Free The Girl from Felony Bay by J. E. Thompson Page B

land.”
    â€œMr. Force is the new owner. His daughter doesn’t know anything about this either.”
    Uncle Charlie gave me a pained look. “He might a bought the plantation, but he ain’t the new owner of Felony Bay.”
    My jaw dropped, but I quickly picked it up. “How’s that possible?” I managed after a few seconds.
    â€œSimple. Felony Bay was a separate piece of property.”
    â€œNo, it wasn’t.”
    Uncle Charlie’s cheeks grew red. “Don’t argue with me, girl. If I said it was a separate piece, it was a separate piece.”
    â€œSince when?”
    â€œLong time.”
    â€œSo . . . who owns it now?”
    â€œIf they wanted y’all to know, I guess they would a come over and introduced themselves.”
    â€œBut you know who they are.”
    Uncle Charlie’s eyes glimmered with his secret knowledge. “Maybe I do.”
    â€œAnd you’re not going to say.”
    â€œAin’t none a your beeswax.” Then Uncle Charlie said something that I didn’t expect. He looked at me and smiled. “But you’ll find out soon enough.”
    I went to bed a few minutes later, but I lay awake for a long time watching the moon through my window and wondering about Felony Bay and what Uncle Charlie was up to.

Nine
    I n spite of staying up a lot of the night tossing and turning with questions I couldn’t answer, I woke up extra early the next morning when Rufus stuck his wet nose in my face. As if that wasn’t enough to drag me out of sleep, Rufus gassed me with his Labrador retriever breath. It was almost strong enough to kill.
    I ate my usual bowl of cereal and fed Rufus, then the two of us snuck out the back door and headed to the pasture. Since the moment I’d opened my eyes, I had been thinking about the same things that had kept me up the night before—the No Trespassing signs, the holes, Uncle Charlie, and Bubba Simmons.
    The temperature had dropped a bit overnight. Heavy dew lay on the grass, and thick fog drifted off the river, lending everything a mysterious quality that only sharpened my hunger for answers. Timmy and his fellow horses, Clem and Lem, looked as indistinct as ghosts where they stood against the fence. As soon as Timmy caught my scent, he nickered and came over to nuzzle me. You could barely see twenty feet in front of you, and Timmy’s back was dripping with dew and drifting fog, so rather than try to ride, I led him to the barn.
    I fed and watered the horses, and when they finished their grain, I dried their backs and put on the fly coats they would need when the sun burned through. I did other chores, and once the fog started to lift, I let them back out in the pasture.
    A yell came from back behind me. Bee was limping down the track on her way from the big house. “You done already?”
    â€œCouldn’t sleep thanks to Rufus, so I decided to get an early start.”
    â€œI was coming down to help,” she said, sounding disappointed that she hadn’t gotten there in time. A second later her thoughts seemed to shift, and she brightened. “Guess what! My dad called from India last night, and I asked him about that property.”
    â€œWhat did he say?”
    â€œHe got on his computer and looked at the survey he received when he bought the plantation. He says there isn’t anything on the property that looks like a bay. He also said that while lots of parts of the plantation have names, there’s no Felony Bay.”
    I nodded. “Uncle Charlie basically admitted that the land was sold to somebody else, but he won’t tell me who. Also, when I walked home last night, Bubba Simmons was at our house. I overheard him and Uncle Charlie talking about the holes and keeping us off the property.”
    Bee looked at me a moment. “What do you think this is all about?”
    I shook my head. “I think we need to find out.”
    â€œSo what are we