Morning Glory Circle Read Online Free Page A

bludgeoned to death in the back room of the local veterinary clinic, Scott found a threatening message in his undelivered mail. It turned out to be a card Lily had given Theo, along with a photo of his deceased brother, a kind gesture that postmistress Margie Estep had altered to make look like a death threat. An offhand comment of Lily’s had alerted Scott to the issue of Margie tampering with the mail, and his subsequent search through the police station’s file archive uncovered a history of complaints that stretched back over two decades. It was through investigating those complaints that Scott had uncovered the false accusation Margie made against Willy Neff that sent him to prison.
    Willy was with Theo the night he was murdered, and his death was also connected with that crime. Even though no one in Rose Hill was surprised someone hated Theo enough to kill him, the murder shook up the whole town. A greedy, wealthy bully, Theo had been known to pressure local people into selling their homes to him just so he could turn around and sell the properties to big city folks for a huge profit, or act as slumlord over the students he duped into renting them. If threats and coercion didn’t always get Theo what he wanted, blackmail and arson often did. He also ran a dog breeding scam and some believed he trafficked in drugs.
    “How are you and Maggie doing?” Lily asked Scott.
    “Slow progress,” Scott said. “It’s been almost seven years since Gabe left her but she still isn’t over it.”
    “You know, it’s been five years since Simon passed away and I don’t think I’ll ever get over it,” Lily said. “Maggie’s still young enough to start over, though. I hope she won’t let her grief keep her from living her life.”
    “I’m not giving up,” Scott said. “She’s worth the wait.”
    “I hope you two work it out,” Lily said. “I’d love to see you settled with a family.”
    “Me too,” Scott said. He neglected to confide in Lily about the tests he had undergone during his first marriage, the ones that determined he would not be likely to father anyone’s children.
    Full of biscuits and gravy, Scott left Lily’s house an hour later. As he fastened his seatbelt, a large black luxury car pulled in the driveway next to his SUV. Scott couldn’t see anyone through the darkly tinted windows, so he waited until Lily greeted whoever it was and then waved to Scott to let him know she was fine. He glanced in his rear view mirror as he rolled down the lane, and saw a gray-haired woman dressed in a dark business suit get out of the car and walk with Lily to her back door. Scott decided it must be a friend of Lily’s from the city. He was glad she wasn’t lonely.
    It seemed to Scott as if Lily Crawford didn’t want for anything, but he knew that very few farmers’ wives had retirement accounts on which to live after their husbands died. Scott didn’t know anything about the financial status of Lily and her husband Simon. They were good people and hard workers, and they used to be rock concert and motorcycle enthusiasts when they were younger. Maybe they saved a lot of money, or maybe one or the other came from a wealthy family. Scott guessed that if Lily ever needed money, she could sell some of the farm property, but as far as he knew, she hadn’t.
    Scott passed Rose Hill cemetery, where they had buried Willy Neff a few weeks ago. He drowned after his truck rolled down Pine Mountain Road into the river with him passed out inside. After finding out Margie framed Willy for a crime he did not commit, and feeling deep remorse over the way the whole town had mistreated him after he returned from prison, Scott and a few friends got together and paid for a proper burial and a stone. 
    Just beyond the cemetery was all that remained of Maggie Fitzpatrick’s house after it burned down almost seven years’ previously, just a stone foundation and part of a brick fireplace? Most everyone believed Theo Eldridge