Give Em Pumpkin To Talk About (Pumpkin Patch Mysteries Book 1) Read Online Free

confront either of them. She was having a hard time breathing, but she tried to stay focused on the house and the light.
    Sarah was near the gazebo where her grandparents had always displayed whatever seasonal produce was available for sale. Her grandmother had liked to dress it up for each time of year—holly and a fir tree for Christmas, pumpkins and skeletons for Halloween. She knew the stairs to the front porch were nearby. She could almost see them in the dim starlight.
    Then something large and dark jumped in front of her. She stopped breathing for a moment and almost forgot to bring the gun up in front of her.
    “Back so soon?” Jack’s voice was soft. “I see you’re armed again. You’re stubborn, aren’t you?”
    “Stay back.” She tried to keep her voice authoritative. “I don’t want to hurt you.”
    “I’m not worried about it.” He tapped the gun with a careless finger. “Is that thing even loaded this time?”
    “Yes. Get out of my way.”
    “I guess you know who’s in the house, huh?”
    “I do. Now get out of here. I warned you already. I put the property up for sale. Things are going to be different now. I don’t think the realtor wants you showing up while he’s trying to sell it.”
    “I think I was clear that I’m not leaving.”
    She couldn’t see his face, but he was obviously certain about his part in all this. Maybe it was time to shake him up. What would it take to get rid of him?
    “Sheriff Morgan is interested in talking to you about what happened to my grandparents. You might not want to stick around for a new investigation into their disappearance.”
    “It’s about time.” His words were snarky. “Did seeing the old place make you feel guilty, Sarah?”
    “I don’t feel guilty. And I don’t have to explain anything to you. But since you were nice enough to tell me that you were here when my grandparents vanished, I can tell you that the sheriff thinks you might be a suspect that was overlooked in the initial investigation.”
    It wasn’t true, but it was something she hoped would scare him off. The man really was crazy to stand there arguing with her as she held a loaded gun on him. She longed to ask him if he was the same teenager she remembered from when she was twelve but couldn’t find a way to say it.
    He laughed in a slow, non-humorous way. It sounded more like a threat. “Are you scared, Sarah? You should be.”
    She was about to go into legal mode, offering arguments about why it was illegal for him to be there, when a loud crack split the morning around them. It was followed rapidly by another loud crack—gunfire—and the sound of shattering glass.
    Sarah knew that sound. She’d lived around guns all her life. She’d barely processed the information that someone might be shooting at her when Jack knocked her down to the soft grass and put himself on top of her like a human shield.
    “Someone’s shooting.” She was almost as surprised that he would try to protect her as she was about the gunfire.
    “Stay down. I don’t think that was meant for you, but let’s not take any chances.”
    “Hey!” she complained when he took her gun again. “What am I supposed to use to protect myself?”
    “Don’t move. You won’t have to do anything. Let me take a look around.”
    “I think the bullet hit the front window.”
    But Jack was gone. She argued with herself about listening to him and staying down or going to the house to see what was going on. Why was he so annoyingly arrogant? And why wasn’t he afraid the sheriff might think he was responsible for her grandparents’ disappearance?
    The area was quiet again except for the hoot of an owl and a few crickets. Sarah waited impatiently in the dew-damp grass for a minute then got to her knees to look around.
    She couldn’t see Jack or any other large shadow that might indicate another human ready to take a shot. The dim light was still in the window. It was probably an off-season hunter whose