Page 19 of You Can Leave Your Hat On

“I’m so nervous.”

Aaron patted Maisey’s thigh as he drove. “No reason to be nervous. I’m with you. It’ll be fine. Did Morgan have time to work on the hat?”

“Yeah. He pulled everything from it that he could. Did you get a coroner’s report for Hazel?”

“I’ve requested it, although I had to list a reason why I wanted it. I’m not a very good bullshitter, so I hope they bought it.”

“Why did you say you wanted it?”

“Told some story about how we think we’re on the trail of somebody who’s defrauding insurance companies, and her name came up.”

Maisey shrugged. “Sounds pretty plausible to me. Morgan told me he’d be glad to translate the report into layman’s terms for us if we needed his help.”

“That’s good.”

As they drove along, they chatted about a lot of things, and one subject kept coming up?an addition to the house. They’d kicked around a dozen different ideas and hadn’t come up with a concrete idea. She knew Ross had done a little construction on the side, and she thought she might ask him for his opinion.

They pulled into the courthouse parking lot and Maisey sighed. “I dread this. You coming with me?”

Aaron stared at her like she’d lost her mind. “Are you kidding? No way would I let you walk over there by yourself to meet this person. They might be the killer!”

“I doubt it. If they killed her, they would’ve gotten rid of the hat. They wouldn’t want it around,” Maisey pointed out.

“That’s true. Well, here we go. Let’s get this over with.”

The parking lot was across the street from the courthouse, so they hit the crosswalk and started up the sidewalk. As soon as Maisey got close enough to look around, she knew who she was looking for because she remembered the woman from the tea, plus she was the only person standing around with a big red hat in her hand. “Hey! I’m Maisey!” the little brunette said and held out her right hand.

The taller woman took it and gripped it firmly. The energy Maisey felt from her was strong and positive. “Hi! I’m Terra. We’re the only two people here with red hats, so I guess that means we’re looking for each other!” she said, laughing.

“I guess so. And this is my husband, Aaron,” Maisey said, and Aaron extended his hand. After Terra shook it, he glanced at Maisey, and she knew he’d gotten the same impression of Terra. “So, could we sit for a minute? We need to talk to you about something.”

Terra looked a little surprised, but she nodded. “Sure, I guess so.” There was a bench at the edge of the sidewalk, so the two women took a seat and Aaron stood by.

“Okay, first off, Aaron’s a deputy sheriff in WhitleyCounty, but you’re not in any kind of trouble.”

The woman seemed surprised. “Oh! Well, I guess I’m glad about that. Can’t imagine that I am.”

“Well, you’ll understand why I said that in a minute. So we discovered that this hat, the one I’m holding, was involved in a murder.”

“What?” Terra jumped to her feet and stared down. “You think I killed somebody?”

“No, no! Not at all! Please!” Maisey waited until Terra had calmed down a little. “Please, just let me ask you some things.We’re trying to track down the killer, and you might be able to help us.”

“I don’t see how I can. I don’t know anything about this.” Terra finally sat back down, but she side-eyed Maisey. “I don’t even know where it came from.”

“That’s what I was going to ask you. Where did you get the hat?”

“My girlfriend found it. She was fishing with her grandpa and it was lying on the riverbank, on the rip rap. She brought it home because she thought it was something I’d like. Actually, when she brought it home, it was filthy. I took it to the dry cleaner to get it cleaned up.”

Well, there goes any hope of evidence from Morgan, Maisey told herself. “And where was this?”

“Below some bridge on the LaurelRiver. Her grandpa lives over that way, and they were out in his boat.”

“And do you remember when that was?”

Terra shrugged. “Maybe a year ago? I mean, she brought it home, I had it cleaned, and I put it in the closet. It wasn’t until I decided to go to the tea that I remembered it and took it out. Bought a dress to go with it and decided to wear it to the tea.”

“The woman that the hat belonged to fell from the bridge. She was wearing it when she died.”

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