Page 74 of Trouble Comes in Threes

I actually got some work done over the next hour before Neely Kate announced she was packing up to go to her consultation.

“You still want us to babysit tonight?” she asked as she got to her feet.

“Oh crap,” I said with a frown. “I don’t know. I asked Joe if we’d need to cancel since he’s dealin’ with the murder investigation, and he assured me we were still goin’. But we didn’t talk about it this morning, and I haven’t heard from him. Maybe he forgot.”

“I doubt he’s forgotten. Maybe he lost track of time.” She made a face. “I’m askin’ because of the stuff with Austin and the Lady in Black. I wondered if you’d be comfortable leaving the kids.”

“I trust you and Jed to take care of the kids.”

The look on Neely Kate’s face told me she knew I was talking about more than feeding them dinner and putting them to bed at a decent hour. She offered me a warm smile. “So why don’t you call him and find out what he’s thinkin’? And even if you decide not to go to Little Rock, you two should at least go out to dinner.” She cocked her head to the side. “Daisy’s been lookin’ forward to staying at your house for weeks. She’ll understand if she can’t spend the night, but at least let us watch the kids for a little while.”

“Even if we don’t go anywhere, you, Jed, and Daisy can come over for dinner. And she can definitely spend the night. Hope will love it. But I’ll talk to Joe, then let you know.”

“Sounds good.” Neely Kate gave me a wave as she walked out the door.

I pulled out my cell phone and sent Joe a text.

Got time for a quick chat?

I could have asked him about tonight in a text, but I wanted to hear his voice. He knew I’d been looking forward to this concert for months, and I knew he wouldn’t want to disappoint me. But if he felt like he needed to stick around Fenton County, I wasn’t going to hold him to our plans. There would be other concerts and getaways. Besides, I wasn’t sure I wanted to leave the kids, given everything else going on.

He called seconds later. “What’s up?”

“How’s your day goin’?”

He hesitated, then said, “I’m keeping busy. How about you?”

Even if I decided to tell him about Austin looking for the Lady in Black, I sure wasn’t going to do it on a phone call. Still, I had to tell him something. “I just got back from having lunch with Randy.”

“Oh?” I heard the suspicion in his tone, but I couldn’t say I blamed him. It did seem coincidental given the murder investigation he was working on.

“You didn’t tell me he was dating someone,” I said, trying to throw him off.

“I didn’t know he had a girlfriend,” he said with a laugh. “But I don’t believe for a minute that was why you asked him out to lunch.”

“Maybe he invited me.” After a couple of moments of silence, I said, “I asked him for some help with our mystery box investigation.”

“What kind of help?”

I told him about asking Randy to look up the criminal record.

“Why didn’t you ask me?”

“Because you’re busy with a murder investigation. You don’t need to be lookin’ up arrest records from decades ago.”

“I would have helped you, Rose,” he said, sounding hurt.

“I know, but you’ve got enough on your plate.” I took a breath. “Which leads me to the reason I asked if you had time for a chat. Given what you’re dealing with, I hate to ask about tonight’s plans.”

“I haven’t forgotten the concert,” he said, his voice thick with defeat. “I was hoping we could still go, but something came up about an hour ago, and now I’m not sure I can get away.”

My heart skipped a beat. “What happened?” Had they discovered the victim of the murder that Austin had witnessed?

“You don’t need to be worried, Rose.”

“Does it have to do with the murder you’re investigating?”

“You know I can’t tell you anything about that,” he said, then added wryly, “And my deputies can’t either.”

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