Free Just a Memory by Lois Carroll Page A

her now. She's at a restaurant."
    Harry glanced around to see if anyone was watching him.
    "No, he ain't with her and I ain't gonna lose her neither. Hell, I can only watch one of them at a time, but if you send someone else, he'll pick us out. This place is so dinky I try to stay out of town at the dump where I'm staying as much as possible. Okay, if she goes back to the store where she works, I'll go back to tailing him. But it's not like there's a lot for him to do around here."
    He listened, ploughing a rough hand through his hair and across his face. "Yeah. Yeah. I don't understand why you don't just end it now instead of taking this chance. How much longer do I got to stay in this burg?"
    Harry nodded as he listened and then disconnected the call with a snap. Why wouldn't they just let him end it now?
    Angry at being stuck in the tiny town, Harry sighed and settled down for the wait.

 
     
     
    Chapter Five
     
     
     
    Mac entered the small police station after yet another restless night. He greeted Ellie at the communications board with as cheery a 'good morning' as he could manage and listened as she gave him the overnight news from the Sheriff's Office. Not much happening. Good. He took the mail she held out to him and started toward his office, but stopped.
    "Ellie, Hines hasn't come up with much on the break-in. Why don't you see what you can learn about White Properties this morning? See what people will tell you, since you've worked and lived here longer–things they might not say to Hines, for whatever reason, if he asked."
    Mac knew how tight-lipped small-town people could be about their own community members when they were talking to someone they considered an outsider. While he hated to think it, the fact that Hines was black and one of a very small minority in this town might have something to do with it, too. Made him wish he could change some minds about that in the short time they would be here.
    "Right away," Ellie said. "I stopped by county records this morning, but Mavis wasn't her old organized self. I let her know that learning White's recent real estate dealings was important."
    Mac shook his head at the way things were done in small towns. "Good, and when Hines gets in, tell him I want to see him." At the sound of the entrance door swinging open, he looked up and added, "Speak of the devil."
    Hines pushed in the door with his backside while he steadied a box of doughnuts with three big Styrofoam cups of coffee balanced on top. He looked up to find the two of them staring at him. "What? Whatever it was, man, I didn't do it!"
    Mac and Ellie laughed.
    "I don't know what it is you didn't do, but if I can have one of those coffees, I'll forgive you anything," Ellie announced as she rose to help him set the cups down without spilling. "Today's your day to make the coffee, Hines, and I'll take the Donut Dugout coffee over yours any time."
    "Nice talk." He handed a coffee to Mac with his verbal report of his morning rounds. "All's quiet on the merchant front," he said. "Some of them are at a meeting at the motel coffee shop this morning."
    Mac nodded. That had to be the meeting Carolyn told him about.
    Hines turned to Ellie. "Uneventful night and not a sign of the 'strange sedan' that Ms. Ashton said was parked at the corner across from The Costume Nook." He emphasized the zzz sound in Ms. and Ellie giggled despite her obvious efforts not to.
    With the mention of the costume shop, Hines had Mac's undivided attention. "Whoa! What strange sedan across from the costume shop?"
    Ellie explained Mavis's call the night before.
    "I think it's time you went in person to learn more about that and about White," Mac ordered. "Get all the details and tell me what you find out."
    "It's probably nothing and Mavis means well," Ellie added. "She's one of Lakehaven's nosier citizens, and she's more than set in her ways."
    "Ellie, remember rule number one in police work: Don't assume anything," Mac told her. Ellie