Free One True Heart by Jodi Thomas Page A

couple walked by and stopped to talk to Drew about how the fishing was down at the lake. One of her McAllen cousins rushed out of the bar and said she’d heard Millanie was back in town. They rehashed everything they could remember about being in the third grade together. Millanie had the feeling her cousin would have joined them for dinner if Drew had suggested it. Thank goodness, the professor was silent.
    By the time the cousin finally went back inside, the deck had filled with people. Millanie forced herself not to study each one. This wasn’t the army. These people didn’t pose a threat. This was Harmony. She could relax. The man she’d be looking for wouldn’t hang out here. He’d more likely be at the country club or at a fund-raiser.
    Drew disappeared to get two more beers, and a slender woman in her early twenties with long black curly hair dashed over and plopped in his vacant chair. “You’ve got to help me,” she whispered, like a spy from an old suspense movie.
    â€œYou’re Drew’s sister? Kare, right?” Millanie had no doubt. The girl looked like she still believed in unicorns.
    â€œHow’d you know?” Wide brown eyes stared at her in surprise.
    Millanie played along. “I’ve got a bit of the gift myself, you know. I can sense things before they’re said.”
    Kare bounced in the chair, making the twenty-strand necklace she wore jingle like tiny Christmas bells. “That’s grand. We need to stick together. There are many who don’t appreciate our talents. I grew up an only child of two people who didn’t like company dropping by. Would you believe I thought everyone had gifts, except my dad, until I got to college and found out most people don’t?”
    â€œI understand.” Millanie said what she knew the girl wanted to hear. She’d learned years ago that if you want the truth out of anyone, simply mirror what they are. Everyone automatically likes someone who understands them. “Now, how can I help?”
    The little sister of Drew Cunningham leaned close. “Johnny Wheeler is about to swing for something he didn’t do. I read his palm. He couldn’t have killed anyone. It would have shown up on his hands. But everyone thinks he offed Scarlet, so he’s going down the river for sure for murder one. I think the one thing slowing down his trial is the fact they haven’t found her body, but in a few days when it starts to smell, Johnny will be officially charged.”
    Millanie tried to piece together facts within her rambling. Kare had definitely watched one too many prison movies. A dozen questions came to mind and she had no idea where to start. Finally, she settled on, “Who’d Johnny Wheeler kill again?”
    â€œWell, they say he killed his wife, Scarlet, and maybe her lover, Max Dewy. Half the folks argue that one because most think Max is gay, so that cuts him out as her lover. But Johnny didn’t kill them even if his own brother admitted he saw Johnny the night she disappeared. The brother said he’d looked like he’d been in a fight and was carrying a shovel with fresh dirt on it.” Kare finally took a breath and added, “Two kids were parked out across from his place and swear they saw him bury something. It’s hard to miss a big guy like Johnny Wheeler, even in the dark. They said what he tossed in the hole wasn’t very big, but Scarlet was a little bitty thing. She was thirty and still getting carded.”
    â€œHow can I help?” Millanie said again. She consideredthat this might be some kind of bar game she didn’t know about just to see how gullible the newcomer was.
    Kare looked really worried when she begged, “Tell my brother he has to help me this time. This is real. A man could die and I’m the only one who believes he’s innocent. Drew’s got brains. He’ll think of something.”
    â€œGet out of my