Page 66 of Let Sleeping Dogs Lie

“I always put on five pounds every time I’m in Sweet Briar,” he said, “and I attribute every single one of them to Maybelline’s cooking.”

“That’s fair,” I said. She still made it her personal mission to make me gain weight.

I handed out the containers, and we were just about to start eating when Luke walked through the door. His eyes lit up when he saw his container on my desk.

I laughed. “I may not cook the food for you, but I sure can provide it.”

“Ah, Summer,” he said, smiling as he walked over to pick up his food, “you have my heart, food or no food.”

I grinned back because I knew it was true.

“Did you ladies make any progress?” he asked as he sat in one of the client chairs and started digging into his pork tenderloin.

“We did, actually,” I said. “We made more progress than I expected. Considering Bethany’s murder occurred over forty years ago, people still seem to remember a lot of what happened.”

“That’s no surprise,” he said through a mouthful of mashed potatoes. “Murder’s big news in Sweet Briar, especially back then. People would’ve been talking. What’d you find out?”

“For starters,” I said, “I think Tim McCree was lying about his alibi for Chuck Petty.”

Luke narrowed his eyes. “Are we talking about the same case? There is no Chuck Petty listed in that case file.”

“I suspect his father, the mayor at the time, kept it off the police report,” I said.

Luke made a face. “I think you need to back up about five steps and tell me where Chuck Petty comes into this, and who he is exactly.”

Dixie and I told him about our exchange with the ladies in the coffee shop and how Chuck Petty left town around the same time as Bethany’s murder.

A grim look crossed his face. “So, the mayor back then was just as corrupt as the mayor is today?”

“I don’t know about that,” I said, “but it does seem mighty suspicious. Nevertheless, we don’t know why he would’ve killed her. Supposedly he had nothing to do with Bethany Brewer at all and his only connection to Lila was tormenting her. And bullying, however awful, is not the same thing as murder.”

“So what you need is a motive,” Luke said.

“Exactly.”

Luke stared at the wall for a few seconds before he said, “What I don’t understand is, if Chuck Petty was a suspect, whyhe wasn’t in the case file at all, and why Bethany’s parents wouldn’t pursue lookin’ into him as a suspect. Even to say his name was cleared. I can see them not diggin’ into it, but not listin’ him at all is suspicious.”

“We thought the same thing,” I said, “but when we talked to his alibi, he told us we needed to talk to Rachel Swan.”

Luke took a bite of his food. “And who is Rachel Swan?”

“Rachel Swan,” Dixie said, “was Lila’s new best friend.”

Then we told him about visiting Rachel’s farm that morning and everything she had said.

“Rachel obviously knows something about Bethany’s murder,” Luke said. “The question is how we’re gonna go about gettin’ information out of her.”

I held up my hands. “Whoa there, nobody said anything about you getting involved.”

He eyed me with a stern look. “We’re talkin’ about a murder, Summer. An unsolved murder. If you have an idea who the murderer might be, then I’m gonna get involved.”

“Now hold on there,” I said, “nobody ever accused Rachel of murdering Bethany.”

Luke’s body tensed. “That may be so, but you just admitted that you suspect she knows something about who did.”

“This is my investigation,” I said, “and you wouldn’t be any part of this if Magnolia hadn’t asked us to look into her mother’s past, so you’re gonna stay out of it and let us handle it. If we think there’s anything that you need to dig into, we’ll bring it to you. Otherwise, keep your hands off.”

He studied me with a blank expression for a few moments. Then a big smile lit up his face. “I kinda like it when you’re bossy.”

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