Page 18 of Promise Keeper

A text messagedinging on my cell phone woke me. The sun was setting, and the sky outside was pink and orange, and Ellsworth was cuddled up in a ball in the crook of my arm. Irene and Stewart would be on their way to the airport.

I eased up to a sitting position. The kitty hopped down to the floor and stretched, arching his back and yawning. I grabbed my phone off of the coffee table and looked at the notification.

"No way," I muttered, seeing the text was from Johnna. But as fast as I thought she'd figured out how to text, I opened the message to a jumble of letters and couldn't make out one word. "Good gravy."

I realized I'd missed a call from Anna, but she left a voicemail.

"Cameron," she said, "we've been at the library all day searching the newspaper archives. We got through the Brookville American, the Brookville Enquirer, The Franklin Democrat, The Franklin Repository, and we were working through The Franklin Republican when Johnna showed up and got us kicked out. She's banned for life. Logan and I are allowed back, so she's lucky. I'd hate to have to disown a member of our team, but I have a senior paper to finish and this library is a major part of that. I'm not going in public with her anymore until I graduate. I can't risk it."

I couldn't blame her. Johnna was a handful. I could only imagine she was given the boot for trying to steal something. She was probably trying to tell me what happened in her cryptogram of a text message.

"You're awake," Ben said, padding into the room in socked feet. "And you released Johnna on the town to create havoc."

"I heard about the library," I said. "Did they call the police?"

"No, but Will Adkins did."

Will owned Schoolhouse Antiques, which was right next door. "He called the cops on her? For what? Stealing?"

"He just called me to see if I'd come over and escort her out of his shop. She was pulling some slight-of-hand with a pair of antique earrings when I got over there."

Ben picked up Ellsworth and held him against his chest. "Listen to him purr." He stroked his fur-bro's head. "It's kind of nice having a calm animal around for once."

"Wait until our pack gets back from Quinn's. You won't recognize them."

"He's a trainer, Cam, not a miracle worker. They'll know how to sit, shake, maybe lay down, roll over and walk on a leash. They'll still be wild and nuts."

"Hey, he worked miracles with Brutus." Brutus was Ben's K9 partner that I originally rescued with our other dogs. He was the worst of the bunch. I couldn't go near him for fear of having a limb bit off. Once Quinn got ahold of him, he was a brand new dog.

"Brutus had potential," Ben said. "Gus...maybe. Those other two, forget it."

Gus was a Newfoundland, a gentle giant of a dog who was goofy and loving and thought he was as small as Liam. The other two were my twin terrier tanks, Colby and Jack. Mixes of who knew what and all barking, jumping, hyperactive canine craziness. They kept it interesting around here. Isobel was an elderly Shepard who I rescued and then she adopted my sister as her owner. Seeing as how Monica was the only one she didn't growl at, she moved with Monica into her new house.

"Anyway," he said, "Johnna said the only reason she was next door was because you sent her there to search for old diaries to search for evidence. I take it this has to do with the body?"

"Not if you're going to tell me to stay out of it."

"Honestly, I can use the help this time. There's only so much Reins and I can do with a case this cold. Pamela's getting DNA samples, so we might be able to do something with that, but in the meantime, I'm at a standstill."

"You haven't found any missing people from that far back?"

"I don't have anywhere to look for those records. The files from back then have been gone for a long time. A few were sent to the library, but those didn't give me any clues. I saw Anna and Logan there by the way."

"I take it you were gone before Johnna got herself kicked out of there?"

He let out a loud chuckle. "I hope I have half as much spunk left when I'm her age."

"Me, too."

"You have more than you need. Speaking of which, I got some heavy-duty screening bolted to the outside of the attic vent. I'd like to see those furry little buggers get in there now."

Ellsworth meowed. "He agrees," I said. "Thanks for doing that. I'll get up there tomorrow and see what kind of a mess they left."

"You take it easy until your back is back to normal."

"I'm fine. Just a little twinge now and then." An idea struck, and I added, "But to be sure, maybe I'll sleep on the couch tonight. You can be a little rowdy when you sleep."

"Rowdy?"

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