Thirty-Four and a Half Predicaments Bonus Chapters: Rose Gardner Mystery Read Online Free Page A

always wanted. Rose had tried to cheer me up by asking me to help her find out the truth about her birth mother’s death, but I’d stayed home today. I was wallowing in my own grief and the doctor’s news that there wouldn’t be any more. Ronnie was trying so hard to be warm and comforting. He’d taken the day off from work and he’d gone and stayed home from his usual poker game with the guys from his shop, too. It was so selfless, so Ronnie. But his presence was like the muskrat hair sweater my Aunt Thelma made me for Christmas one year—hot and itchy. Yet I wore it the entire day, dying to take it off and just breathe , but I couldn’t bear to hurt her feelings. That was how I was feeling now. And it only proved how much I didn’t deserve him.
    My cell phone rang and I literally ran to my purse.
    “Neely Kate, let it go to voice mail,” Ronnie called after me.
    I knew I should. It was what a good wife would have done, but I was a terrible wife, no matter how hard I tried. I glanced over my shoulder. “I have a feeling this is important.” I was hoping it was Rose since I’d been dying to call her all afternoon and see if she’d made any headway on our case.
    He shook his head, letting my premonition roll off his back. He was used to me saying things like that.
    I glanced at the screen in surprise, wondering why Mason was calling me. Then I realized it was probably Rose after all. She was always forgetting to charge her phone. “Hey.”
    “Neely Kate.” The way he said my name was enough to clue me in that something bad had happened.
    “Oh, God. Is Rose okay?”
    Ronnie sat up straighter on the sofa, worry in his eyes.
    “No . . . I mean she’s not hurt, but she’s not okay.”
    “What happened?”
    “Joe . . .” His voice tightened. “He showed up at the farm and arrested her.”
    “He did what ?” I shouted. “What were the charges?” Had Joe found out she was the Lady in Black?
    “Murdering her mother.”
    “ What ? Everyone knows Daniel Crocker killed her momma! Why would he do that?”
    “It’s a long story as to why. He was following orders from his father.”
    “I don’t understand.”
    “Like I said, it’s a long story, and I promise to tell you all about it, but right now I’m trying to track down Carter Hale.”
    “The defense attorney? Why don’t you just dismiss the charges?”
    He paused. “I can’t. Joe made sure I lost my job tonight.” The anger in his voice wasn’t surprising. My own anger was ratcheting up faster than the broken swing drop ride at last year’s county fair.
    “If you can’t find Carter, let me know,” I said. “In the meantime, I have an errand of my own to run.”
    Mason sounded like he wanted to murder Joe Simmons, but I planned to get to the bastard first.

4
    Neely Kate
    R onnie jumped up off the couch as I grabbed my purse and headed for the front door. “Neely Kate! Where are you going? What’s going on?”
    “Rose got arrested by that low-life, bottom-dwelling, yellow-bellied swine and I’m about to give him a piece of my mind.”
    I reached for the doorknob, but Ronnie stepped in front of me and put his hands on my shoulders.
    “Slow down. One thing at a time. Rose got arrested ?”
    “Yes, for murdering her mother, which anyone with a lick of sense in their head knows is crazy. So I’m going to the sheriff’s department to give that man a piece of my mind. And if he’s not there, then I’m going to his house.”
    “Joe?” he asked in disbelief.
    “ Yes , Joe,” I spat in disgust.
    He shook his head as though trying to clear it. “Neely Kate, that doesn’t make any sense. I know he and Rose haven’t seen eye to eye lately, but why in tarnation would he do that?”
    “I’m about to find out.”
    I tried to get around him, but he continued to hold onto my shoulders. “ Neely Kate . Stop . Maybe you should stay out of this.”
    I took a step back and put my hands on my hips. “ Excuse me ?”
    Hesitation flickered in