Page 71 of Trouble Comes in Threes

“Maybe I’m being paranoid, but I don’t want to live through that hell again. Especially not as a mother.”

His gaze softened. “I haven’t heard anything about a new group moving into the county.” He made a face and glanced around the room, then turned back to me, lowering his voice. “If it makes you feel any better, I think the murder in Pickle Junction was a drug deal gone wrong. But you didn’t hear that from me.”

Darlene Smith said she was worried the sheriff’s deputies would chalk her brother’s death up to another dead junkie. It stood to reason the murder Austin had witnessed was drug related too. Maybe the package the killers were looking for contained drugs. “Thank you, Randy. Truly.”

“Joe would never let any harm come to you and the kids. And neither would his deputies. You and the kids are safe.”

I wanted to take him at his word, but I couldn’t help worrying there was something brewing that no one in the county had picked up on yet.

But I didn’t want him to think I’d asked him to lunch to get information out of him about the murder, so I spent the rest of our meal telling him about the box Neely Kate and I had dug up and how we were trying to locate the owners.

“One of the older neighbors said it could have been buried by the people who lived next door, but she thinks the old neighbor had been arrested. We definitely want to steer clear of someone dangerous.” I paused. “Do you think you could find out who it was if I give you the address and the approximate year the arrest might have happened?”

He narrowed his eyes. “Why don’t you ask Joe?”

“Joe has bigger fish to fry with his murder investigation, but he knows we’re looking for the owners, if that’s what you’re worried about.”

“And you think I have more time?” he asked, deadpan.

Cringing, I said, “I didn’t mean it like that, Randy.”

He laughed. “I know you didn’t, but I couldn’t resist teasing you. Just tell me what you know, and I’ll look into it.”

“Thanks.”

He tilted his head and studied me. “Did this Pickle Junction information come to you from your search for the owner of the box?”

“No. It’s completely separate.”

He nodded. “Just be careful, Rose.”

“Trust me, I plan to.”

I hoped those weren’t famous last words.

Chapter Fifteen

After I told him what I knew, I paid for both lunches—much to his protest—and headed back to the office. Neely Kate sat alone at her desk, deep in concentration as she stared at her computer screen.

“Jed left?” I said as I closed the front door behind me.

“Yep,” she said briskly, popping the P.

“You two still haven’t made up?”

She shot me a glare. “Not after what he did.”

“Maybe I’d be more sympathetic to your cause if I knew what he’d done.”

“You’re supposed to be sympathetic to my cause because I’m your best friend.”

“Of course I am,” I said, sitting in my office chair and swiveling it to face her. “But I could commiserate with you more if I knew what awful thing he’d done.”

Her brow lifted as she shot me a look. “You’re picking up on my devious tricks for getting information.”

I grinned. “When you’re in close proximity to the master, it would be stupid not to learn her ways.”

She laughed, then sighed. “I don’t want to talk about that, but I do want to know how lunch with Randy went. Did he agree to look into the neighbor who was arrested?”

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