Free Lucky Stuff (Jane Wheel Mysteries) by Sharon Fiffer Page B

books at home and very few clothes in my closet and drawers and maybe a few other odds and ends, this is it.”
    Nellie looked over everything on the bed.
    “What do you need two turtlenecks for?” she asked.
    Jane opened her mouth but couldn’t think of anything to say. Instead she started laughing. At first, it was that sad laughter, the prelude to hysteria that Jane had heard in so many others when she and Oh were working on a case. Then, as Jane looked at her things arrayed before her, the laughter became real, genuine, joyful laughter. She picked up the navy turtleneck and handed it to Nellie.
    “Can you use an extra?”
    “Sure,” said Nellie, snatching it up. And then a small miracle occurred on the south side of Kankakee. Nellie smiled. Jane saw it. She wanted to grab her phone and snap a picture of it, but it was gone too quickly. No matter. Jane saw it and she wouldn’t forget it.
    “You working on a detective case right now?” Nellie asked.
    Jane shook her head.
    “Good. I got a job for you,” said Nellie. “And you only got a few days to get it done because I’m not paying out-of-town expenses.”
    Jane sat on her bed and patted the spot next to her.
    Nellie ignored the invitation. A smile was one thing, but cozying up for a conversation was another.
    “I want to know what Lucky Miller’s up to,” said Nellie.
    “Other than staging a comedy roast in a charming little town that gave him pleasure as a child?”
    “Bull,” said Nellie. “Hermie Mullet wasn’t charmed by Kankakee. And Kankakee isn’t charmed by Hermie Mullet. There’s something fishy going on here. Lucky Miller’s a crook of some kind and I want to know what he’s up to.”
    “Mom, I can ask around, but—”
    “Use that computer of yours and find out stuff about Hermie Mullet. Maybe Bruce can help you on this.”
    “I can call him and ask him to check on the family. You’ll have to give me the year they left. He was in your class?”
    Nellie nodded.
    “Just one year, then the nuns and priests split up the boys and the girls in different rooms.”
    “Yeah, but you were in the same grade, that’s all … wait a minute. You call Detective Oh … Bruce?”
    “That’s his name, ain’t it? Just find out what Lucky Miller’s up to,” said Nellie.
    Jane finished hanging up her clothes and stowing away her bags, and climbed into bed. She expected it to feel too small and hard, but it was cozy. She had e-mailed Nick about what happened, even about the moving truck and found herself smiling through the story. She didn’t have the slightest urge to cry herself to sleep. Instead, she closed her eyes thinking about Nellie wanting to know about what Lucky Miller was up to. Questions swam below the surface of her thoughts: Of all the towns Hermie Mullet had lived in, why Kankakee? Why all the re-created stuff of his childhood? Then the current brought her right back to Nellie and her obsession with Lucky Miller. The last question that finally floated to the surface just before sleep?
    “What was Nellie up to?”

7
    On Thursday morning, when Jane woke up in her old bedroom, she lay perfectly still, making a list in her head. It was a habit that served her well as far as giving her a few extra minutes under the covers. It didn’t help her organizational skills all that much, since she found that a day usually unfolded demanding that its own list be obeyed.
    She got as far as Mr. Toad—or was it Frog who wrote “ 1. Get up ”—before she heard Nellie yelling at someone or something. She pulled on yesterday’s clothes as quickly as she could and ran out to the living room, where her mother was hanging out the front door, yelling at children on their way to school.
    “I don’t like it when they cut through the yard. There’s a sidewalk there and they ought to be using it,” said Nellie, offering the explanation without turning to look at Jane standing behind her.
    “How do you get all the eggs off your house on