Free Murder Talks Turkey by Deb Baker Page A

all a big misunderstanding. I can’t believe I didn’t trust him. Please forget this ever happened, and don’t tell anybody.”
    I certainly hadn’t seen this coming. The investigation was finally producing results. What a snake that guy was!
    “Were you out in the woods this morning?” I asked, knowing the answer.
    “No. That’s a strange question. You know I do nails at the salon in Gladstone on Saturdays.” Lyla sucked up a big breath and let it out. “You can still have manicures for the time you put in.”
    Now what? Should I tell her about Tony’s hunting expedition? How could I walk away, knowing what I knew? Did I have an obligation, a commitment to follow up?
    Cora Mae would tell me to mind my own business, that I’d quickly become the bad guy if I told Lyla about Tony’s woodland love nest. She would hate me forever for shattering her happiness, even if it was only a figment of her imagination.
I struggled with my conscience through a moment or two of silence.
“All right, Lyla,” I ended up saying. “I hope it works out for you and Tony.”
Yeah, right. Lyla had just purchased a time-share with another woman and didn’t know it.
Next time I crossed that lying cheat’s path, I’d zap him with my stun gun.
    __________

    I checked the kitchen counter, but didn’t find a note from Blaze explaining his absence from the house. Star answered her phone on the fifth ring, sounding like I woke her up.
    “Grandma Johnson and Blaze are loose,” I said. “What happened to you? You were supposed to watch them.”
    “I have an awful headache,” Star said. That was her code word for a hangover. Sinuses are acting up again is how she sometimes explains it. “I talked to Blaze a little while ago. He went into Stonely for gas, then was going to drive Grandma to Gladstone for ice cream.”
    “Did it occur to you,” I said, “that Blaze hasn’t been cleared by the doctor to drive?”
    “That’s not what he told me.”
    “You can’t believe anything he says. Did you believe him when he told you he was a five-star general? Or when he said the temperature at the hospital got so hot his watch melted right off his wrist?”
    Star managed to titter through her “sinus” headache. “I liked the blue diamond story best,” she said. “We’re all rich, if only we can find the gems.”
    The guineas alarm went off outside. When I glanced out the window, I saw Mary getting out of her car. “Oh, oh,” I said into the phone. “Gotta go.”
Mary looked rested and serene from her sabbatical away from Blaze. Unfortunately, I was about to end that calm.
“Where’s Blaze,” Mary asked after greeting me. She craned her neck down the hall.
“He’s resting,” I lied.
“Everything go okay?”
“Perfect. He wasn’t any trouble at all. He’s almost normal again.”
Mary started down the hall. “Thanks for giving me a break. I really needed it.”
    “Unless you want to end up right back where you left off all stressed out, I’d recommend heading home. Let Blaze sleep.” My voice crept up a few octaves when she didn’t stop. “Don’t go in there.”
    “What’s going on?” Suspicion crossed Mary’s face. She opened the bedroom door. I thought about running for my truck and heading for Canada.
“Where is he?” she asked, keeping a level tone to her voice.
“I lost him.”
“How long ago?”
“Not long. Rumor has it he’s pointed toward Gladstone. He’s with Grandma Johnson, so I’m sure he’s all right.”
    We both thought about that for a minute. Then we scrambled for my truck. We moved so quickly Fred didn’t know what was happening until we’d already squealed out onto the road leaving him home alone
    __________

    Gladstone, Michigan is an easy twenty-minute drive from Stonely. It has lots of amenities that are missing from our small town. For one thing, they have a main drag with cute business establishments—cafe, bookstore, coffee shop.
    I turned onto Delta Street and angle parked in