Page 40 of Trouble Comes in Threes

“We’ve seen weirder things,” she finished, not looking happy about it.

Her statement made me reconsider my decision not to tell her about the dream. She was right—we’d seen more than our share of oddities.

“So what do you want to do?” she asked, interrupting my thoughts.

“Uh…” I was about to tell her about my nightmare, but maybe I’d just imagined the connection. The dream had been vague. Or maybe I was just hesitating because I didn’t want to acknowledge that my visions might be changing. “We have to go back and see Miss Adolpha so we can figure out whether she’s in danger.”

She made a face. “I was afraid you were going to say that.”

“You don’t want to see Miss Adolpha again? She was a sweet elderly woman.”

“I don’t have a problem with Miss Adolpha. It’s Miss Mildred I don’t want to see again.”

“Fair enough.”

She drew in a deep breath. “I guess this means we won’t be opening the box yet.”

“Let’s hold off until after we see Miss Adolpha. But then we have to come right back so I can work on my proposals. If we want to do more sleuthing, it will have to wait until this afternoon.”

“Okay.”

“And the only reason I’m suggesting we go see Miss Adolpha now is because I’m worried she might be in danger. Not because we’re resuming our investigation.”

“Which is the only reason I’m agreeing to go,” she grumbled.

“I’ll buy you coffee as an incentive,” I said, heading for the door.

“I’d rather have a cupcake.”

“Deal.”

We locked the office and headed across the square to Dena’s Cupcake Shop. Dena wasn’t necessarily a fan of Neely Kate and me. She’d dated Joe at one point, and for a long time, she’d blamed me for “stealing” him from her. I could understand why it had looked like that from her point of view—Joe had moved in with me when I was a few months pregnant to help protect me and Hope and keep her parentage a secret. We hadn’t gotten back together until later, although she didn’t know that. Thankfully, her hostility had softened over the past few years.

When we walked through the doors, several people were already in line. In addition to cupcakes, Dena had started serving to-go breakfasts, which were popular with the courthouse employees.

We waited in line, and when it was our turn, she took one look at me and said, “What’s going on with the murder down in Pickle Junction?”

Neely Kate stared at me, eyes wide and mouth gaping. “What murder in Pickle Junction?”

“Didn’t tell your best friend, huh?” Dena said sarcastically. “What did we elect your husband for if there’s just gonna be people murdering each other all over the county?”

“To be fair,” I said, “it’s one murder. I can’t even remember the last time someone was killed.”

“Last fall,” Dena said in a know-it-all voice.

“Okay…” Neely Kate said, starting to get pissed. “That seems like pretty good stats to me.”

“Of course you’d think so,” Dena spat at her. “He’s your brother.” She shifted her attention back to me. “I heard it was drug-related.”

So much for softening toward us.

I held up my hands in surrender. “I don’t know the first thing about it, Dena, so don’t be trying to get information out of me.”

“Do you think I believe that you really don’t know anything about it?”

“It’s true,” I said, trying not to sound defensive. “It’s an official investigation. It sounds like you might know more than I do.”

Neely Kate leaned closer to the counter. “What do you know?”

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