Free A Tough Nut to Kill (Nut House Mystery Series) by Elizabeth Lee Page A

just awful! Awful! Awful! Awful!” Chastity collapsed into an empty chair. “Our place is crawling with cops. Amos dead! Why, I can’t bring myself to believe it. And right out there in your greenhouse, Lindy! Ain’t this the most awful thing? And Harry here . . .”
    The thing was, I liked Harry Conway. He’d stepped in after Daddy died, offering any help we needed out in the groves. He had extra men, he’d said. Even offered to fill in over at the co-op. Daddy’d been president and got Harry nominated to the board. He was there when we needed him.
    I never warmed to Chastity though there wasn’t anything about her I could point to as annoying—unless it was the phony cowgirl image, or that cloud of perfume she went around in—like Pig-Pen’s cloud in the Peanuts comic strip. Or maybe because she tried too hard and the one thing Texans didn’t care for was people pushing themselves forward the way she did.
    Harry came over to put his hands on my shoulders and hug me. Next he moved to Bethany, who tried to pull away. Then it was Mama, then Justin. He turned to grab Miss Amelia but she’d been smart enough to arm herself with a tray of sweet teas.
    “None for me, Miss Amelia.” Harry threw his hands in the air. “Be up all night as it is. Me and Chastity talking about getting a new burglar alarm. After this, why, it seems none of us are safe in our beds.”
    “Harry’s just been a wreck since he heard.” Chastity took a glass of tea as she assured us again what a wreck Harry was. “I mean, if he didn’t take in Amos like that, well, maybe Amos wouldn’t’ve hung around Riverville and maybe he’d still be alive.”
    Harry sat down between Justin and me. “Hope y’all know I only did it to keep him out of your hair.” He turned a worried face to Mama. “Thought I was helping.”
    Mama smiled a smile that fell somewhere between a grimace and a yawn.
    “For Christmas’ sakes, Lindy.” Chastity wriggled in her seat, turning to me. “Heard about your trees. All that work up in smoke. Well, you never know . . .” She leaned across Mama and patted my knee. “Heard they took off with five of ’em trees. That right?”
    I nodded, miserable again at the thought of my trees in enemy hands.
    “Why’d anybody do such a thing? You got any idea? Seems kind of . . . odd.”
    “Not the only thing odd,” Justin muttered, reaching the very limit of his patience.
    “What I’m saying is, why take any of ’em?” She turned back to me. “Think your trees got a chance of living? Special, is what I heard. Like you was coming up with something new any rancher would give her eyeteeth to have. Lucky you . . . but, oh my, now they’re gone.”
    Bethany spoke up. “Sheriff says if he finds Lindy’s trees around here, it’ll look even more like one of us did that awful thing to Uncle Amos.” She shuddered.
    “If they get the right water and whatever it is you give them, maybe they’ll still be okay when they catch this man,” Harry said.
    I sighed. “Maybe.”
    “Hope they get who did this pretty fast,” Harry said. “By tomorrow morning Riverville’s gonna be up in arms.”
    “Me, too,” Chastity spouted, flouncing in her chair again, the smell of her mega-strength perfume wafting around the table. “That’s just how I feel. Murder, right next door to us. Maybe somebody’s got it in for all us ranchers. Harry, here, says there’s nothing to worry about but you know Harry. Ain’t been around Texas that long.” She poked at that enormous pile of unmoving hair. “’Course, Amos coulda brought this back with him from wherever it was he went away to. Don’t need to tell you folks about Amos’s temper.”
    Bethany looked up from her laptop, blond hair springing out into a curly halo. “I’m sure hopin’ the news doesn’t travel all the way to Houston.”
    “What’s going on in Houston, hon?” Chastity asked.
    “I’ve got a huge wedding planned for here. Two weeks. Don’t