Free Til Dirt Do Us Part (A Local Foods Mystery) by Edith Maxwell Page B

motive would be for killing them both.”
    “Oh, it’s not. I saw Bobby—”
    Ruth focused her attention so keenly on Cam, she felt like a laser shone into her eyes.
    “You saw him?” Ruth’s whisper rasped on Cam’s ears. She grabbed Cam’s arm.
    “Yesterday. It was weird.” Cam shook her head. “He came out of the woods at the back of my farm. He looked terrible. I think he was about to tell me something, but he split when he heard Ellie calling me.”
    “Cam! Did you tell Pappas? They’re looking for Bobby everywhere.”
    “I was so busy the rest of the day, I didn’t even think about it. I meant to call him, but I forgot.”
    “I’d better tell him right now.”
    “He’s going to hate me. Let me call him when market closes. I’ll phone him at one o’clock, I promise.”
    “He’s still going to hate you.” Ruth pulled out her phone. “I need to do this. Watch them for a minute, will you?” She gestured at the girls, who were sidling toward the bread samples two tables down.
    Nobody was near Cam’s table, so she moseyed behind the twins. The baker beamed at them and extended the flat basket of sourdough squares.
    “No gluten allergies, Mom?” The baker smiled at Cam, eyebrows raised.
    She opened her mouth and shut it again. Why get into explaining she wasn’t their mother? It was kind of a nice feeling that she was assumed to be. She simply said, “No.”
    At the same time, Nettie pronounced, “Our mom is over there. This is Ms. Cam. She’s a farmer.”
    Cam introduced herself to the baker. The girls munched bread, the tomato and kale apparently forgotten.
    A customer fingered a bunch of leeks at Cam’s table, so she ushered the children back. As she explained how to clean the leeks by slicing them vertically halfway through and rinsing the dirt out of the white part, she heard a plaintive question from Natalie.
    “Mommy, I miss Daddy. When’s he coming back?”
    Ruth, now off the phone, saw that Cam had heard. She leaned down and murmured something to Natalie, stroking her hair.
    Before they left, Ruth said in a soft voice to Cam, “I’ll tell you later.”

Chapter 9
    T wo bicycles, an old pickup truck, and a Prius with a THINK GLOBAL, EAT LOCAL bumper sticker occupied Cam’s driveway when she arrived home. Sounds of hammering echoed off the house. When she rounded the corner of the barn, her mouth dropped open. The chicken coop was already half built, an A-frame structure sitting on a two-wheeled trailer base.
    Alexandra, another young woman, Wes, Ellie, and a young man with a scruffy beard and a wide-brimmed hat were hard at work. They were measuring, sawing, hammering. The guy in the hat examined an oversize piece of paper that looked like a building plan. It lay spread out on a makeshift table. A bale of hay sat next to a large bag labeled CHICKEN LAYER/ BREEDER MIX. The air smelled of fresh sawdust.
    “It’s a coop raising!” Cam said. Alexandra had called early that morning, asking if it was all right to go ahead, and Cam had said it was, but she hadn’t expected this kind of progress. “Ellie, you’re here, too.”
    “Alexandra called and asked if I wanted to help. I said, like, ‘Of course.’ It’ll help me get my Voice for Animals badge, too.”
    Cam thanked her. “Did your dad drop you off?”
    “Mr. Ames gave me a ride.”
    “Thanks, Wes,” Cam said. “I appreciate you helping out.”
    “With Felicity out of town, I have a little too much time on my hands. Happy to do it.”
    Alexandra introduced the other young woman as her sister Katie and the young man, named DJ, explaining he was one of the rescue league members. “He’s the one I told you about.”
    The Star Trek: The Next Generation theme song rang in Cam’s pocket. “Excuse me a minute.” She turned away and checked the ID on her cell phone. Pappas. Might as well get this call over with. She strolled back toward the house before answering.
    “Where are you?” he started in without