A reminder that the trivia contest closes tomorrow. If you need me to re-print the questions, let me know.
An excerpt this morning from Best Left Buried.
Grant’s truck roared to a stop beside my Escape. I ran to him and grabbed his arm. “She’s gone, Grant. I’ve looked and looked. Something has happened to her. Somebody must have taken her.”
Grant gripped my shoulders. “Darcy, just get in the car and wait a bit. Jim is on the way. We’ll search until we know what happened to Miss Flora, I promise you. Now get in out of the wind, all right?”
I nodded and stumbled toward my car. Grant knelt beside the boulder, scrutinizing the ground. Jim Clendon’s truck, spraying gravel, screeched to a stop beside Grant’s.
Nervously, I sat in my Escape, the rising wind rocking it now and then. Sunshine pouring through the glass warmed the interior, but I could not stop shaking. The cold I felt had settled in my bones. Surely I could do something or think of where she might be, but my brain seemed numb. I couldn’t get beyond the chilling fact that she had been resting atop the boulder when I left her, and now it was as if she had never been sitting on that big gray rock.
The hours passed slowly while I worried and prayed. At last, Grant and Jim reappeared coming toward me through the woods. I opened the door and slid out.
“Well?” I said. “Did you find anything?”
Grant opened his right hand. A small blue handkerchief edged in white lace lay in his palm. “Do you recognize this, Darcy?”
I grabbed it and pressed it to my cheek. “It’s Mom’s, Grant. Where did you find it?”
Jim awkwardly patted my shoulder. “Now, Darcy, don’t get all worked up. This is a good sign. It tells us she probably dropped it to give us a clue. Now we’ll know where to start searching.”
Grant gently pulled the handkerchief from my fist. “I’ll need that, Darcy. It’ll give the dog a scent to go on,”
“The dog? Are you going to get bloodhounds out here?”
“Ben Ventris’ hound, the one that Pat and Jasper took in, he’s part bloodhound and I remember Ben telling me once that he was really good at trailing. We’re going to Pat’s right now.”
For the first time, I felt a twinge of hope. At last there was something to go on, some solid clue. Surely Ben’s dog Murphy could find my mother.
A reminder that books are really nice to find under the tree on Christmas morning. Books are gifts that last forever, actually. Some of my best friends are books. They will never leave you, are always available, and can see you through a sleepless night or long hours that would be mighty tedious without something to read.
You can order the Darcy and Flora Cozy Mysteries from Pen-L.com, BarnesandNoble.com, Amazon.com, and Booksamillion.com.
Speak Your Mind