Page 13 of Pepper, the Biker & the Vanishing Body

“Seeing my brother tonight?” I asked.

“We might grab supper, but we haven’t confirmed it yet.”

“You might want to put it off for another day. He had an encounter with some skunk spray,” I said with a grin.

Kate wrinkled her nose. “Thanks for letting me know. I just might have to work late.”

“Your brother is going to kill you,” Amy warned when we stepped outside.

Mo was enjoying the attention of an elderly woman as her husband waited patiently nearby. Once Mo saw me, he hurried to my side.

“He is a beautiful dog,” the elderly woman said.

“And an attention seeker,” I said with a chuckle.

The woman smiled. “Handsome and sweet, who wouldn’t adore him.”

“Bikers.” Amy and I laughed in unison and Mo barked once the woman and husband entered the shop, then we got in the truck and headed to the diner.

“So, you didn’t find anything in the book that helped?” Amy asked.

“The photos don’t show the spot where Ian and I discovered the body, though it did make me curious about the Willow family. I really need to get back there and see what I may have missed. There must be a secret entrance and exit somewhere in it. How else could the guy have gotten out of there? If I get inside, I may be able to find out where it is.”

“Did you forget what Dan told you… private property. Unless you know a member of the Willow family, you’re not getting back in there.”

I grinned.

Amy poked me in the arm. “Tell me you are not thinking what I think you’re thinking.”

Mo stuck his head between the two front seats from the back and growled low.

“He even knows what you’re thinking and warning you against it,” Amy said. “And what about Ian? He won’t approve.” Amy gasped. “Your dad! He’d have a fit.”

“You are being overly dramatic.”

“I am being sensible, something, at times, you have trouble doing.”

Amy often scolded me when she thought I was doing something foolish, purely out of love of course, and as always, I defended myself. “I didn’t say I was going to do it.”

“I know you, Pepper Euphemia Madison. Once you get an idea in your head, there is no stopping you.”

“It would be a last resort, after I exhausted all other options,” I explained.

“I’d like to see you convince Ian and your dad that you were left with no options but to engage the help of Damian Stone, motorcycle club leader, to get you into his family’s mausoleum.”

CHAPTER 4

“It’s just a thought and a last resort,” I said, after explaining to Ian that we might need Stone’s help getting back into the Willow Mausoleum. “He would have to have proof that he had the right to enter the mausoleum.”

“I can see why you would consider it, but it is too early in the investigation to go that route,” Ian said. “And if by chance it becomes the only thing left to us, you won’t be going alone with the biker. I will be going with you.” He rested his nose to mine. “Promise me.”

His lips were too close to ignore, so I kissed him. “I promise. Besides, I wouldn’t want to hunt for a secret passageway in a mausoleum with anyone but you.”

“I am looking forward to it,” Ian said.

While Ian got busy uncorking a chilled bottle of chardonnay, I popped a bag of popcorn in the microwave. It was movie night, andRear Window,1954, with Jimmy Stewart and Grace Kelly was the headliner, a tension-filled film we both enjoyed.

“Do you know if any design plans for the mausoleum exist?” he asked and handed me a glass of chardonnay.

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