Page 16 of You Can Leave Your Hat On

Aaron nodded. “That sounds plausible. Do us a favor. Call the restaurant again tomorrow and see if anybody returned your hat and asked about their own.”

Maisey nodded. “Okay.” At least it was something she could do to feel like she was actively working on finding the woman and the killer, and it beat sitting on the road, trying to cross a bridge and being unable to.

“It’s been a weird, unsettling day. Let’s go to bed,” Aaron suggested, and Maisey nodded without a word. She’d had threeclients cancel on her that day, and she’d found herself sitting at a desk in the office, staring at the walls. And she hated that. When she wasn’t busy, the day went much, much slower and she was even more tired in the evening than she would’ve been if she’d run and run all day.

As they were getting ready for bed, Maisey let out a giggle. Aaron spun to look at her. “What’s so funny?”

“Did you know Cherilyn and Shaw are trying to get pregnant?”

“No! Seriously?” Maisey nodded and giggled again. “Well, I’ll be damned. Wonder what they’re doing right now?” he said with a laugh.

“I have no idea, but I know what I want to be doing right now.” Maisey rose up on her knees and knee-walked to the edge of the bed, stopping right in front of where Aaron stood. “And it has nothing to do with them and everything to do with you.”

“I like the sound of that!”

Thirty minutes later, Aaron kissed her deeply and Maisey sighed into him. Making love with that man was everything to her. There were no two people in the world who belonged together more than they did, of that she was sure. He pulled back and stared into her eyes. “Think we need more practice? Because I have to say, I thought I did pretty good.”

“You did excellent, sexy guy. And yeah, we need more practice, but maybe not tonight.”

“Yeah. We’ll start again with the search tomorrow and maybe I can come up with something more than just Hazel.” Aaron rolled to his back and Maisey settled into his left side, her cheek resting on his pec. “In the meantime, why don’t you try posting on some community social media pages, see if you can find out whose hat you have.”

“Good thinking. I’ll do that. And babe?”

“Yeah, cutie?”

“I love you.”

“I love you too, Maisey Maureen. You’re the answer to all my prayers.”

Maisey wanted to ask him why he’d pray for craziness and chaos, but she didn’t. She just sighed and thought about the next day. There had to be more information out there.

Now to find it.

CHAPTER THREE

After a few tries, she had what she thought she needed to post.

I attended the Derby tea at Greenbrier Club and accidentally picked up the wrong hat. If you have the hat that looks like this one but realized it’s not yours, please DM me. It has sentimental value. Thank you.

As soon as she read it one more time, she posted it, with a picture, to groups in Louisville, Lexington, Shelbyville, Taylorsville, and a lot of points in between there and Corbin. All she could do was wait. After that, she called the restaurant again, but they hadn’t had anyone call to inquire about the hat.

Ten minutes later her phone rang, and she picked it up, smiled, and sang out, “Hey, babe!”

“Hi. Whatcha doin’?”

“Posting about the hat on the community social media pages. What areyoudoing?”

“Looking at a coroner’s report for a HazelPuckett. Two years ago.”

“Really?” Maisey was excited. They finally had a name!

“Yeah, from LaurelCounty. That’s why we couldn’t find her initially. She traveled a long way. Her body was spotted down on the CumberlandRiver by a commercial fisherman.”

“On the Cumberland? Good lord! No wonder we couldn’t find her! That’s a long way from where she went in, if it really was the bridge on Keavy Road.”

“I looked at other bridges in the area and none of them had those kinds of railings. It had to be that one. So yeah, she traveled a long way, or at least her body did. Still doesn’t explain the hat though.”

Maisey sighed. “Yeah. That’s still a mystery.”

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