Page 30 of You Can Leave Your Hat On

“A few days after Dad stopped coming home. She brought me home from school and said she had some errands she had to run, but she never came home. The whole thing was super weird.”

“Why did you think that was weird?” Aaron asked, but Maisey knew.

“Because it seemed strange that all of those things happened justboom-boom-boom. Too coincidental. Does that make sense?”

“It makes perfect sense. If we could come up with a picture, do you think you could identify the man?”

“I think so. It was dark, but he was standing right under the porch light. I could probably recognize him from a picture.”

“Good. If we find out anything, I’ll give you a call back. In the meantime, if you or your mother,” Aaron said, and Marsha waved from behind Marshall, “think of anything else, please, please call me. You have my number now. I really appreciate you taking time to talk to us.”

“Yes, we really do appreciate it,” Maisey added.

“You’re very welcome,” Marsha called out. “Thank you for doing this.”

“You’re welcome, ma’am. Take care, both of you,” Aaron told her and ended the call. Then he sank back into his chair. “Well, that was really interesting.”

“Sure was. What now?”

“I find out when that field trip was. That gives us the beginning of a timeline. We can count forward from that and figure out when all of these things took place. If they jibe with what we know from the coroner’s report, then we’ve got two issues on our hands?finding the murderer and finding AlanVanderboegh.”

“Do you think the man screaming at Hazel was asking about Alan?” Maisey asked, already knowing the answer.

“Absolutely. It only makes sense. I don’t think Alan’s dead, or if he is, it happened after Hazel’s death.”

Maisey’s mind was running a million miles a minute. If Alan had disappeared first, and that was what Marshall said had happened, where had he gone? Did Hazel know where he was? Or was she as clueless as the man who’d murdered her? Aaron interrupted her reverie. “I’ve got to run this phone number and see if it pings anywhere.”

“Okay. I’m going home to start dinner. I only did one appointment this morning before I went down there, so I lost a whole day of work today,” Maisey said, standing.

“You said you’d tell me about the trip,” Aaron reminded her.

Maisey shook her head. “Too long. It’ll have to wait. Right now, I need to go home where everything is peaceful and quiet. I’ll pick up Murielle on the way by.”

“Sounds good. See you when I get home. Love you, babe.” Aaron leaned over and gave her a light kiss.

“Love you too. See you shortly.”

Maisey wandered out of the office and to her car. She needed to pick up Murielle, go home, and do something to relax. Buteven after Murielle was in the car with her, she could still hear Zora’s voice in her head.

And it just wouldn’t go away.

“Is pasketti made from glue?”

Aaron chuckled. “No, baby. It’s made from flour and water,” Maisey explained.

“But it looks like dried glue,” Murielle insisted.

Aaron grinned. “It doesn’t taste like dried glue.”

Murielle made a horrible face. “Well, no. But maybe kinda.”

“Have you been eating dried glue?” Aaron asked, one eyebrow peaked.

“No.” He kept staring at her. “Okay, maybe once. BartGorman dared me.”

“Don’t let people dare you into doing things. It’s always things they won’t do themselves because they know they’re stupid things to do. So they get somebody else to do it instead.”

“Well, all I know is pasketti don’t taste nothin’ like that.”

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