Page 52 of Heating Up (Nugget)
Harlee beamed. The love she had for her husband was so obvious. “What’s going on with your rebuild?”
“Colin is working on changes to my plans. As soon as that’s done, we go to the city for permits.”
“I wish Wyatt and I could rebuild, or at least remodel,” Darla said. “His house is fugly. Cottage cheese ceilings, rust stains in the tub, and funky carpet in the living room. He actually thinks it’s nice.”
“I told you I’d come over and help you rip the carpet out while Wyatt’s working,” Harlee said.
“I can’t decide what to replace it with.”
“As far as for resale, definitely go with hardwood.” As soon as the words came out of Dana’s mouth she felt bad. What if the hair stylist and Wyatt didn’t like hardwood?
“That’s what I’m leaning toward. It’s just so expensive.”
“I told you Colin would help with it,” Harlee said.
“Colin has enough to do. We’ll get around to it eventually. In the meantime, I’ve got gossip.”
“Do tell.” Harlee bit into her fried chicken sandwich and washed it down with a vanilla shake.
Somehow, Darla had known to get Dana a cheeseburger with no tomatoes and sauce on the side, with a large order of curly fries. She must’ve asked someone at the Bun Boy. Ah, the beauty of small-town living. Folks even knew your food preferences.
“Ray Rosser is talking plea bargain,” she said, and Dana nearly choked on her Coke.
“He’s not planning to take the case to trial?” Harlee seemed just as surprised.
The old man wasn’t one to quit without a good fight. Perhaps the stakes were too high. First-degree murder carried a penalty of twenty-five years to life in prison. Even if he managed to whittle that sentence down in exchange for a guilty plea, Ray Rosser would never see daylight from outside a prison yard.
“Not according to my dad, who heard about the plea deal from Earl Miller at Farm Supply,” Darla said.
Dana’s brain ran a million miles a minute, trying to analyze what this could mean for her client. Gia hadn’t gotten back to Ray on the additional thirty thousand dollars. A plea bargain, though, would save Ray money on what was sure to be a lengthy trial.
“How does Earl know about it?” Harlee asked. “If it’s true, I’d like to get the story in theTribas soon as possible.”
Harlee got up and returned a few minutes later with a laptop. At the table, she flipped up the lid and began typing. Dana watched as she searched for results on Ray Rosser.
“I don’t see anything about a plea deal in the Quincy paper,” she said and continued typing. “There’s nothing about it anywhere as far as I can tell.”
“It doesn’t mean it’s not true. I bet we’re the first to know.” Darla downed the rest of her shake.
“How can you find out for sure?” Dana asked Harlee.
“I can call Del Webber, Ray’s attorney, or George Williamson, the prosecutor. They probably won’t tell me anything, though. Not unless it’s a done deal.”
It was on the tip of Dana’s tongue to tell her to call the lawyers anyway when her own phone rang. Gia.
* * *
Aidan was supposed to have Thursday off, but he got called out on a suspicious structure fire. A goat barn on a farm outside of Nugget. By the time he arrived, firefighters had knocked down most of the blaze before it could spread to any of the other outbuildings, giving him plenty of time to search the perimeter and the scene itself. And he didn’t like what he saw. Luckily, someone had evacuated the goats before they’d become barbecue. But the critters had gotten loose from the pen they’d been corralled in and were roaming wild, getting into Cal Fire’s equipment.
“Can someone get these out of here?” Aidan called.
The police chief, Rhys Shepard, who’d apparently been called out too, laughed and started shooing away the animals nibbling on hoses and turn-out gear. Shepard gave a commanding one-handed whistle and two dogs came running down a path. They rounded up the stragglers, got them back inside the pen, and stood guard.
Aidan watched in awe. “They just know how to do that?”
“Yep,” Rhys said. “It’s in their blood.”
“The owner have kids?”
