Page 33 of Promise Keeper

"Too bad they can't talk back. Maybe they can tell you something about those bones."

"I bet they could. The more I look into the Fiona angle, the more I get sidetracked down rabbit trails that lead me to the 1930's and I still have no proof of anything other than her having an in-ground pool. Anybody in this town could've dumped those bones in that trash can."

"You have been a little fixated on her," Monica said, flinching in preparation for my bad reaction.

"I know," I said, defeated. "I don't want to look into any other options."

"Do you have other options?" She gave me the side-eye. "I know you and Roy were up to something at the Cornerstone."

"Nothing I want to admit to myself." I still couldn't believe Soapy and Theresa had anything to do with this craziness.

"How about you run it by me and I'll tell you what I think."

I took a big chug of coffee and pinched my eyes closed, trying to make this situation go away.

"Cam?" Monica said. "Out with it."

"Okay, fine. I'll tell you, but you're sworn to secrecy."

"Roy knows and you're worried about me?"

"He won't breathe a word to anyone about this. It goes against every fiber of his being to look into this suspect."

"Who wouldn't he rat on? He's not loyal to anyone accept--" Her mouth dropped open in a gasp. "No. You can't be serious. Not Soapy?"

I told her the story of Ben and I finding him tossing things in his dumpster in the middle of the night, and what Roy found out.

She squinted her eyes in confusion. "So...what? He had a skeleton of some old guy hanging around in his shed and one night at three AM he decided it had to go and ran it over to the middle of town instead of popping it into his own dumpster? That makes no sense at all."

"The mayor can't have that old guy's bones in his dumpster. What if the trash men saw it?" I laid my head back on the couch cushion. "Which they did, anyway. He might not be a direct link to anything, but his activity is more suspicious than Fiona and Jim getting a pool."

We sat in silence for a couple minutes thinking, then Monica started to fidget. "Is this what you're planning on doing today? Sitting in your jammies driving yourself nuts trying to figure this out?"

"No, there's avoiding Irene who's coming home from her vacation early to manage me."

"What do you mean manage you?"

"I don't know, Ben said that after yesterday's tribunal fiasco that she felt she needed to be here to manage things."

"So your Daughter trouble isn't over after all."

"My Daughter trouble is never going to be over." I sat forward and stretched. "Other than that, I need to get up in the attic and see what kind of mess I'm dealing with from those raccoons that got inside."

"And here I was thinking we could do something fun today."

"What did you have in mind?" I asked.

"Maybe a trip over to Nashville? We could do some browsing in the shops and get dinner later."

Nashville was about an hour and a half west of Metamora. It was an art colony and tourist town filled with shops and bed and breakfasts. It was bigger than our town, but still less than one thousand people.

"I don't know, Mon. I was hoping for a day spent lounging around the house, maybe doing a load or two of laundry."

"Well, ride along with me anyway. I need to pick up some samples from a woman in Nashville. She makes leather pet collars and tags that are really amazing from what I've seen online. You don't even have to get dressed or get out of the car."

I groaned. "All right, but first you're helping me in the attic."

"Fine," she said standing up and grasping my arm. "Let's get this over with. If we hurry, we can get to Nashville by two."

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