Page 38 of Promise Keeper

"No time for your fancy computer work," Roy said. "Just turn your eyes to the ground and start searchin'."

We stood in a row across the lawn spread out about every ten feet, like Soapy suggested, and made our way across, slow and steady. "Yell if you find anything," I called.

Halfway through and nobody had said a word.

We plodded on.

I was starting to worry that we might not be able to find the person responsible for dumping the bones and framing Soapy. If I were trying to get away unseen, would I think about footprints? Probably not, especially if I'd just made a bunch of noise and needed to get away fast. I might make a circuitous route though, to throw off anyone who might follow me.

Behind the Soapy Savant was another row of shops, then a few trees and beyond that, Landow Farm. Maybe the person made their way around.

I began to veer off my ten-foot section of path and head toward the lane between Soapy's and the next row of shops. "I'm checking it out back here," I called.

"Did you find something?" Monica asked.

"No, but I have a hunch."

"Rome wasn't built on a hunch," Roy shouted.

"Built in a day," Logan said.

"Nobody likes a know-it-all," Roy said.

I left the lawn and stepped onto the gravel. There was a paper coffee cup that I picked up, and a tissue with a smudge of something thick and red on it that got on my thumb. I tossed the wrapper in the cup, wiped my thumb on my jeans and kept going. Litter bugs. Paper went in the trash, bones did not. Maybe we should make a sign.

Shoes didn't make prints on gravel, so I quickly checked out the sides of the lane where there was some dirt and made my way to the tree line. Old, soggy, half decayed leaves from the fall covered the ground under the tall oaks. A few pines had dropped pinecones and needles. I searched for any sign that a person had run through, but came up empty.

I turned to head back to the Soapy Savant when my phone rang. The last foray I made into my handbag for my phone turned out to be an exercise in futility, but maybe I could find it if it was ringing.

Following the ringtone, I honed in on the left bottom corner of my purse. After moving a notebook, wallet, and pack of gum, I found it and tugged it out. Ben's name glowed on the screen, and guilt overwhelmed me.

"Hi," I said, answering. "I'm sorry. I know you're just doing your job and you don't make the rules or laws and if Soapy is--"

"Cam!You were right. The workmen putting the pool in Fiona and Jim's yard just found a bone. She's been taken in for questioning by the Franklin County Sheriff's office."

"What?!"

Monica, Soapy, Logan, Anna, Johnna, and Roy came running.

"I don't have all the details yet, but it was an index finger and there was a man's ring on it that might give us a clue to his identity."

"Good gravy. I never expected this even if I did think it's what happened."

"You're getting pretty good at this. Maybe I should start hiring you." I could hear the smile in his words, and something else that seemed like it might be pride.

My police officer husband was proud of me and my powers of deduction. It was bittersweet. The sweet part was his pride, but it came about out of me solving murders in our little town. That was a bitter pill to swallow.

"I'll be home soon. Does this mean Soapy's off the hook?"

"That's not up to me, but I would think so."

Relief flooded over me. He didn't say yes, but it was definitely not a no. If Ben was giving me a maybe then that was a good sign.

"What's the word, Cameron Cripps Hayman?" Roy asked.

"I'll let you go," Ben said. "I hear your boss in the background."

"Very funny," I said. "I'll be home soon."

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