Free Soup...Er...Myrtle!: A Myrtle Crumb Mystery (Myrtle Crumb Mystery Series) by Gayle Trent

yeah…lots to do,” Heather said. She stood and
pulled on her coat. “Girls, we need to go.”
    “But I not done,” Miranda Sue said.
    “You can take your biscuit with you,” Heather said.
“Come on .” She got the girls’ coats on them, said her goodbyes, and
high-tailed it out of there.
    Faye and I looked at each other.
    “Wonder what that was about?” Faye asked softly.
    “It seemed mighty suspicious to me,” I whispered. “I
hatethat we knocked those poor babies out of getting to finish their lunch….
But I think it’s pretty obvious that Heather’s hiding something.”
     
    * * *
     
    Faye dropped me off at my house. I invited her in, but
she said she had to run by the grocery store before she went to the school to
pick up Sunny.
    Matlock met me at the door, and I patted his big, square
head.
    “Need to go out?” I asked.
    He’d started toward the backdoor before I’d even
finished asking the question, so I took that as a yes. I followed him and let
him outside.
    I turned around and saw that the answering machine light
was blinking. I played back the message to hear Cooper’s deep, husky voice.
    “Hello, darlin’. Give me a call when you get this. I
have some news I believe might interest you.”
    I deleted the message and called Coop. His receptionist
answered, but she put my call on through.
    “Why, hello, sweetheart,” he said when he came on the
phone. “I’ve got some news about Craig Flint. I told you about the petty
larceny charge here in Virginia. Well, there’s a warrant out on him for a minor
drug charge in North Carolina.”
    “You think those warrants are what’re keeping him from
coming home to his family?” I asked.
    “I believe that if Craig Flint was any kind of man, he
wouldn’t let the measly charges against him keep him from his young ‘uns,” Coop
said. “Going on the assumption that he’s not any kind of man, I’d about
guess he’s had his fill of Heather and is keeping her on the string to keep
from having to pay child support.”
    I gasped. “That no-good, rotten scoundrel! Let’s load up
and go get him!”
    Cooper chuckled.
    “I’m serious,” I said. “Let’s find him and drag him back
here where he belongs.”
    “Well, for one thing, you’re not law enforcement…and
you’re not Liam Neeson either. And I’m fairly glad about that last part. For
another thing, we don’t know where Flint is at.”
    “That’s because whoever’s looking for him lacks motivation.”
I huffed. “Fax the agencies a picture of those two little girls. That might
light a fire under them.”
    “I hate to burst your bubble, darlin’, but I don’t think
it would,” he said. “Truth is, most of our police departments are overworked
and understaffed. It’s not likely they’ll find the Flint needle in that
deadbeat haystack unless he comes across their path for some other reason.”
    “Then what can we do?”
    “The tasks you find the hardest—being patient and
waiting.” He gave a soft, gentle laugh. “On the upside, he’s on their radar for
having outstanding warrants. So if he as much as gets a speeding ticket, I’ll
be notified.”
    “Right…if he’s not using some fake I.D. or something,” I
said.
    “We’re doing all we can do, Myrtle.”
    “I know.”
    “So let’s move on to our other case,” Coop said. “Did
you find anything helpful today?”
    “We found out that Frank Phillips keeps the most
organized records any of us—me, Faye and Melvia, that is—had ever seen. And
Faye took a sampling of the names from different parts of Frank’s ledger,” I
said. “She’s going to run credit checks on them tomorrow to look for suspicious
activity.”
    “Let me know what she finds.”
    I promised him I would, and then he had to get back to
work.
    I piddled around the kitchen for a few minutes, wondering
what I’d throw together for Matlock and me to have for dinner. I didn’t come to
any satisfactory conclusion. Then I opened the door and