Free Whispers from the Dead (Serenity's Plain Secrets Book 2) by Karen Ann Hopkins

driveway and parked beside us. The spattering of dusty white film over the car didn’t fool me. It was a very nice sports car and not the type of ride you would see out in the country. It was much more similar to a vehicle that drug dealers in Indy drove.
    But it wasn’t the car that caught the breath in my throat. It was the inhabitants. They were the same two men that I had seen with the group of Amish boys in the lot behind the store. Once again, something needled me to attention and I waited for an explanation from Rowan.
    “Hey, bro, haven’t seen you in a while,” the chameleon said.
    I shot a look at Rowan, wondering at the newcomer’s use of the word “bro,” when he quickly said, “Serenity, this is my brother, Asher.”
    Things were getting stickier by the minute.

6
    A sher dipped his head in greeting, but he didn’t bother to remove his shades. I never liked talking to people with sunglasses on. It put me at a disadvantage when I couldn’t read their eyes. That’s why I rarely had mine off when I was outdoors in the daytime. But all the same, I still got the definite feeling that Asher was paying close attention to my reaction to news of his relationship with Rowan. Now that I was up close to him, I could see the family resemblance, physically. Both men had the same striking high cheek bones, but where Rowan was more reserved, Asher appeared to be extremely outgoing.
    Asher continued to stare at me while he asked Rowan, “Have you been holding out on me? Are you dating this pretty English woman?”
    Interestingly, the fact that Asher didn’t know about me the way everyone else in the community did, signaled that there might be a rift of some kind between the brothers.
    Rowan didn’t beat around the bush when he said, “This is Serenity Adams. She’s the sheriff in Blood Rock.”
    “What would the sheriff from Blood Rock be doing in our neck of the woods?” Asher asked. His tone was amicable, almost teasing, but I wasn’t fooled. When Asher and the man seated beside him heard the word sheriff they had both straightened in their seats. It was if I had just turned into a grizzly bear before their very eyes. They were suddenly extremely alert, poised for action. I’d seen this kind of reaction from plenty of people before, and it always meant they were guilty of something.
    Not giving Rowan a chance to answer, I said, “I’m doing a private investigation of the recent barn burnings and the death of the woman in this particular barn.” I lifted my chin toward the wreckage, but I didn’t take my eyes off the men as I gaged their reactions to what I’d said.
    Asher’s companion’s eyes widened considerably before he quickly looked away. Asher remained staring back at me, seemingly weighing my words before carefully saying, “Do you have any ideas who might be our pyromaniac?”
    It was a reasonable question, but something in Asher’s tone and the tilt of his head put me on edge. I also made a mental note that he had referred to the problem as our, which struck me as odd since he obviously had left the Amish community to become English.
    With a quick glance, I saw that Rowan was waiting for my answer as well. “I just got here today, but hopefully some leads will pop up soon,” I said.
    Asher seemed to breathe a little easier with my answer and I decided to see how much about himself he was willing to share. “When did you leave the Amish, Asher?”
    Asher leaned back and smiled broadly with the look of a man who got asked that particular question a lot. “I was about eighteen when I cut out. The Amish lifestyle didn’t suit me very well,” he turned to Rowan and quickly added, “If you need anything, bro, give me a call. Don’t be such a stranger.”
    Rowan nodded his head stiffly and then Asher said to me, “Have a nice day, Sheriff.”
    Asher’s words were like rotten potatoes dripping with honey. I squinted at the sports car in annoyance as it backed out onto the roadway and