DIGGIN' UP THE DIRT Read online

“Apparently, Rich has been in jail for something and they let him out on good behavior to come to the funeral.” It only made sense. There’d not been any other burglaries in town.

  “Do you have a date of birth?” Finn headed over to his desk and sat down at his computer. “I can find him in the database.”

  “I don’t, but I plan on going back over to see Lenora in the morning. I’ve got a bunch of questions to ask her and him.” I tapped the board with the dry-erase marker. “Think about it. Rich just got out of jail. He has no money. Lenora said that Woody loved telling Rich the story. I overheard him practically threatening the physical therapist from the rehab center and then he disappeared from the funeral.” I said. “That was probably around the break-in.”

  I walked over to my desk, unzipped my bag to get out my notebook where I’d made bullet points of Lenora’s statement.

  “There doesn’t seem to be anymore items taken but those,” I finished saying and put the notebook back on the desk, taking another look at the white board.

  “You are very observant.” Finn clicked away on the computer. “Richard Moss,” he said, and the back light of the monitor twinkled in his eyes. “Write this down.”

  He leaned closer to his computer and I walked back over, picking up a marker. The printer started to run.

  “Sheriff,” Scott’s voice came over the walkie-talkie strapped on to my shoulder of my uniform.

  I pushed the button on the side of the walkie-talkie. When it beeped, I knew we were connected.

  “Go ahead,” I said.

  “I just want to let you know that I’ve lost Rich and that guy he’s with. I think they caught on to me.” He clicked off.

  “Okay. Stay put. I might have another place for you to go.” I clicked back off, thinking about my next move with Rich.

  “Ten four,” he said back.

  “I just printed his file and photo. Richard Moss theft charges include felonious assault.” Assault with a deadly weapon. “Assault with intent to commit great bodily harm less than murder,” he read as I wrote. “One was a pawn shop and another a jewelry store.”

  “A jewelry store and we have missing cuff links.” I wrote down everything he was saying and took a few steps back from the white board.

  “Jewelry and guns are number one items burglars look for when casing a home.” Finn made a great point.

  “We have the facts and the arrests that show Rich likes to knock off jewelry stores. It looks like we have a very good tie here. But probably not enough to get an arrest.”

  “It’s enough for a warrant to find the cuff links.” Finn’s brows lifted. He was waiting for a signal for me to give him the okay to call the judge after hours to get the paperwork.

  “Get it. I’ll tell Scott to go pick it up and head over to Lenora’s house to look around in Rich’s stuff,” Finn said.

  It was a first step to getting Rich back in jail where he belonged.

  “While you do that, I’m going to head home and grab a quick shower before I meet you and your parents at my parents’ house.” My stomach flipped at the thought.

  “They are going to love you,” he looked up from the computer with a big grin on his face.

  “Let’s hope so.” I sashayed over to Finn and gave him a kiss. “If not, we are in trouble.”

  “Why?” he asked and narrowed his eyes with a sight chin turn.

  “There’s no way it could ever work out if your parents didn’t like me.” My words made him laugh. “I’m serious, Finley.”

  “Finley?” He pushed back off his desk and folded his arms across his chest. “You are serious.”

  “I am.” I leaned my hip on his desk. “My parents love you, but I’m a girl. It’s the mamas of boys who seem to have the difficult time with the girlfriends. I could never date a man whose parents don’t love me.”

  “You have nothing to worry about. What’s not to love?” He grinned before he tipped his head to give me a kiss that told me everything was going to be okay.

  The reassurance instantly made me feel so much better.

  “I’m sure I’m just worried over nothing.” The truth of the matter was that I had a weird feeling. My gut was generally right in the case of investigations and all things that came to run the sheriff’s department. “I’ll see you in a few.” I patted my leg. “Let’s go, Duke.”

  The sheriff’s department was located in the back of Cowboy’s Catfish, a restaurant located in downtown Cottonwood on Main Street. It might seem strange to some people that the department was located in a restaurant, but not in a small Kentucky town like Cottonwood. Our department, until recently, had consisted of Betty, Finn, and me. We had three desks and one cell. There wasn’t need for much more, even though Deputy Scott Lee had recently been helping out and would hopefully soon be full-time.

  The only problem having the department in the room behind Cowboy’s was that my stomach always rumbled to life. Parking on Main Street instead of in the alley behind the department probably wasn’t the best thing to do today since I’d been trying to hold off on eating until we had supper with our parents.

  “I’ve got you something good to take home,” Bartleby Fry, owner of Cowboy’s Catfish, hollered out from the grill when Duke and I walked by. “I put it under the heat lamps.”

  He gestured to the brown to-go bag sitting on the ledge where he puts the finished plates for the waitstaff to take to the customers.

  “You are the best.” I probably shouldn’t have taken it since I was having supper, but it would keep until tomorrow. Besides, I wasn’t in the mood to tell Bartleby my plans. Not only would I never hear the end of it, the rest of the town would know before I’d even made it home. Gossip spread that fast around these parts.

  “Don’t you worry.” He shook his spatula at Duke. “I’ve got a few things in there for you too.”

  Duke tossed his ears back, threw his nose up in the air and let out a howl.

  “You’re the best.” I grabbed the bag on the way out the push-through door between the kitchen and the restaurant.

  “Sheriff,” Mayor Chance Ryland and Polly, his wife, greeted me from one of the windows next to the front door.

  “Mayor.” I nodded at him. “Polly.”

  “Kenni.” Polly’s pretty little button nose curled, and her blue eyes stared at Duke. “Must he go everywhere?”

  “He must.” I smiled. “Have a great night.”

  “Are you off for the day?” Chance pulled up the sleeve of his suit and looked at his watch. “Isn’t it a bit early? I mean, you could be working on the Moss break-in.”

  “Don’t you worry. Now that I’ve got Deputy Lee, he’s taking a lot of the load off of me, so I can make sure the rest of Cottonwood is safe.” I drummed my fingertips on their table and gripped the to-go bag.

  “Isn’t he temporary?” Polly asked and grinned, showing her big, white horse teeth. To this day I still think Beverly Houston, our local dentist, should be scolded for giving Polly those big veneers.

  “Hopefully after this week’s council meeting, he’ll be hired on as full time.” I gave the table one last tap. A hard tap. “I’ve got to get going.”

  “Sheriff,” Chance stopped me. “I wouldn’t count on the council approving your request.”

  One thing I didn’t let people do was walk all over me. I was the first woman sheriff in Cottonwood and when I was first elected, all the men in the town tried to walk all over me, but I stood my ground. Mayor Ryland was the worst one. He was as cold as a cast iron commode. I was on a mission to warm that seat up.

  “We haven’t had the meeting yet,” I reminded him and gave a good Baptist nod. “Have a good evening.”

  “You keep me up to date on the Moss break-in,” he called after me as I pushed through the door.

  Chapter Four

  There was a crowd gathered around the big
RV parked in front of Mrs. Brown’s house.

  I pulled the Wagoneer into my driveway and took a few minutes to watch as the neighbors gawked. It wasn’t like they’d never seen a big RV, but we’ve never had one this nice parked on Free Row. And I couldn’t help but wonder if they were trying to figure out how to steal the wheels.

  Free Row was what I affectionately called Broadway Street, which is where I lived. The small ranch homes used to be very nice back in the day. I had fond memories of visiting and staying with my Poppa on this very street and in this very house when he was alive.

  Since then and through changing times, Broadway had become home to lower income families that were on commodity cheese, and a few who cheated the system to get on welfare and food stamps when they didn’t need it.

  It was a well-known fact that my neighbors weren’t on the higher social ladder nor did they care to climb it.

  “Y’all go on and be on your way,” I said and walked around the RV, trying to be as quiet as I could. I didn’t want Finn’s parents to see me in the ugly brown sheriff uniform that was clearly not made to fit a woman’s body. It certainly wasn’t how I wanted them to meet me. “I hope you are neighborly enough to Deputy Vincent’s parents while they are visiting,” I said, more a warning than a polite statement.

  There were a few grumbles and mumbles, but they shuffled away.

  I pulled my phone out of my back pocket and flipped through my contacts to call Finn.

  “Miss me already?” he asked in his sultry Northern accent.

  “Free Row is enthralled with your parent’s RV,” I said and ignored how he answered because it didn’t seem right to talk that way when I was going to tell him about his parents.

  “You mean how they’ve got them surrounded?” He laughed. “Mom already called. She said that she felt safer in Chicago.”

  “Good golly, are you serious?” I asked and unhooked the gate door leading to my backyard.

  Duke took off like a lightning bolt to the far end of the fence to grab his tennis ball. He ran back, dropping it at my feet.

  “They’ll be fine. I told them to lock the door and we’d take care of it. I assured them they are harmless,” he told me while I played fetch with Duke. “Did you see them?”

  “No. I tried not to make too much noise because I want to look pretty and make a good first impression.” I looked over my shoulder towards the gate when I heard the lock flip up. I waved in Katy Lee Hart and Tibbie Bell, two of my best friends who insisted they come over and get me all gussied up for the big family meeting. “Katy and Tibbie are here. I’ll see you at Mama’s soon.”

  “Don’t be late.” Finn was one for punctuality. He didn’t like to be late for anything. “Remember, I love you and that’s all the matters.”

  “I love you too,” I clicked off and that weird feeling tugged at my gut.

  “What’s wrong?” Katy’s brows furrowed as she looked me over.

  She had several plastic dry-cleaning bags over her one arm. She shifted her hips to the side and put her hand in the crease of her thick waistline.

  Tibbie was a little bit on the larger size but gorgeous. She had beautiful blonde hair that was parted to the side, falling down her back in loose curls. She was an event planner.

  “Nothing’s wrong.” Tibbie’s bright smile reached her hazel eyes with a sparkle. She pulled her long hair around one of her shoulders. “She’s meeting her future in-laws. She’s nervous.”

  “In-laws?” I asked and threw Duke’s ball really far one last time before we went inside. “Aren’t we rushing things?”

  Not that I didn’t want to get married, I was already married to my job, but it was that I didn’t let myself think too much about the future. I took each day as it came.

  “Nope.” Tibbie walked into the kitchen door behind me and threw her purse on the kitchen table, pulling out a notebook. “Your mama’s already got your wedding planner started.”

  Tibbie was an event planner and everything down to our weekly Euchre games were planned out.

  “She even has the dresses you’d look great in.” She flipped the page open to a hand-drawn bride that looked awful similar to me. The bride had the same honey blonde hair with golden highlights like mine and my green eyes. “That’s one of my faves.” Her shoulders drew up around her ears as her voice had escalated.

  “Seriously. The more you feed Mama, the worse she gets. Just get me ready for tonight.” I looked over the table where Katy had laid out the different outfits she’d pulled from her Shabby Trends collection. “Focus on tonight.”

  “Personally,” Katy grabbed a long, elbow length, light brown sweater with a loose turtle neck and a darker brown pair of skinny jeans that looked more like slacks. “This is what I thought would go perfect with your hair color. Plus, these are slim fitting and give a little in case you have a little too much cake.”

  “Are you referring to my happy fat?” I questioned her.

  “Well,” Katy laughed, knowing that was what Mama had called my weight gain since I’d been dating Finn.

  Happy fat. Whoever heard a such? Mama claimed we gained weight when we were happy because we’d enjoy food and drink more with the one we love. So what if Finn and I loved to eat good food and wash it down with a beer?

  “The three-quarter length sleeves and turtle neck are perfect for the slightly chilly spring night weather.” Tibbie made a good point. “And you better hurry up because I think I just heard the RV rev up.”

  The three of us jumped up and ran to the family room, which was in the front of my house. We stared in silence trying to get a good look at Finn’s parents before the drove off.

  “Did you get a look at them?” I asked.

  “You’ve never seen a picture of them?” Tibbie asked.

  “Never. I’ve met his sister and he has a picture of her in his wallet, but there’s no other photos in his house.” I shrugged and ran back into the kitchen, pulling off my uniform and tugging on the clothes.

  Katy adjusted all the clothes, putting the seams in all the right places, while Tibbie put makeup on me. I’d never been one to fuss over my appearance. It was simple to throw my straight hair in a ponytail for work and to not wear makeup. Recently, I’d discovered the power of a good lip gloss and mascara for a quick fix when Finn started working at the department. Still…fully fixing my hair and putting on makeup everyday wasn’t in my routine.

  “You need a little pop of color for you lips.” Tibbie rolled up the tube, exposing a darker shade of brown. “Here.” She shoved a hand mirror in my face. “You look amazing.”

  “Maybe you should rethink your beauty routine every day.” Katy peered around the mirror and smiled. “You really are gorgeous.”

  “Are you telling me that makeup makes me gorgeous?” I jutted the mirror towards them.

  “You’re naturally pretty, but the makeup is stunning.” Tibbie took a step back and smiled at her masterpiece: me.

  “I’ve got to go if I’m going to drive the back roads to beat Finn’s parents.” I pointed to Duke. “Can you please throw some kibble in his bowl and let him out one more time before you leave?” I grabbed my purse and flung it over my shoulder. “Jolee is going to stop by later and let him out on her Meals on Wheels route.”

  My true best friend was Jolee Fischer. She owned On the Run Food Truck and also used the truck to deliver meals to the elderly and shut-ins. Mrs. Brown, my neighbor, was a Meals on Wheels recipient. Duke loved Jolee and she loved him. He’d much rather be in her food truck all day than sitting in the office, so he was used to her coming over.

  Tibbie and Katy waved me off, shoving me out of the door.

  Today was a good time to know all the back roads and short cuts to my childhood home.

  There was a bit of relief when I turned into my parent’s driveway and saw no sign of the Vincent’s RV.

 
Mama was peering out of the living room window that was in the front of the house. When I waved, she drew the curtain shut as if she didn’t see me. She was probably as nervous as I was.

  Mama was the typical Southern woman who took pride in her house and all the things she had in it. There was no doubt in my mind she was going to pull out all the stops to impress Finn’s parents.

  I wouldn’t even put it past her to have the Sweet Adelines, her local singing group, there to give a small concert. Thankfully, I didn’t see any of their cars, but I still wouldn’t count it out just yet since it was still pretty early in the night.

  I walked up to the modest three-bedroom brick ranch and stood under the long-covered porch in the front, looking both ways down the street before I walked into the door.

  “Hello,” Mama chirped with delight. She gasped when she truly looked at me and clapped her hands together. “You do love me,” she gushed and walked around the foyer with me in the middle taking a good long look at me.

  “Not that I care what they think about my looks, but I didn’t want you to look bad,” I lied. I totally cared what they thought of me or I’d not told Finn how important it was for them to like me.

  “Is that my baby?” Dad asked, walking into the foyer.

  Unlike my mama, he walked over, towering over me, and gave me a hug.

  “Don’t she look beautiful?” Mama gushed with a squeal.

  “She always looks beautiful.” Dad’s brown eyes squinted as the smile crossed his lips.

  “She looks especially pretty with the makeup and hair fixed and new clothes.” Mama had no idea when to just leave well enough alone. She had to beat it to death.

  “Viv, she’s always pretty.” Dad knew that Mama could take anything a little too far. “Let’s just have a good night.”

  “I was just sayin’,” she snarled.

  “Thank you, Mama.” My brows rose in hopes my response would stop her. “Daddy, I see you’ve been to Tiny Tina’s.”

  “Doesn’t it look gooooood?” Mama had a way of drawing out her vowels with her Southern drawl. She racked the edges of Daddy’s freshly dyed black hair that used to be a little more salt and pepper. Now there was no salt to be found. Not even a speck.