, and I wanted to be sure that if I died or if I just decided I was done with things here that you take over. I see how good you are with the animals and the customers. I feel comfortable leaving all of it with you—if something happens. I also left something for Dottie. It’s all upstairs on my desk. This is more or less a letter of instruction.”

Jodie shook her head, refolded the document. “This isn’t right. There’s something you’re not telling me.”

Meg took the document from her, tucked it back into the envelope and placed it in the register drawer. “You don’t need to worry,” she argued. “Just know that it’s here. I want you to take care of this place if I’m not here. Got it?”

Jodie blinked, emotion shining in her eyes. “Well, of course I will. But this sounds like—I don’t know—something permanent.”

“Hey,” Meg said, “it’s just insurance. Smart businesswomen don’t take chances.”

Jodie did another of those slow nods. “Okay. I guess I understand.”

Meg hugged her. “Good. Now I have stuff to do, so you carry on.” She gestured to the door. “Great job getting that taken care of first thing.”

Jodie smiled, her cheeks a little flushed. “Thanks. I love this shop. I hope you know that I will do my very best to run it just like you, if ever the need arises.”

Meg smiled. “See. I did the right thing.”

With that out of the way, Meg went upstairs and checked her studio one last time just to make sure there was nothing else she needed, then she used the back stairs to leave. A female voice she recognized as one of the shop’s regular customers told her Jodie was preoccupied. Just as well, Meg wasn’t so good with goodbyes. She loaded into her truck and drove away.

Her eyes burned, but she refused to cry. She had enjoyed her life here. She’d hoped it would last, but there had never been and never would be any guarantees.

Not this time or the next.

Griffin Residence

Sundown Road

11:00 a.m.

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