Lisa R. Howeler's Blog, page 57

The Blessing in Hebrew

The Lord bless you and keep you
Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face toward you
And give you peace

The Lord bless you and keep you
Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face toward you
And give you peace

Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen

The Lord bless you and keep you
Make His face shine upon you and be gracious to you
The Lord turn His face toward you
And give you peace

Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen

May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children

May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children

May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children

May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children

May His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, he is with you

In the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing
He is for you, he is for you

He is for you, he is for you
He is for you, he is for you
He is for you, he is for you
(Amen, amen)

Amen, amen, amen
Amen, amen, amen

May His favor be upon you
And a thousand generations
And your family and your children
And their children, and their children

May His presence go before you
And behind you, and beside you
All around you, and within you
He is with you, he is with you

In the morning, in the evening
In your coming, and your going
In your weeping, and rejoicing
He is for you, He is for you

Ohh

He is for you (ohh)

Sunday Bookends: Fall photos, did not finish books, I’m not a real book blogger, and watching old movies (again)

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer  and Kathyrn at  The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

Yesterday I rambled about last week in my Saturday Afternoon Chat post. You can read that here if you want to.

One thing I mentioned was that I wanted to get some more photographs of the autumn leaves left on our trees. So many have been blown off already and it has been gloomy almost every day for the last week and a half so I haven’t felt like going out to take photographs, but I made myself yesterday. For you. My blog readers who don’t have fall colors. I pushed myself out there and I was so cold and frozen and stumbled home and was forced to huddle under a blanket with hot cocoa and a book the rest of the day. It was rough. Still, I managed to grab some photos for you and they are in the Photos of the Week section further down in this post.

 Today I may try to grab a few more photos as I go to visit my parents for the afternoon but it looks like it is going to be another chilly and windy day so we will see.

The Boy’s friend visited yesterday and they were hanging out in the living room, so I was able to hang out on my own all day and took that time to write blog posts, read a book (that I ended up tossing aside because it was just too awful. See below.), and watch a concert by a Christian musician I like. It was a nice day and I think I need to lock myself upstairs more often.

What I/we’ve been Reading

(I want to reiterate for any book bloggers who visit here that I’m not really a book blogger. I sign-up with the book blogging link ups because I like to see what others are reading and to meet new bloggers. I just don’t want to mislead anyone into thinking that I am a fast or voracious reader. I do read a lot, but I am also writing books of my own and homeschooling my two children (ages 9 and almost 17), so I don’t read as much as many of the bloggers who link up for these fun features.)

This week I got caught up reading the first book in a multi-author series I am a part of this week. The series is called The Apron Strings Books and it is going to offer 11 books which will each focus on a particular decade from the 1920s to 2020. I am writing a book called Cassie, which will come out in August of 2024.

The first book is called Polly and it is by Naomi Musch.

A description:

One cookbook connects them all…
Polly ~ Book One in a string of heartfelt inspirational stories, featuring different women throughout the decades from 1920 to 2020.

The Great War has ended, but Polly Holloway’s heart is shattered when her fiancé finally returns home—with a French war bride. Now her future feels desolate, until she fastens onto the idea of using her skills and a special cookbook to turn her grandfather’s Victorian house into a fashionable ladies’ tea room. Yet, how will she endure the patronage of the woman who stole her sweetheart? Moreover, the suave tavern owner down the block is interfering in her business, personal and otherwise. Heaven only knows what goes on behind his doors.

Ross Dalton can no longer sell liquor in his establishment. With prohibition in force, it’s a mixed blessing. Ross met God on the battlefield, and he wants to start fresh, but he must earn a living. Converting his bar into a coffee house offers a partial solution. Still, bootleggers are pressing him to pedal their moonshine, and the girl up the street is convinced his place is a front for a speakeasy. She’s awfully cute when she turns up her pert little nose at his friendly overtures. How can he convince her he isn’t going to tarnish the neighborhood or ruin her business? And will she believe he’s a changed man when the bootleggers double down?

I’m really enjoying the book and am excited that I am receiving advanced copies of all of the books since I’m part of the project. I can’t wait for everyone to read these books. I was so wrapped up in this one I was actually talking to a character. Out loud. In the middle of the night. Eek. Yes, the story certainly pulls you in.

If you want to learn more about the series, you can join our group on Facebook here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/apronstringsreaders

I was reading a cozy mystery called Death Bee Comes Her by Nancy Coco but it was a DNF for me yesterday. It drove me crazy. The story was just – not good. The things that the characters did were ridiculous. Listen, I know cozy mysteries aren’t the best literature out there sometimes but this book was out and out ridiculous. There were way too many pages where it was just dialogue and not good dialogue either. I was disappointed because the beginning of it had so much promise.

So, in addition to Polly, I am back to reading Walls Crumbling by Alicia Gilliam. I am enjoying this book, which is the second in the Seth Browne series.

A description:

Hiding from the world brought them all together.

Facing it might tear them apart.

Can they survive beyond the walls of the white clapboard house?

Can Seth endure the exposure of a state agent investigating their newly-buried past, including the grave he dug with his bare hands?

Will they find the missing redhead needed to exonerate Seth from suspicion? It all depends on little Benji.

Government intrusion could force the boy even further into his silent bubble — or empower him to reveal his darkest secret.

Meanwhile, Cassady fears a new identity remains permanently out of reach. An invisible link to her past seems to threaten any hope of a romantic happily-ever-after.

Seth secretly wonders if trusting God isn’t the answer for his growing temptations. He’s praying, but every day, the walls are closing in on him.

Walls Crumbling invites you to step into a world where God builds firm foundations over the top of broken rubble.

In addition to reading those books this week, I hope to finish Red Badge of Courage this week, plus a cozy mystery book I’ve been listening to forever on Audible. I am reading Red Badge of Courage with my teenager for school and neither of us got to it last week to read so we will finish it this week.

I have also been reading chapters of a book called When Hitler Stole Pink Rabbit by Judith Kerr. I am really enjoying it, but since I am a mood reader, I have laid it aside a couple of times to pick up a cozier book. I believe it’s considered a middle-grade book but it does have a lot of deep subject matter in it since it is about a family who had to leave Germany to escape the Nazis.

Little Miss and I finished Gone Away Lake last week and I have ordered Return to Gone Away Lake for her.

I try to cut myself some slack when I don’t think I’m reading enough and remind myself I’m also reading books with the kids, plus writing my own books and this blog. I am not a speed reader and I’m also not retired yet. When I get to the retirement stage, I will read more books and I’m sure I’ll read them faster.

Photos from Last Week

As I mentioned above, I made it a point to go out for a drive yesterday in very gloomy weather to take some fall photos for my blog readers who don’t live in an area where the leaves change. It seemed like every beautiful tree or group of trees I saw was in a spot where I couldn’t pull off the road to take a photograph. In other places so many leaves had blown off that it wasn’t really pretty enough for a photo.

Still, it was fun to drive around and see the leaves that are still left.

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What We watched/are Watching

This past week I watched Penny Serenade with Cary Grant and Irene Dunn (who also starred in The Awful Truth with my friend Erin and I watched for The Spring of Cary feature).  Released in 1941, it was a comedy-drama that focused on the struggles of a newly married couple and then follows them through the struggles of a pregnancy loss, adoption, childhood illness, and the continuing struggles all those things bring to a married couple.

It was a bit heavy for me in some parts and made me want to cry, but it was very well done and did showcase so many issues parents have to deal with – some of them funny and some of them heartbreaking.

There were some really hilarious scenes when the parents had to figure out how to get their daughter to sleep, learn about bathing her and other issues she had to face as she grew up.

The ending didn’t sit well with me for a variety of reasons but I was glad that the movie explored how a couple can group apart when suffering a tragedy in their lives and marriage, but that it is possible to come back together again.

I also watched Strangers on a Train with The Husband and The Boy for Erin (from Still Life, with Cracker Crumbs) Comfy, Cozy Feature. As a commenter pointed out, this movie really wasn’t cozy or comfy but Erin and I never got around to adding “Creepy” to the name of the feature so…there you go.

Next week we are watching Rebecca – also not a comfy or cozy movie.

This week I hope to watch some actually cozy YouTube videos from some of my favorite YouTubers and find some other cozy old movies I have not watched before. Followers on here and on my Instagram (www.instagram.com/lisarhoweler) have been giving me some awesome suggestions for movies and I am adding them all to a list in my notebook. I’m especially looking for cozy, feel-good films for November and December so let me know if you have any of those suggestions.

What I’m Writing

I am editing Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage this week. I will pass that on to my editor husband and some proofreaders on November 1 and start right in on Cassie from the Apron Strings Book series I mentioned above.

This week on the blog I shared:

Saturday Afternoon Chat: My loser cats can’t catch mice in the house, autumn views, the deer are looking for boyfriends, and ready for some sunFiction Friday: Gladwynn Grant Takes Center StageWeekend Traffic Jam RebootComfy, Cozy Cinema: Strangers on a Train

What I’m Listening to

I have been listening to a lot of worship music this week, especially from Joshua Aaron, an Israeli-American Messianic Jew.

My dad shared this beautiful version of The Blessing being sung in Hebrew on his Facebook page last night and  wanted to share it with you today.

Here is another version of it in a video he filmed in Jerusalem:

Now it’s your turn.

What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Saturday Afternoon Chat: My loser cats can’t catch mice in the house, autumn views, the deer are looking for boyfriends, and ready for some sun

I’m starting this post on Friday night and it is raining outside.

The Husband, kids and I just got back a bit ago from having pizza with my parents and watching a few episodes of Newhart.

Now we are inside our cozy house watching an old Noir movie (The Asphalt Jungle).

The dog is sitting next to me, cuddled up and I am thinking how blessed we are to be here even as we face some future uncertainty.

There is so much heartache around the world and it has touched many of us in different ways.

Tonight, though, we are safe and warm.

Last weekend The Husband and I attended a charity event near us where people pay high ticket prices to have the chance to win $3,000.

We didn’t win but it was nice to get out because we don’t do it that often.

They had a dinner before hand and then they started to call numbers of the participants. If the person’s number was called then they were eliminated from the chance to win the money. Some people won gift certificates or $125 when they were eliminated. We did not because that’s our luck – stinky.

They would eliminate around ten people and then have an intermission where everyone would go onto the dance floor for 15 minutes or so and – obviously dance.

There was a local DJ playing the music and most of the music was oldies. At one point they played Unchained Melody and everyone over the age of 50 descended onto the floor and began to sway in the green and blue lights. I’d actually say most of them were more like over the age of 60.

The Husband and I didn’t dance but we did hold hands and watch all the older people dancing away. We aren’t really dancers. I suppose we could have swayed, which is what we did at our wedding.

We would have liked to have won the money but we are homebodies so we were kind of glad when we were eliminated fairly early in the night so we could slip out and go pick up Little Miss from her grandparents. The Boy had stayed home to play video games. I had broken out a book already anyhow. I didn’t really know that many people and am not a partier at all so I read a book while everyone danced.

On our way to the event we noticed there were deer everywhere we looked practically. There were groups of 15-20 does all gathered together in fields, along the roads, and in the woods. It was a little eerie really.

I’ve lived in Pennsylvania my whole life and never remembered seeing so many together like that. On the way back from the charity event they were right at the edges of the road, the headlights barely illuminating them. We were worried one might jump out in front of us.

Imagine how foolish I felt when there was an article on a local TV station site a few days later reminding people to be careful because it was mating season for the white tailed deer.

Oh.

I suppose that explained why they were all out there in groups – they were waiting for their man to show up and court them.

The rest of our week was very uneventful for the most part. We did schoolwork, The Husband went to work, The Boy to trade school in the morning, and I finished Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage. The first draft anyhow. I’ll be editing and revising all this week.

After we got back from my parents’ house last night, we had some excitement when the cat started pawing inside our downstairs closet. I had a feeling she had something trapped because she was trying to crawl up the wall, her tail swishing crazily. I looked up and a mouse was sitting on the coat hanger bar inside the closet, trying to pretend it wasn’t there. I have no idea where it went but as Little Miss and I called The Husband to come look, the mouse disappeared as if in thin air. We thought it had run into a pair of coveralls that were hanging in there so The Husband tossed it out on the back porch. When he went in to clean out the shelf where he found mouse droppings, though, the mouse started running again. It hid behind some boxes but when he moved the boxes it was gone again. He couldn’t see any holes in the wall so he had no idea where it went.

The cat, by the way, took off when The Husband started pulling things out of the closet. She then escaped out the back door into the darkness when I went to take the dog out to use the bathroom.

“You’re fired!” I yelled after her. “You can catch all those mice outside but you can’t get them in the house?! Really?!”

Our other cat just sat in the kitchen floor like she was bored with it all. She’s also been fired.

I suppose we will keep them despite their failures.

After the mouse craziness, we headed to bed and even more weirdness occurred when I plugged in my phone charger (which has been acting up lately) and it shorted out and caused all the outlets in the room I was in to stop working.

Now, I didn’t know it had flipped a breaker so I sat for 20 minutes in despair, thinking that my phone had been shorted out because it would not charge. I used every charger in every outlet in my daughter’s room.

I was even starting to cry because I use my phone at night to listen to podcasts if I can’t fall asleep or even as a flashlight. I was being really silly about it all so my almost 17-year-old came to my rescue. He took the phone and charger and plugged it in in our hallway and it immediately started working.

That clued us in that the shorting out of the charger (which was an Apple charger, I might add) had blown the breaker for my daughter’s room. We decided it was too late to mess with it and The Husband was already asleep. In the morning we found out that not only had it messed up the outlets in my daughter’s room but also three lights downstairs, including our outside light.

My dad helped us figure that out earlier today.

As an aside, there are an insane amount of outlets in this house. We just discovered more of them in the last month that we had never seen before even though they were in plain sight. For example, last week I asked my husband to plug my phone in outside the bathroom door. He said, “Where?”

I told him I’d just found the outlet outside the door.

“Really?” he said. “How did I never see that?!”

He asked that because it is seriously right there – in plain sight – in our hallway. Across the hall is nother one.

The whole exchange  reminded me of this scene in an episode of Doctor Who where the Doctor tells Amelia Pond that there is another door in her house and she says there isn’t but he says to look through the corner of her eye and she’ll see it. She does and goes into the room the door leads to. An alien is behind her in the room and she says she can’t see anything but she knows something is there and he tells her not to look in the corner of her eye. Unfortunately, she does.

Shudder.

Here is part of the scene, if you’ve never seen it:

Of course when I see that scene I think of my favorite scene from that episode. It’s right after The Doctor has regenerated from being my favorite doctor, David Tennant, into my second favorite Doctor, Matt Smith, and he’s starving but he can’t remember what food he likes.

I’ll share that one too for fun:

So here we are on Saturday and I headed out this morning to take some photos of the changing leaves. I hadn’t had much water to drink, or much to eat, and the pressure dropped lower than I’d seen it in a long time, so I didn’t feel so great when I went for my drive. That led to fewer photos than I wanted to take but I hope to go out again later this afternoon and snap some more.

I have issues with lower barometric pressure. My head feels weird and my muscles go weak and hurt and – well, I’m a mess when the barometric pressure drops.

I feel much better after some water and food, but still not great.

We really need some more sun. It was cloudy and miserable all week and I thought we were supposed to have more sun this weekend. Apparently not.

Since it’s going to remain cloudy, I guess I’ll simply have to take photos of leaves without pretty sun filtering through them.

Our hillsides are not really ablaze with color at this point. A lot of our leaves have fallen off and, of course, there are those dead ash trees (killed, as I’ve mentioned here before, by the ash bore) but there are still individual trees that are beautiful and eye-catching.

I’ll share a few of the photos I took today and a few tomorrow in my Sunday Bookends post.

As I wrap up this post I am going to head downstairs from where I am huddled under some covers in bed make some tea and then come back up and huddle under the covers some more.

Let the rest of the family fend for themselves until the sun comes back out, I say.

How was your week last week? Do anything fun or interesting?

Let me know in the comments.

Fiction Friday: Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage Chapter 8 and 9

As always, this is a work in progress and there could be (will be) typos, plot holes, and other errors but those will be fixed before the book is published a couple of months from now.

If you want to read the first book in the series, you can find it on Amazon HERE.

If you don’t want to read this story in chapters on a blog and would rather read the fully-finished and polished version, you can pre-order it HERE.

If you want to learn more about my other books you can find links to them HERE

Chapter 8

For their dinner break on Wednesday, Laurel invited Gladwynn to the Mountain Run Inn, a bar and restaurant about five miles outside the town limits of Brookstone.

It was nestled in between two pine-covered mountains with not much around it other than trees and the dirt road that led there. Gladwynn had never visited the establishment before and admired the log cabin appearance of it as Laurel pulled her dented gray Honda into a parking space. They’d spent the drive around the bends and curves and up and down hills talking about stories they were working on, Liam’s latest girlfriend, and Samantha’s murder.

As they walked inside and Gladwynn took in the outfits of the clientele – specifically faded blue jeans, plaid shirts, t-shirts, and work boots – she glanced down at her vintage-style white dress with large orange flowers spread across the flared bottom, her orange heels, and orange purse and immediately felt overdressed.

This was a bar and grill for blue collared workers and she stuck out like a sore thumb. She felt eyes on her as they walked to a booth in the back. Neon and metal signs advertising various brands of beer lined the walls, in between vintage farming tools and framed posters of NASCAR drivers.

Laurel winked as she slid into the seat across from Gladwynn, using her best 1930s New York City accent. “People in here aren’t used to seeing classy dames like you.”

Gladwynn rolled her eyes. “Stop. Why didn’t you tell me I was overdressed.”

Laurel snickered. “And miss the look on everyone’s face when they saw you sashay through here? No way.”

Gladwynn groaned softly. “Thanks a lot.”

The Brookstone Beacon had a loose dress code. Laurel was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a plain dark blue T-shirt, fitting in perfectly with the diners around her. “What? It’s true. You’re like high fashion around these parts. The minds of the men in here are being blown right now and the women are all wishing they could look as good as you.”

Gladwynn glanced around the bar and saw that most of the people had turned their attention back to their food or drinks. Only one person was looking at her, turned around on his barstool, elbows propped behind him on top of the bar. A small, sly smile curved his mouth upward.

Laurel snorted out a small laugh. “Vince sure is enjoying the view.”

Gladwynn turned her attention back to the table, pulling the menu from where it was propped up between the salt and pepper shakers. “Vince is –” She shook her head slowly and read the menu. “Well, Vince.”

Laurel lowered her voice. “Don’t look now but here he comes.”

“Lady.” Vince bowed slightly in Gladwynn’s direction as he stopped a few inches from their table. He glanced at Laurel. “And Laurel. Hello.”

Laurel scowled, snatching a menu from its holder. “Shouldn’t you be wrestling someone back into their cell?”

Vince folded his arms across his chest and grinned. “Not for a couple more hours, no. What brings you two out this far from Brookstone?”

Laurel’s scowl didn’t disappear as she looked at the menu. “What do you think brings us out here? We’re here to eat. Alone. Without the town flirt harassing us.”

A mocking gasp came from Vince. “Town flirt?” He touched a hand to his chest. “Me? Surely you jest. Besides, you don’t have anything to worry about if I was flirting. I’d sooner flirt with an angry bull in Fred Murphy’s pasture than flirt with you.” He smirked. “Actually, it would be the same thing.”

Laurel looked up, mouth pressed into a thin line. “Go away, Vince. Don’t you have someone else to bother?”

Vince jerked his head slightly to the right. “Yeah, actually. I have a drink to finish with your ex before I head home for a shower before work.” He turned his attention back to Gladwynn. “And before you ask, it’s a Pepsi, not a beer. I will not be showing up in your paper’s police briefs tonight.” His cocky demeanor faded as he hooked his thumbs in the beltloops of his jeans. “Seriously, though, it’s nice to see you here today. You’re a breath of fresh air in this stale, stinky place.”

Laurel snorted. “It’s only stale and stinky because you’re here.” She waved her fingers at him. “Buh-bye, Vince.”

Gladwynn held up a hand. “Actually, Vince, before you go, I was wondering. Did you know Samantha Mors?”

An expression she couldn’t read came over Vince’s face before it returned to the guarded stoicism she was used to seeing when he was serving as the security guard at the Birchwood Townships meetings. “Not well, no. We talked a few times at Bingo at the Birchwood Community Hall. She used to come out with Derek. Why do you want to know?”

“We’re doing a story about her and want to add some comments from people who knew her,” Laurel said, quickly making eye contact with Gladwynn. “We just want to add some personal views of her to flush out the story more.”

Vince seemed to accept that explanation and it was fine that he did because Gladwynn knew Laurel really was working on such a story.

He shrugged. “Like I said, I didn’t know her well. We just talked a few times. We used to trade stories about work. I’d also attended a couple of years at Ohio State and she said something about being from there, if I remember right. Said she’d gone there to get away from a suburb of Chicago where she’d grown up.” He smiled. “She had some kind of supernatural knack for winning Bingo. I remember that much.” He tipped his head down, looking at the floor, smile fading, thumbs still in his beltloops. “What happened to her is a real shame. I hope they find whoever did it. She didn’t deserve that.”

Something about the way his voice softened made Gladwynn wonder if there had either been more between Vince and Samantha or if Vince had simply wanted there to be.

Vince lifted his eyes to meet Gladwynn’s. “If you want to know more about Samantha, you should talk to the manager over at Willowbrook. Eileen. From what I could tell, she and Sam got pretty close over the last six months. She came with Sam and Derek to Bingo a couple of times and I used to see them picking up take out at the barbecue place on 87 a lot.”

Gladwynn gave him an appreciative nod. “Thank you. I’ll try that.”

He touched two fingers to his forehead as if he was touching the brim of a cap. “No problem. See you later.”

Gladwynn watched him walk back to the bar and caught Lance glancing at their table before turning his attention back to Vince and his drink. She hoped Lance’s presence wouldn’t send Laurel running back to her car. She’d already found something on the menu she wanted and her stomach was protesting the fact she’d skipped lunch.

“The only thing is,” she said, looking back at her menu. “Eileen said she and Samantha only knew each other well enough to watch movies once in a while.”

Laurel set her menu back and leaned back against the red leather booth cover behind her. “Who’d she say it to?”

“To the police.”

“Right. There you go.”

“What do you mean?”

Laurel pushed herself back against the wall and propped her legs up on the seat of the booth. “She told the police she wasn’t very close to Samantha but that’s because she didn’t want them to know she was. It might make her a suspect or at least someone they’ll want to ask more questions of. I don’t know Eileen well, but from what I do know, she doesn’t seem the type to confide in a lot of people and she’s especially not going to confide in an intimidating authority figure. She prefers to be the authority.”

Gladwynn set her menu back. She knew what she wanted. “She certainly looked meek this morning outside Derek’s condo when Derek’s son was letting her have it for cleaning out his father’s stuff and putting it in storage.”

The waitress came and took their orders. Gladwynn didn’t hesitate to order the Endless Mountains Burger topped with mozzarella cheese, hickory smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onion. She added a side order of sweet potato fries and iced tea.

After ordering a grilled chicken salad with a side of cheese covered fries and waiting for the waitress to leave, Laurel tapped the table. “Spill it on Derek’s son. What happened?”

“Honestly, I probably shouldn’t.” Gladwynn smirked. “You are the press and all.”

Laurel rolled her eyes. “You’re the press too. This is off the record. I can’t use it for a story anyhow. I wasn’t there. Was the guy a jerk or what?”

The waitress set their drinks down and Gladwynn took a sip of the tea. She made a face and reached for the sugar packets. “Beyond a jerk. Totally rich too from what I could tell, which makes sense now that we’ve looked him up. He had a super expensive suit on and he was driving a super fancy car.”

Laurel smirked, propping one ankle over the other, her legs still stretched across the seat of the booth and one armed propped on the table. “You drive a fancy car. Are you super rich?”

Gladwynn poured sugar into the tea. “No, I’m just super in debt. I really should sell the thing and buy a more sensible car for the elements around here.”

Laurel responded in a mock high-society British accent, “For the elements around here. And what, dear Gladwynn, are the elements around here?”

Gladwynn narrowed her eyes. “You know what I mean. Snowy winters and wet springs and roads that aren’t taken care of very well. She unrolled the paper napkin around the silverware on the table. “Anyhow, on the way out here remembered something. There was a name on a piece of paper near Samantha’s body. Or the start of one. Or maybe they were just random letters. I don’t know.”

Laurel dropped her feet back on the floor and sat up straight, leaning both elbow on the table and placing her chin on her fingers, which she’d hooked together to make a type of bridge. “What were the letters?”

“D-e-r I think.”

“Like for Derek? She did hang out with him a lot.  Maybe she was writing him a letter at some point? Maybe the day she died?”

“Maybe,” Gladwynn said, though she thought about how it really was possibly since they were, most likely, father and daughter. “Or maybe she was leaving a clue? Like trying to tell someone who had killed her?

Laurel’s eyebrows raised. “Whoa. That’s a heavy thought. Like something out of a movie Have you told Tanner any of this yet?”

“No, like I said, I just remembered it on the way here. I was so worried about Doris that day I completely forgot about the note. Plus seeing Samantha’s face was a huge distraction.” She shuddered. “It was awful.”

She was glad that the waitress brought their food so she could stop talking about that day. Gladwynn marveled at the large steak knife sticking up out of a hamburger that was easily the same height as the knife. She popped a fry into her mouth and closed her eyes as flavor exploded over her tastebuds. Based on the fries alone she was thankful Laurel had invited her here.

Laurel stabbed a piece of lettuce, chicken and tomato like she was playing a game of whack-a-mole. “It’s so weird that Samantha was murdered only a week after Derek died. I mean, they were really close from what I hear. Do you think we’re all barking up the wrong tree thinking that she was murdered? Even the cops? Maybe she killed herself. I mean, maybe she was broken up by Derek’s death and just ended it all.”

Gladwynn thought about Samantha that day on the beach and how she had looked more furious than broken up. It didn’t mean Derek’s death hadn’t crushed her, of course. In fact, maybe her grief had turned to anger and she’d been taking it out on whomever she’d been talking to.

“Maybe,” she said, cutting the burger in half and contemplating how she was going to eat it. “I’m sure Tanner has more evidence than we know that points to it being murder, though. Otherwise he wouldn’t have issued a release saying it was suspicious.”

Laurel glanced toward the bar, then back again. “Suspicious could mean anything. It doesn’t always mean murder. It just means it wasn’t natural causes. Right?”

Gladwynn shrugged, finally picking up the fork and knife to cut the burger into bite sized pieces. If she tried to eat the burger whole, she’d definitely drip something on the dress. She’d found it at the local thrift store and had fallen in love with it immediately. It reminded her of a dress Ginger Rogers would have worn in one of her movies with Fred Astaire.

She took a bite of the burger and was again thrown into a moment of culinary pleasure. She paused to enjoy the bite and swallowed before answering. “Usually suspicious means murder in my mind and the mind of most people, but yeah, maybe it will turn out not to be murder. Like maybe a horrible accident instead.”

Laurel started to slide out of the booth. “I’ll be right back. I need to water the flowers.”

Gladwynn quirked an eyebrow as she sipped her tea. “Really? Why don’t you just say you need to use the bathroom?”

“I thought I should protect your sensitive sensibilities. What I usually say is that I’m going to take a —”

Gladwynn held up her hand. “I’m good. I can figure it out. Thank you.”

She continued to cut the burger and bun with the knife and fork. As she took another bite, she watched Lance walk from the bar toward her. He paused and leaned both hands on the table. “Is that how city girls eat burgers?”

Gladwynn sighed. “Only when the burger is bigger than their head and they don’t want to ruin their clothes. How are you doing?”

She noticed he was unshaven, his eyes rimmed with red. He didn’t wreak of booze so she was guessing the brush fires his department had been fighting over the last few days was the reason he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. She’d taken photos of one fire two days earlier and they kept cropping up all over the county, but especially in Birchwood, due to severely dry conditions.

“Doing okay. You’re not keeping very good company, are you? Surprised you got Laurel to leave the office long enough to eat. She used to just get takeout and eat it there.”

“I think the company I am keeping is just fine. I know you don’t want to admit it, but I think you still think the company I am keeping is fine too.”

Lance narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me?”

Gladwynn dabbed her napkin against the corner of her mouth. “Did you forget to sign those divorce papers or did you not want to?”

He straightened, his glare making him look even more exhausted as he crossed his arms over chest, covering the words Firefighters Are Made of Tougher Stuff emblazoned across his blue t-shirt. “Laurel has a big mouth, doesn’t she? I bet she’s just ranting and raving about how once again I screwed up her life. Well, I will have you know that I did sign those papers. I may have missed one or two spots but there were a lot of spots to sign. You would have thought I was signing over my first –” A funny look came over his face and he swallowed hard. “It’s ridiculous is what it is. I’ll get them signed and then she can shut up and just move on with her life. Enjoy your meal.”

He walked away and disappeared through the back exit at the same moment Laurel emerged from the bathroom. She was clearly looking to see if Lance was still at the bar as she slid back into the booth.

“He left.”

Laurel adopted an innocent expression as she picked up a fry. “Who left?”

“You know who.”

“I don’t care that he left.”

“You do or you wouldn’t have been looking all around for him when you came back.”

Laurel stabbed a piece of lettuce hard. “Why don’t you just keep your investigating tendencies to yourself, Grant.” She took a bite and scowled in the direction Lance had been sitting. “I don’t even know what he was doing here.”

Gladwynn smiled. “Eating dinner?”

Laurel scoffed. “He never could cook for himself. If I didn’t cook, he’d eat a bologna sandwich or come here.”

“So, is this the first time you’ve seen him here since the divorce?”

“Yeah, but mainly because I’d been avoiding the place. I shouldn’t have to avoid my favorite places just because he might be there, though, which is why I came tonight. I just hoped he’d actually started cooking for himself and wouldn’t be here.”

Gladwynn sat back. “This was a good choice, that’s for sure. I’m going to have to take some of this with me. It’s a ton of food.” She watched Laurel pick olives out of her salad for a few moments before asking, “Are you sure you really wanted to divorce Lance?”

Laurel looked up sharply, mid-pick. “I’m sorry, what?”

Gladwynn knew she was in dangerous territory but she plowed forward anyhow. “Did you really want to divorce him? I mean, I don’t think he really wanted to divorce you. I think you two might be –”

Laurel laid her fork down, a hint of a smile crossing her lips. “Gladwynn, if I remember correctly, you are not a marriage counselor. You are also not married. You are a reporter and a former research librarian and a sometimes wannabe private investigator. I’m not sure why you think that you can talk to me about what you think I do or do not want when it comes to my ex-husband.”

Vince waved at Gladwynn as he headed toward the exit and she waved back then looked back at Laurel. “It’s just a feeling I have. That’s all. I just wonder if maybe you and Lance rushed your divorce and if maybe –”

Laurel held up her hand, palm out. The smile was gone. “That’s enough. I know you mean well, but no. I’m not going to sit here and discuss my feelings about my ex-husband with you. We had our reasons for splitting up and I had my reasons for filing for divorce. I also have my reasons for wanting to make sure that divorce is finalized. Now, let’s get that waitress and get a box for you.” She looked at Gladwynn’s plate and her smile slowly returned. “For a skinny little thing you sure can put the food away. You inhaled almost that entire burger.”

“No one has ever said I don’t have a healthy appetite.”

Laurel laughed. “No, I don’t think anyone would. Enjoy it while you can, sweetie. When you hit my age, the fat will just hold on instead of slipping off those shapely curves of yours. Trust me, I’ve attracted more fat than ever since I hit 40.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice in a conspiratorial way. “What we should be talking about is how hard Vince was flirting with you earlier and what you’ll say if he ever asks you out.”

Gladwynn reached inside her purse for her lipstick and make up compact. “Vince is a flirt. With everyone. Not just me.” She couldn’t deny she’d worried about Vince asking her out though. The thought made her nervous, since she had no interest in dating anyone at this time. It hadn’t been that long since she’d broken up with her college boyfriend.

She applied another layer of lipstick, checked her eyeliner, and moved a dark curl off her forehead. As she prepared to close the compact, the mirror caught the reflection of Tanner at the cash register behind her with a takeout box. He was standing with another man who she guessed to be another detective since they were both dressed in dress shirts and coats, ties, and dress pants. She snapped the compact closed.

“Be right back.”

“Oh sure.” Laurel scoffed. “Now you have to go to the bathroom when we are about to discuss your love life.”

Chapter 9

Gladwynn caught up to Tanner as he walked out the front door with his takeout containers.

`“Hey, Ta—Trooper Kinney. Can ask you a couple of questions?”

Tanner glanced over his shoulder as he slid his sunglasses on against the setting sun. “Miss Grant. Hello. And it’s Detective Kinney to you.

The other man looked briefly over his shoulder at her as well but they both kept walking toward an unmarked police cruiser in a parking space on the other side of the parking lot.  

She took two steps to keep up with their one. “Right. Excuse me. Detective Kinney. I have a couple questions for you.”

 Tanner clicked the button on the key fob in his hand. “I’m guessing these are questions I can’t answer.”

“You might be able to.”

“Are they about the Samantha Mors case?”

“They are.”

“Then I can’t answer them.”

“Why not? You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”

They reached the car and the other detective opened his door, sat the food inside on the dashboard, then straightened and propped his arms on top of the car, watching as if he was ready for some entertainment to unfold.

Tanner opened the car door, keeping his hand there as he turned to look at her. “You’re a reporter.”

“I know I’m a reporter, but I’m a reporter who isn’t covering this case.”

“That doesn’t matter. You’re still an employee of the Brookstone Beacon and you’ll be sharing information with your co-workers and boss.”

“You’re making quite an assumption about what I would and would not do, Tanner Kinney.

Tanner spoke sharply, looking down at her, which reminded her how much height he had on her. “Detective Kinney.”

“Again, sorry. Detective Kinney.”

“And you’ve gotten quite bold lately, Gladwynn Grant.”

“Miss Grant to you.”

“Miss Grant, you’ve gotten quite bold in only a few months of working as a reporter.”

“How do you know I haven’t worked as a reporter for years?”

“I’m a cop. I know things.”

“Like what things?”

“Like that you were a research librarian before you came here.”

“Have you been investigating me?”

“Not in the least.”

She folded her arms across her chest and quirked an eyebrow. “But you have been asking people about me? Who did you ask?”

Tanner sat the food container in the center console and shook his head. “Miss Grant, if this is about the Mors situation, you know I can’t tell you specifics about the case.”

“I know, but you will be calling Laurel at some point to fill her in, correct?”

 “We will release those details to the media through the proper channels when we have more information available.”

“You told Laurel that her death was suspicious. Do you think she was poisoned?”

“Gladwynn, I’m not going to share this information with you.” His tone was tense. “All I can say is that the coroner has determined that Samantha Mors death was due to natural causes.”

“But could it have been a suicide? I mean weren’t there pills on the bedside table? So she could have overdosed or –”

Tanner slid behind the steering wheel while his partner looked on with a smile tugging at one side of his mouth. “This conversation is over.”

“Tanner, I believe that to find out what happened to Samantha we need to consider—”

Tanner looked up at her sharply and while she couldn’t see his eyes behind his dark sunglasses, she had a feeling if he could shoot lasers at her from them he would. He propped an arm on the steering wheel, one leg still outside of the car. “We don’t need to do anything. You’re not a state trooper. You’re a reporter. This is not your case nor your concern.”

She should have apologized, shut her mouth, and walked away, but the Scottish stubbornness that had been passed down for generations kicked in and wiped away her better judgment.

“It’s not my case but it is my concern. This woman was a friend of my grandmother’s and our friend Doris and many others in this town. Doris and I were the ones who found her. I owe it to Doris and Grandma and to Samantha for that matter, to offer whatever help I can to find her killer.” She’d startled herself with the sharpness in her tone and apparently she’d also startled Tanner.

He stared at her for a brief moment, his mouth partially open, before he answered in a tone with a little less edge than he’d spoken in before.

“I know you want to help find out what happened to Samantha, and I appreciate your help, but there is very possibly someone out there who wanted her dead and if they find out you are poking your nose into things, they might want you dead too.” He pulled his other leg inside the car and slammed the door closed, starting the car, and rolling the window down. “You aren’t trained for investigating crimes. I am. I will certainly take any tips that you may come across into consideration. I would sincerely urge you, though, to stop actively seeking those tips not only for your safety but the safety of your grandmother and your friends.”

The other detective slid into the passenger seat and closed the door. Gladwynn noticed the man’s smile had disappeared. He’d also covered his eyes with a pair of sunglasses and was looking straight ahead. She took a deep breath and reigned her emotions in.

Tanner was right. She wasn’t an investigator and it really wasn’t her place to be asking questions.

She thought about the button and letter in her purse. She would give both of the items to Tanner, but if she did it now, he’d definitely accuse her of snooping. It hadn’t been her snooping, though – it had been her grandmother. She couldn’t very well throw Lucinda under the bus with law enforcement. Certainly not her poor, frail – oh, who was she kidding?

There was nothing frail about Lucinda Grant. Still, she wasn’t going to rat Lucinda out. At least not in front of Tanner’s partner. She could see Tanner being understanding when she explained why she’d removed both the button and letter from the apartment during a one-on-one conversation, but she wasn’t sure about the other man.

She’d go to the barracks later and talk to Tanner in private and hopefully he’d understand why she’d kept the letter and the button.

***

Soft fur against her cheek woke Gladwynn the next morning. Without opening her eyes she reached a hand up and touched the soft head of the cat she knew was Scout. The pushy feline had started waking her up for cuddles around 5:30 every morning about a week ago. Gladwynn  certainly hoped that wasn’t what was happening now because if she was woken up too much, she knew she’d lay awake thinking about the case instead of sleeping like she needed to.

She’d already been up past 1 a.m. thinking about the letter from Samantha’s mother. She was still wondering if Mary Kendall was Samantha’s mother. Just because she was listed as the next of kin didn’t mean she was, of course. She decided she would search the woman’s name online after breakfast and put that research librarian past to good use.

There were probably thousands of women in the United States with the same name. Vince had said Samantha had originally been from the Chicago area though so that should narrow it down.

Even if she did find the right Mary Kendall, she had no idea what she’d say to the woman. Ask her if she was Samantha’s mother or who Samantha’s father was?

Scout began to softly purr as Gladwynn caressed her and before long Gladwynn’s eyelids grew heavier, the purring lulling her into a relaxed state. She woke again sometime later at the sound of a knock at her door.

“Gladwynn? Sweetie? Are you okay?”

She sat up quickly, sending Scout jumping from her chest and onto the floor.

The door creaked open and Lucinda peered inside. “You’re usually up by now so I thought I should check.”

Gladwynn looked at her clock. Eleven? How had she slept so late?

She dragged her hand through her hair and yawned. “It’s a good thing I work late shifts most days. I’m apparently not a morning person anymore.”

Lucinda stepped into the room and looked at Scout. “It’s probably that beast’s fault. She’s constantly settling in on me when I need to be doing something else and dragging me down into a very inconvenient nap.”

Gladwynn sat up on the elbows. “Yes, actually it was her fault this time, but she can’t help being sweet.”

The cat sauntered from the room, her tail twitching as if in appreciation of Gladwynn’s compliment.

“Anyhow,” Lucinda rolled her eyes. “Doris and I are heading to the Y for our water aerobics class. Also, your father just called. He’ll be here later tonight.”

She turned to walk from the room. Gladwynn sat up straighter in the bed. “Later tonight? Are you serious? That’s not very much warning, is it?”

“Apparently the conference starts next Monday and he wanted a few days to visit before he goes.”

Gladwynn leaned back against her pillows, folding her arms across her chest, and pushing her lower lip out. “I don’t understand what lawyers have to conference about anyhow. I think it’s just an excuse to get together and play golf.”

Lucinda paused in the doorway. “They have to meet to discuss changes in laws and policies. It makes sense to me. Now, I won’t be here when he gets here but I’ve left a casserole in the fridge for you to warm up for him.”

“I won’t be here either.”

“I thought you said you didn’t have a meeting.”

“I don’t but I do have stories to finish up before deadline.”

“You’ll be home for dinner, though, won’t you?”

“It would be easier if I could just work through dinner.”

“It’s up to you. I’ll text your father and let him know to let himself in and warm the casserole up himself. It’s not like he doesn’t know where to find things.”

Gladwynn sat up again. “Grandma, have you told Dad about you and Jacob?”

Lucinda leaned against the doorframe and scrunched her face up in thought. “Um. No, actually I don’t think that came up.”

Gladwynn’s eyebrows rose and she tilted her head to one side. “You didn’t tell your son that you are dating a man who was a friend of your son’s late father and a deacon in the church?”

Lucinda shrugged. “Like I said, the topic just didn’t come up. Plus, I’ve told you, Jacob and I are not dating. Dating is for the young. We are simply –”

Gladwynn tossed the blanket aside and stood. “Spending time together, I know, but don’t you think Dad is going to have questions when Jacob shows up for breakfast for dinner? Or did you tell Jacob to stay away during his visit?”

Lucinda laid a hand on her chest and looked offended. “Me tell a grown man what to do? I can’t imagine such a thing. Jacob can visit when he wants to. If your father has a problem with a friend of mine coming to breakfast or dinner then that’s his issue, not mine or Jacob’s.” She raised two fingers. “Now, two things before I leave. One, did you drop that letter off to Tanner and two, can you swing by Luke’s on your way to work and drop of a casserole dish I have of his?”

Gladwynn yawned and stretched her arms over her head. “I haven’t taken the letter to Tanner yet, no, and why do you have Luke’s casserole dish?”

“He made a dish for the church board meeting last week and I swept it up by accident and took it home with my dishes.” She turned to walk back down the hallway. “I gave him a call and said I would bring it by today but I forgot about aerobics, volunteering to read to the elderly at the nursing home, and the library board meeting I have at 5. It’s a dinner meeting this month.”

Gladwynn didn’t have the heart to tell her grandmother that she most people would consider her elderly as well. She followed Lucinda into the hallway. “I thought you had a library board meeting last week already.”

Lucinda kept walking, turning into her room. “That was the advertising committee of the board. This is the full board.”

Gladwynn stood in the doorway of Lucinda’s room and watched Lucinda pick up her pink and purple duffle bag. “How big is this board?”

Lucinda swung the bag on her shoulder. “Big enough to get the job done. The dish is on the counter downstairs. Do you know where Luke’s place is?

“Isn’t it the small house next to the church that you and Grandpa started out in?”

Lucinda walked past her. “Oh no, Luke doesn’t live there. The church is renting it out to the youth pastor who just got married. Luke lives out of town, near Laddsburg. He has the most beautiful cottage he built by the – well, you’ll see.” She turned abruptly, walked back to Gladwynn and kissed her cheek quickly “Thank you so much. This means a lot.”

Gladwynn tossed her hands up in exasperation. “Grandma, you didn’t give me any directions. I have no idea where I’m going.”

“It’s right on Templeton Road,” Lucinda said as she started down the stairs. “On the righthand side after the Black Walnut Baptist Church. No. Wait. It’s a little off Templeton Road technically. You take a little road to the right called Dewdrop Lane and Luke is right on Dewdrop, which isn’t really a lane, it’s a dirt road but the lady who used to live on that road asked the county to name it – never mind. I’ll tell you that story another time. I’m late dropping some books off to Franny Wilson who wants to look at them for a possible Bible study for our ladies group in the fall.”

If Lucinda thought Gladwynn couldn’t see through her obvious attempt to set her and Luke up then she must really have thought she was blind. There was no way Lucinda accidentally took that casserole dish home. Lucinda kept track of her dishes like they were her children and there was no way she would mistake someone else’s dish for her dish.

“Grandma. I really don’t have time to —”

“Thank you, sweetie!” Lucinda reached for her purse on the table by the front door. “Love you!”

Gladwynn stood at the top of the stairs with her mouth open, sleep still in her eyes, her arms hanging at her side.

“What just happened?” she asked herself as she staggered back to her room to look for her clothes for the day.

Half an hour later while finishing her breakfast slash lunch, she remembered she had an appointment with the superintendent of the school district that afternoon to talk about a new anti-bullying initiative and then a photograph at the local Catholic school with the winners of the school spelling bee. She also had a staff meeting at 4.

Maybe she could drop the casserole dish off tomorrow instead.

If she didn’t drop it off today, though, her grandmother would ask her why she didn’t drop it off and probably in front of her father. Then her father would ask who Luke was and then – She really didn’t want to think about it.

She would just leave now and take Luke his casserole dish. There was a good possibility he wouldn’t be home anyhow. It was the middle of the day. He was probably at the church doing church stuff or at the hospital ministering to sick people or saving children from a fire since he was also a member of the Brookstone Volunteer Fire Department. Whatever he was doing it was probably noble and righteous in some way.

She glanced at her yellow sun dress with white dots on it as she passed by the antique mirror in the downstairs hallway between the kitchen and living room. She paused and spun around once, a straw sun hat in her hand, the bottom of the skirt flaring out in a very satisfying way. The yellow heels she’d found for less than five dollars at the local loan closet matched the dress perfectly.

Bouncing her freshly curled hair against her palm she pursed her lips in the mirror and then froze. What in the world was she doing? Was she actually making sure she looked good before she went to see Luke? She laid a hand against her eyes and shook her head. Taking a deep breath she snatched her purse from the hook by the door and snatched her keys from the key holder, walking briskly into the sunlight with a good dose of disappointment in herself

Fiction Friday: Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage

As always, this is a work in progress and there could be (will be) typos, plot holes, and other errors but those will be fixed before the book is published a couple of months from now.

If you want to read the first book in the series, you can find it on Amazon HERE.

If you don’t want to read this story in chapters on a blog and would rather read the fully-finished and polished version, you can pre-order it HERE.

If you want to learn more about my other books you can find links to them HERE

Chapter 8

For their dinner break on Wednesday, Laurel invited Gladwynn to the Mountain Run Inn, a bar and restaurant about five miles outside the town limits of Brookstone.

It was nestled in between two pine-covered mountains with not much around it other than trees and the dirt road that led there. Gladwynn had never visited the establishment before and admired the log cabin appearance of it as Laurel pulled her dented gray Honda into a parking space. They’d spent the drive around the bends and curves and up and down hills talking about stories they were working on, Liam’s latest girlfriend, and Samantha’s murder.

As they walked inside and Gladwynn took in the outfits of the clientele – specifically faded blue jeans, plaid shirts, t-shirts, and work boots – she glanced down at her vintage-style white dress with large orange flowers spread across the flared bottom, her orange heels, and orange purse and immediately felt overdressed.

This was a bar and grill for blue collared workers and she stuck out like a sore thumb. She felt eyes on her as they walked to a booth in the back. Neon and metal signs advertising various brands of beer lined the walls, in between vintage farming tools and framed posters of NASCAR drivers.

Laurel winked as she slid into the seat across from Gladwynn, using her best 1930s New York City accent. “People in here aren’t used to seeing classy dames like you.”

Gladwynn rolled her eyes. “Stop. Why didn’t you tell me I was overdressed.”

Laurel snickered. “And miss the look on everyone’s face when they saw you sashay through here? No way.”

Gladwynn groaned softly. “Thanks a lot.”

The Brookstone Beacon had a loose dress code. Laurel was wearing a pair of faded blue jeans and a plain dark blue T-shirt, fitting in perfectly with the diners around her. “What? It’s true. You’re like high fashion around these parts. The minds of the men in here are being blown right now and the women are all wishing they could look as good as you.”

Gladwynn glanced around the bar and saw that most of the people had turned their attention back to their food or drinks. Only one person was looking at her, turned around on his barstool, elbows propped behind him on top of the bar. A small, sly smile curved his mouth upward.

Laurel snorted out a small laugh. “Vince sure is enjoying the view.”

Gladwynn turned her attention back to the table, pulling the menu from where it was propped up between the salt and pepper shakers. “Vince is –” She shook her head slowly and read the menu. “Well, Vince.”

Laurel lowered her voice. “Don’t look now but here he comes.”

“Lady.” Vince bowed slightly in Gladwynn’s direction as he stopped a few inches from their table. He glanced at Laurel. “And Laurel. Hello.”

Laurel scowled, snatching a menu from its holder. “Shouldn’t you be wrestling someone back into their cell?”

Vince folded his arms across his chest and grinned. “Not for a couple more hours, no. What brings you two out this far from Brookstone?”

Laurel’s scowl didn’t disappear as she looked at the menu. “What do you think brings us out here? We’re here to eat. Alone. Without the town flirt harassing us.”

A mocking gasp came from Vince. “Town flirt?” He touched a hand to his chest. “Me? Surely you jest. Besides, you don’t have anything to worry about if I was flirting. I’d sooner flirt with an angry bull in Fred Murphy’s pasture than flirt with you.” He smirked. “Actually, it would be the same thing.”

Laurel looked up, mouth pressed into a thin line. “Go away, Vince. Don’t you have someone else to bother?”

Vince jerked his head slightly to the right. “Yeah, actually. I have a drink to finish with your ex before I head home for a shower before work.” He turned his attention back to Gladwynn. “And before you ask, it’s a Pepsi, not a beer. I will not be showing up in your paper’s police briefs tonight.” His cocky demeanor faded as he hooked his thumbs in the beltloops of his jeans. “Seriously, though, it’s nice to see you here today. You’re a breath of fresh air in this stale, stinky place.”

Laurel snorted. “It’s only stale and stinky because you’re here.” She waved her fingers at him. “Buh-bye, Vince.”

Gladwynn held up a hand. “Actually, Vince, before you go, I was wondering. Did you know Samantha Mors?”

An expression she couldn’t read came over Vince’s face before it returned to the guarded stoicism she was used to seeing when he was serving as the security guard at the Birchwood Townships meetings. “Not well, no. We talked a few times at Bingo at the Birchwood Community Hall. She used to come out with Derek. Why do you want to know?”

“We’re doing a story about her and want to add some comments from people who knew her,” Laurel said, quickly making eye contact with Gladwynn. “We just want to add some personal views of her to flush out the story more.”

Vince seemed to accept that explanation and it was fine that he did because Gladwynn knew Laurel really was working on such a story.

He shrugged. “Like I said, I didn’t know her well. We just talked a few times. We used to trade stories about work. I’d also attended a couple of years at Ohio State and she said something about being from there, if I remember right. Said she’d gone there to get away from a suburb of Chicago where she’d grown up.” He smiled. “She had some kind of supernatural knack for winning Bingo. I remember that much.” He tipped his head down, looking at the floor, smile fading, thumbs still in his beltloops. “What happened to her is a real shame. I hope they find whoever did it. She didn’t deserve that.”

Something about the way his voice softened made Gladwynn wonder if there had either been more between Vince and Samantha or if Vince had simply wanted there to be.

Vince lifted his eyes to meet Gladwynn’s. “If you want to know more about Samantha, you should talk to the manager over at Willowbrook. Eileen. From what I could tell, she and Sam got pretty close over the last six months. She came with Sam and Derek to Bingo a couple of times and I used to see them picking up take out at the barbecue place on 87 a lot.”

Gladwynn gave him an appreciative nod. “Thank you. I’ll try that.”

He touched two fingers to his forehead as if he was touching the brim of a cap. “No problem. See you later.”

Gladwynn watched him walk back to the bar and caught Lance glancing at their table before turning his attention back to Vince and his drink. She hoped Lance’s presence wouldn’t send Laurel running back to her car. She’d already found something on the menu she wanted and her stomach was protesting the fact she’d skipped lunch.

“The only thing is,” she said, looking back at her menu. “Eileen said she and Samantha only knew each other well enough to watch movies once in a while.”

Laurel set her menu back and leaned back against the red leather booth cover behind her. “Who’d she say it to?”

“To the police.”

“Right. There you go.”

“What do you mean?”

Laurel pushed herself back against the wall and propped her legs up on the seat of the booth. “She told the police she wasn’t very close to Samantha but that’s because she didn’t want them to know she was. It might make her a suspect or at least someone they’ll want to ask more questions of. I don’t know Eileen well, but from what I do know, she doesn’t seem the type to confide in a lot of people and she’s especially not going to confide in an intimidating authority figure. She prefers to be the authority.”

Gladwynn set her menu back. She knew what she wanted. “She certainly looked meek this morning outside Derek’s condo when Derek’s son was letting her have it for cleaning out his father’s stuff and putting it in storage.”

The waitress came and took their orders. Gladwynn didn’t hesitate to order the Endless Mountains Burger topped with mozzarella cheese, hickory smoked bacon, lettuce, tomato, pickles, and onion. She added a side order of sweet potato fries and iced tea.

After ordering a grilled chicken salad with a side of cheese covered fries and waiting for the waitress to leave, Laurel tapped the table. “Spill it on Derek’s son. What happened?”

“Honestly, I probably shouldn’t.” Gladwynn smirked. “You are the press and all.”

Laurel rolled her eyes. “You’re the press too. This is off the record. I can’t use it for a story anyhow. I wasn’t there. Was the guy a jerk or what?”

The waitress set their drinks down and Gladwynn took a sip of the tea. She made a face and reached for the sugar packets. “Beyond a jerk. Totally rich too from what I could tell, which makes sense now that we’ve looked him up. He had a super expensive suit on and he was driving a super fancy car.”

Laurel smirked, propping one ankle over the other, her legs still stretched across the seat of the booth and one armed propped on the table. “You drive a fancy car. Are you super rich?”

Gladwynn poured sugar into the tea. “No, I’m just super in debt. I really should sell the thing and buy a more sensible car for the elements around here.”

Laurel responded in a mock high-society British accent, “For the elements around here. And what, dear Gladwynn, are the elements around here?”

Gladwynn narrowed her eyes. “You know what I mean. Snowy winters and wet springs and roads that aren’t taken care of very well. She unrolled the paper napkin around the silverware on the table. “Anyhow, on the way out here remembered something. There was a name on a piece of paper near Samantha’s body. Or the start of one. Or maybe they were just random letters. I don’t know.”

Laurel dropped her feet back on the floor and sat up straight, leaning both elbow on the table and placing her chin on her fingers, which she’d hooked together to make a type of bridge. “What were the letters?”

“D-e-r I think.”

“Like for Derek? She did hang out with him a lot.  Maybe she was writing him a letter at some point? Maybe the day she died?”

“Maybe,” Gladwynn said, though she thought about how it really was possibly since they were, most likely, father and daughter. “Or maybe she was leaving a clue? Like trying to tell someone who had killed her?

Laurel’s eyebrows raised. “Whoa. That’s a heavy thought. Like something out of a movie Have you told Tanner any of this yet?”

“No, like I said, I just remembered it on the way here. I was so worried about Doris that day I completely forgot about the note. Plus seeing Samantha’s face was a huge distraction.” She shuddered. “It was awful.”

She was glad that the waitress brought their food so she could stop talking about that day. Gladwynn marveled at the large steak knife sticking up out of a hamburger that was easily the same height as the knife. She popped a fry into her mouth and closed her eyes as flavor exploded over her tastebuds. Based on the fries alone she was thankful Laurel had invited her here.

Laurel stabbed a piece of lettuce, chicken and tomato like she was playing a game of whack-a-mole. “It’s so weird that Samantha was murdered only a week after Derek died. I mean, they were really close from what I hear. Do you think we’re all barking up the wrong tree thinking that she was murdered? Even the cops? Maybe she killed herself. I mean, maybe she was broken up by Derek’s death and just ended it all.”

Gladwynn thought about Samantha that day on the beach and how she had looked more furious than broken up. It didn’t mean Derek’s death hadn’t crushed her, of course. In fact, maybe her grief had turned to anger and she’d been taking it out on whomever she’d been talking to.

“Maybe,” she said, cutting the burger in half and contemplating how she was going to eat it. “I’m sure Tanner has more evidence than we know that points to it being murder, though. Otherwise he wouldn’t have issued a release saying it was suspicious.”

Laurel glanced toward the bar, then back again. “Suspicious could mean anything. It doesn’t always mean murder. It just means it wasn’t natural causes. Right?”

Gladwynn shrugged, finally picking up the fork and knife to cut the burger into bite sized pieces. If she tried to eat the burger whole, she’d definitely drip something on the dress. She’d found it at the local thrift store and had fallen in love with it immediately. It reminded her of a dress Ginger Rogers would have worn in one of her movies with Fred Astaire.

She took a bite of the burger and was again thrown into a moment of culinary pleasure. She paused to enjoy the bite and swallowed before answering. “Usually suspicious means murder in my mind and the mind of most people, but yeah, maybe it will turn out not to be murder. Like maybe a horrible accident instead.”

Laurel started to slide out of the booth. “I’ll be right back. I need to water the flowers.”

Gladwynn quirked an eyebrow as she sipped her tea. “Really? Why don’t you just say you need to use the bathroom?”

“I thought I should protect your sensitive sensibilities. What I usually say is that I’m going to take a —”

Gladwynn held up her hand. “I’m good. I can figure it out. Thank you.”

She continued to cut the burger and bun with the knife and fork. As she took another bite, she watched Lance walk from the bar toward her. He paused and leaned both hands on the table. “Is that how city girls eat burgers?”

Gladwynn sighed. “Only when the burger is bigger than their head and they don’t want to ruin their clothes. How are you doing?”

She noticed he was unshaven, his eyes rimmed with red. He didn’t wreak of booze so she was guessing the brush fires his department had been fighting over the last few days was the reason he looked like he hadn’t slept in days. She’d taken photos of one fire two days earlier and they kept cropping up all over the county, but especially in Birchwood, due to severely dry conditions.

“Doing okay. You’re not keeping very good company, are you? Surprised you got Laurel to leave the office long enough to eat. She used to just get takeout and eat it there.”

“I think the company I am keeping is just fine. I know you don’t want to admit it, but I think you still think the company I am keeping is fine too.”

Lance narrowed his eyes. “Excuse me?”

Gladwynn dabbed her napkin against the corner of her mouth. “Did you forget to sign those divorce papers or did you not want to?”

He straightened, his glare making him look even more exhausted as he crossed his arms over chest, covering the words Firefighters Are Made of Tougher Stuff emblazoned across his blue t-shirt. “Laurel has a big mouth, doesn’t she? I bet she’s just ranting and raving about how once again I screwed up her life. Well, I will have you know that I did sign those papers. I may have missed one or two spots but there were a lot of spots to sign. You would have thought I was signing over my first –” A funny look came over his face and he swallowed hard. “It’s ridiculous is what it is. I’ll get them signed and then she can shut up and just move on with her life. Enjoy your meal.”

He walked away and disappeared through the back exit at the same moment Laurel emerged from the bathroom. She was clearly looking to see if Lance was still at the bar as she slid back into the booth.

“He left.”

Laurel adopted an innocent expression as she picked up a fry. “Who left?”

“You know who.”

“I don’t care that he left.”

“You do or you wouldn’t have been looking all around for him when you came back.”

Laurel stabbed a piece of lettuce hard. “Why don’t you just keep your investigating tendencies to yourself, Grant.” She took a bite and scowled in the direction Lance had been sitting. “I don’t even know what he was doing here.”

Gladwynn smiled. “Eating dinner?”

Laurel scoffed. “He never could cook for himself. If I didn’t cook, he’d eat a bologna sandwich or come here.”

“So, is this the first time you’ve seen him here since the divorce?”

“Yeah, but mainly because I’d been avoiding the place. I shouldn’t have to avoid my favorite places just because he might be there, though, which is why I came tonight. I just hoped he’d actually started cooking for himself and wouldn’t be here.”

Gladwynn sat back. “This was a good choice, that’s for sure. I’m going to have to take some of this with me. It’s a ton of food.” She watched Laurel pick olives out of her salad for a few moments before asking, “Are you sure you really wanted to divorce Lance?”

Laurel looked up sharply, mid-pick. “I’m sorry, what?”

Gladwynn knew she was in dangerous territory but she plowed forward anyhow. “Did you really want to divorce him? I mean, I don’t think he really wanted to divorce you. I think you two might be –”

Laurel laid her fork down, a hint of a smile crossing her lips. “Gladwynn, if I remember correctly, you are not a marriage counselor. You are also not married. You are a reporter and a former research librarian and a sometimes wannabe private investigator. I’m not sure why you think that you can talk to me about what you think I do or do not want when it comes to my ex-husband.”

Vince waved at Gladwynn as he headed toward the exit and she waved back then looked back at Laurel. “It’s just a feeling I have. That’s all. I just wonder if maybe you and Lance rushed your divorce and if maybe –”

Laurel held up her hand, palm out. The smile was gone. “That’s enough. I know you mean well, but no. I’m not going to sit here and discuss my feelings about my ex-husband with you. We had our reasons for splitting up and I had my reasons for filing for divorce. I also have my reasons for wanting to make sure that divorce is finalized. Now, let’s get that waitress and get a box for you.” She looked at Gladwynn’s plate and her smile slowly returned. “For a skinny little thing you sure can put the food away. You inhaled almost that entire burger.”

“No one has ever said I don’t have a healthy appetite.”

Laurel laughed. “No, I don’t think anyone would. Enjoy it while you can, sweetie. When you hit my age, the fat will just hold on instead of slipping off those shapely curves of yours. Trust me, I’ve attracted more fat than ever since I hit 40.” She leaned forward and lowered her voice in a conspiratorial way. “What we should be talking about is how hard Vince was flirting with you earlier and what you’ll say if he ever asks you out.”

Gladwynn reached inside her purse for her lipstick and make up compact. “Vince is a flirt. With everyone. Not just me.” She couldn’t deny she’d worried about Vince asking her out though. The thought made her nervous, since she had no interest in dating anyone at this time. It hadn’t been that long since she’d broken up with her college boyfriend.

She applied another layer of lipstick, checked her eyeliner, and moved a dark curl off her forehead. As she prepared to close the compact, the mirror caught the reflection of Tanner at the cash register behind her with a takeout box. He was standing with another man who she guessed to be another detective since they were both dressed in dress shirts and coats, ties, and dress pants. She snapped the compact closed.

“Be right back.”

“Oh sure.” Laurel scoffed. “Now you have to go to the bathroom when we are about to discuss your love life.”

Chapter 9

Gladwynn caught up to Tanner as he walked out the front door with his takeout containers.

`“Hey, Ta—Trooper Kinney. Can ask you a couple of questions?”

Tanner glanced over his shoulder as he slid his sunglasses on against the setting sun. “Miss Grant. Hello. And it’s Detective Kinney to you.

The other man looked briefly over his shoulder at her as well but they both kept walking toward an unmarked police cruiser in a parking space on the other side of the parking lot.  

She took two steps to keep up with their one. “Right. Excuse me. Detective Kinney. I have a couple questions for you.”

 Tanner clicked the button on the key fob in his hand. “I’m guessing these are questions I can’t answer.”

“You might be able to.”

“Are they about the Samantha Mors case?”

“They are.”

“Then I can’t answer them.”

“Why not? You don’t even know what I was going to ask.”

They reached the car and the other detective opened his door, sat the food inside on the dashboard, then straightened and propped his arms on top of the car, watching as if he was ready for some entertainment to unfold.

Tanner opened the car door, keeping his hand there as he turned to look at her. “You’re a reporter.”

“I know I’m a reporter, but I’m a reporter who isn’t covering this case.”

“That doesn’t matter. You’re still an employee of the Brookstone Beacon and you’ll be sharing information with your co-workers and boss.”

“You’re making quite an assumption about what I would and would not do, Tanner Kinney.

Tanner spoke sharply, looking down at her, which reminded her how much height he had on her. “Detective Kinney.”

“Again, sorry. Detective Kinney.”

“And you’ve gotten quite bold lately, Gladwynn Grant.”

“Miss Grant to you.”

“Miss Grant, you’ve gotten quite bold in only a few months of working as a reporter.”

“How do you know I haven’t worked as a reporter for years?”

“I’m a cop. I know things.”

“Like what things?”

“Like that you were a research librarian before you came here.”

“Have you been investigating me?”

“Not in the least.”

She folded her arms across her chest and quirked an eyebrow. “But you have been asking people about me? Who did you ask?”

Tanner sat the food container in the center console and shook his head. “Miss Grant, if this is about the Mors situation, you know I can’t tell you specifics about the case.”

“I know, but you will be calling Laurel at some point to fill her in, correct?”

 “We will release those details to the media through the proper channels when we have more information available.”

“You told Laurel that her death was suspicious. Do you think she was poisoned?”

“Gladwynn, I’m not going to share this information with you.” His tone was tense. “All I can say is that the coroner has determined that Samantha Mors death was due to natural causes.”

“But could it have been a suicide? I mean weren’t there pills on the bedside table? So she could have overdosed or –”

Tanner slid behind the steering wheel while his partner looked on with a smile tugging at one side of his mouth. “This conversation is over.”

“Tanner, I believe that to find out what happened to Samantha we need to consider—”

Tanner looked up at her sharply and while she couldn’t see his eyes behind his dark sunglasses, she had a feeling if he could shoot lasers at her from them he would. He propped an arm on the steering wheel, one leg still outside of the car. “We don’t need to do anything. You’re not a state trooper. You’re a reporter. This is not your case nor your concern.”

She should have apologized, shut her mouth, and walked away, but the Scottish stubbornness that had been passed down for generations kicked in and wiped away her better judgment.

“It’s not my case but it is my concern. This woman was a friend of my grandmother’s and our friend Doris and many others in this town. Doris and I were the ones who found her. I owe it to Doris and Grandma and to Samantha for that matter, to offer whatever help I can to find her killer.” She’d startled herself with the sharpness in her tone and apparently she’d also startled Tanner.

He stared at her for a brief moment, his mouth partially open, before he answered in a tone with a little less edge than he’d spoken in before.

“I know you want to help find out what happened to Samantha, and I appreciate your help, but there is very possibly someone out there who wanted her dead and if they find out you are poking your nose into things, they might want you dead too.” He pulled his other leg inside the car and slammed the door closed, starting the car, and rolling the window down. “You aren’t trained for investigating crimes. I am. I will certainly take any tips that you may come across into consideration. I would sincerely urge you, though, to stop actively seeking those tips not only for your safety but the safety of your grandmother and your friends.”

The other detective slid into the passenger seat and closed the door. Gladwynn noticed the man’s smile had disappeared. He’d also covered his eyes with a pair of sunglasses and was looking straight ahead. She took a deep breath and reigned her emotions in.

Tanner was right. She wasn’t an investigator and it really wasn’t her place to be asking questions.

She thought about the button and letter in her purse. She would give both of the items to Tanner, but if she did it now, he’d definitely accuse her of snooping. It hadn’t been her snooping, though – it had been her grandmother. She couldn’t very well throw Lucinda under the bus with law enforcement. Certainly not her poor, frail – oh, who was she kidding?

There was nothing frail about Lucinda Grant. Still, she wasn’t going to rat Lucinda out. At least not in front of Tanner’s partner. She could see Tanner being understanding when she explained why she’d removed both the button and letter from the apartment during a one-on-one conversation, but she wasn’t sure about the other man.

She’d go to the barracks later and talk to Tanner in private and hopefully he’d understand why she’d kept the letter and the button.

***

Soft fur against her cheek woke Gladwynn the next morning. Without opening her eyes she reached a hand up and touched the soft head of the cat she knew was Scout. The pushy feline had started waking her up for cuddles around 5:30 every morning about a week ago. Gladwynn  certainly hoped that wasn’t what was happening now because if she was woken up too much, she knew she’d lay awake thinking about the case instead of sleeping like she needed to.

She’d already been up past 1 a.m. thinking about the letter from Samantha’s mother. She was still wondering if Mary Kendall was Samantha’s mother. Just because she was listed as the next of kin didn’t mean she was, of course. She decided she would search the woman’s name online after breakfast and put that research librarian past to good use.

There were probably thousands of women in the United States with the same name. Vince had said Samantha had originally been from the Chicago area though so that should narrow it down.

Even if she did find the right Mary Kendall, she had no idea what she’d say to the woman. Ask her if she was Samantha’s mother or who Samantha’s father was?

Scout began to softly purr as Gladwynn caressed her and before long Gladwynn’s eyelids grew heavier, the purring lulling her into a relaxed state. She woke again sometime later at the sound of a knock at her door.

“Gladwynn? Sweetie? Are you okay?”

She sat up quickly, sending Scout jumping from her chest and onto the floor.

The door creaked open and Lucinda peered inside. “You’re usually up by now so I thought I should check.”

Gladwynn looked at her clock. Eleven? How had she slept so late?

She dragged her hand through her hair and yawned. “It’s a good thing I work late shifts most days. I’m apparently not a morning person anymore.”

Lucinda stepped into the room and looked at Scout. “It’s probably that beast’s fault. She’s constantly settling in on me when I need to be doing something else and dragging me down into a very inconvenient nap.”

Gladwynn sat up on the elbows. “Yes, actually it was her fault this time, but she can’t help being sweet.”

The cat sauntered from the room, her tail twitching as if in appreciation of Gladwynn’s compliment.

“Anyhow,” Lucinda rolled her eyes. “Doris and I are heading to the Y for our water aerobics class. Also, your father just called. He’ll be here later tonight.”

She turned to walk from the room. Gladwynn sat up straighter in the bed. “Later tonight? Are you serious? That’s not very much warning, is it?”

“Apparently the conference starts next Monday and he wanted a few days to visit before he goes.”

Gladwynn leaned back against her pillows, folding her arms across her chest, and pushing her lower lip out. “I don’t understand what lawyers have to conference about anyhow. I think it’s just an excuse to get together and play golf.”

Lucinda paused in the doorway. “They have to meet to discuss changes in laws and policies. It makes sense to me. Now, I won’t be here when he gets here but I’ve left a casserole in the fridge for you to warm up for him.”

“I won’t be here either.”

“I thought you said you didn’t have a meeting.”

“I don’t but I do have stories to finish up before deadline.”

“You’ll be home for dinner, though, won’t you?”

“It would be easier if I could just work through dinner.”

“It’s up to you. I’ll text your father and let him know to let himself in and warm the casserole up himself. It’s not like he doesn’t know where to find things.”

Gladwynn sat up again. “Grandma, have you told Dad about you and Jacob?”

Lucinda leaned against the doorframe and scrunched her face up in thought. “Um. No, actually I don’t think that came up.”

Gladwynn’s eyebrows rose and she tilted her head to one side. “You didn’t tell your son that you are dating a man who was a friend of your son’s late father and a deacon in the church?”

Lucinda shrugged. “Like I said, the topic just didn’t come up. Plus, I’ve told you, Jacob and I are not dating. Dating is for the young. We are simply –”

Gladwynn tossed the blanket aside and stood. “Spending time together, I know, but don’t you think Dad is going to have questions when Jacob shows up for breakfast for dinner? Or did you tell Jacob to stay away during his visit?”

Lucinda laid a hand on her chest and looked offended. “Me tell a grown man what to do? I can’t imagine such a thing. Jacob can visit when he wants to. If your father has a problem with a friend of mine coming to breakfast or dinner then that’s his issue, not mine or Jacob’s.” She raised two fingers. “Now, two things before I leave. One, did you drop that letter off to Tanner and two, can you swing by Luke’s on your way to work and drop of a casserole dish I have of his?”

Gladwynn yawned and stretched her arms over her head. “I haven’t taken the letter to Tanner yet, no, and why do you have Luke’s casserole dish?”

“He made a dish for the church board meeting last week and I swept it up by accident and took it home with my dishes.” She turned to walk back down the hallway. “I gave him a call and said I would bring it by today but I forgot about aerobics, volunteering to read to the elderly at the nursing home, and the library board meeting I have at 5. It’s a dinner meeting this month.”

Gladwynn didn’t have the heart to tell her grandmother that she most people would consider her elderly as well. She followed Lucinda into the hallway. “I thought you had a library board meeting last week already.”

Lucinda kept walking, turning into her room. “That was the advertising committee of the board. This is the full board.”

Gladwynn stood in the doorway of Lucinda’s room and watched Lucinda pick up her pink and purple duffle bag. “How big is this board?”

Lucinda swung the bag on her shoulder. “Big enough to get the job done. The dish is on the counter downstairs. Do you know where Luke’s place is?

“Isn’t it the small house next to the church that you and Grandpa started out in?”

Lucinda walked past her. “Oh no, Luke doesn’t live there. The church is renting it out to the youth pastor who just got married. Luke lives out of town, near Laddsburg. He has the most beautiful cottage he built by the – well, you’ll see.” She turned abruptly, walked back to Gladwynn and kissed her cheek quickly “Thank you so much. This means a lot.”

Gladwynn tossed her hands up in exasperation. “Grandma, you didn’t give me any directions. I have no idea where I’m going.”

“It’s right on Templeton Road,” Lucinda said as she started down the stairs. “On the righthand side after the Black Walnut Baptist Church. No. Wait. It’s a little off Templeton Road technically. You take a little road to the right called Dewdrop Lane and Luke is right on Dewdrop, which isn’t really a lane, it’s a dirt road but the lady who used to live on that road asked the county to name it – never mind. I’ll tell you that story another time. I’m late dropping some books off to Franny Wilson who wants to look at them for a possible Bible study for our ladies group in the fall.”

If Lucinda thought Gladwynn couldn’t see through her obvious attempt to set her and Luke up then she must really have thought she was blind. There was no way Lucinda accidentally took that casserole dish home. Lucinda kept track of her dishes like they were her children and there was no way she would mistake someone else’s dish for her dish.

“Grandma. I really don’t have time to —”

“Thank you, sweetie!” Lucinda reached for her purse on the table by the front door. “Love you!”

Gladwynn stood at the top of the stairs with her mouth open, sleep still in her eyes, her arms hanging at her side.

“What just happened?” she asked herself as she staggered back to her room to look for her clothes for the day.

Half an hour later while finishing her breakfast slash lunch, she remembered she had an appointment with the superintendent of the school district that afternoon to talk about a new anti-bullying initiative and then a photograph at the local Catholic school with the winners of the school spelling bee. She also had a staff meeting at 4.

Maybe she could drop the casserole dish off tomorrow instead.

If she didn’t drop it off today, though, her grandmother would ask her why she didn’t drop it off and probably in front of her father. Then her father would ask who Luke was and then – She really didn’t want to think about it.

She would just leave now and take Luke his casserole dish. There was a good possibility he wouldn’t be home anyhow. It was the middle of the day. He was probably at the church doing church stuff or at the hospital ministering to sick people or saving children from a fire since he was also a member of the Brookstone Volunteer Fire Department. Whatever he was doing it was probably noble and righteous in some way.

She glanced at her yellow sun dress with white dots on it as she passed by the antique mirror in the downstairs hallway between the kitchen and living room. She paused and spun around once, a straw sun hat in her hand, the bottom of the skirt flaring out in a very satisfying way. The yellow heels she’d found for less than five dollars at the local loan closet matched the dress perfectly.

Bouncing her freshly curled hair against her palm she pursed her lips in the mirror and then froze. What in the world was she doing? Was she actually making sure she looked good before she went to see Luke? She laid a hand against her eyes and shook her head. Taking a deep breath she snatched her purse from the hook by the door and snatched her keys from the key holder, walking briskly into the sunlight with a good dose of disappointment in herself

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot

Hey everyone! How has your week been? I hope it has been going well.

Welcome to the Weekend Traffic Jam where you can share your favorite blog posts from your blog each Thursday. I am a co-host of this linkup with Marsha in the Middle and Melynda from Scratch Made Food For Hungry People.

How do you relax during the week when life is chaotic around you? I’d love to read your tips!

Luckily this past week has been fairly tame for my family. I finished the first draft of the second book in my cozy mystery series and that was a load off of my mind, even though I still need to make revisions and edit before sending it to my editor and proofreader.

The weather has been very gloomy outside and that has been a downer because I haven’t been able to get as many nice fall photo+s as I wanted to this week but I did grab a few.

It looks like the temperatures will be even chillier this weekend into next, but this is the time of year for this weather so I’ll have to suck it up.

Our woodpile is piled high and we’re ready to light the first fire in our woodstove – probably this weekend as the one night is supposed to be in the 1930s.

How about you? Is it chilly or warm where you are?

This week the most clicked post was:

Fall Xen in the Closet by Thrifting Wonderland: https://thriftingwonderland.com/2023/10/08/fall-xen-in-the-closet/

This was a post I enjoyed as well!

My favorites for this week are:

A Bit of This and That by Frugal Fashion Shopper: https://frugalfashionshopper.co.uk/wp/a-bit-of-this-and-that/

New Territory by A New Lens: https://pamecrement.com/2023/10/13/new-territory/s

Sisters Under The Rising Sun by Is This Mutton https://www.isthismutton.com/2023/10/sisters-under-rising-sun-by-heather.html

You can share your blog post by adding a link below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Comfy, Cozy Cinema: Strangers on a Train

For the rest of October and all of November, Erin from Still Life, With Cracker Crumbs and I will be watching cozy or comfy movies and some of them will have a little mystery or adventure added in.

This week we watched Strangers on a Train directed by Alfred Hitchcock and starring Robert Walker, Farley Granger, Ruth Roman, Kasey Rogers, and Pat Hitchcock (Aflred’s daughter). This was yet another movie based on a book. This one was based on Patricia Highsmith’s first book. She also wrote The Talented Mr. Ripley.

This movie kicks right off. No leading into things slowly.

The main characters immediately meet on a train (hence the title) aaaaand immediately I felt uncomfortable with both of them.

The younger one, Guy Haines, a tennis player just seemed quite monotone and bored in his delivery and also anxious to get a divorce from his wife so he could run off with the senator’s daughter. Later, though, I learned the wife was not so nice so I felt better about him. My first impression was not good.

My first impression of Bruno Antony was definitely not good.

Dude gave off serial killer vibes from second one.

For good reason, I might add.

He wants to know, pretty quick into the movie, what way Guy would like to kill his wife. Then he talks about how he’d like to kill his own father.

Then there is this convo:

Bruno: That reminds me of a *wonderful* idea I had once. I used to put myself to sleep at night – figuring it out. Now, let’s say that – that you’d like to get rid of your wife.

Guy: That’s a morbid thought.

Bruno: Oh, no, no, no, no. Just suppose. Let’s say you had a very good reason.

Guy: No, let’s – let’s not say…

Bruno: No, no! Let’s say. Now, you’d be afraid to kill her. You’d get caught. And what would trip you up? The motive. Ah. Now here’s my idea.

Guy: I’m afraid I haven’t time to listen, Bruno.

Bruno: Listen, it’s so simple, too. Two fellows meet accidentally, like you and me. No connection between them at all. Never seen each other before. Each one has somebody he’d like to get rid of. So they swap murders.

Guy: Swap murders?

Bruno: Each fellow does the other fellow’s murder. Then there’s nothing to connect them. Each one has murdered a total stranger. Like you do my murder and I do yours. Criss Cross.

Guy humors Bruno enough to get off the train at his stop and when Bruno says, “So, you liked my plan,” Guy is like, “Sure, sure. Gotta go, dude.”

When we see Bruno later at home with his mother, we see how serious he was about this whole murder thing. That and he may be pretty far out there mentally. Like lunatic level.

His mother is filing his fingernails and wants to know if he’s given up that crazy notion he’d had about blowing up the White House.

Mrs. Anthony: Well, I do hope you’ve forgotten about that silly little plan of yours.

Bruno: Which one?

Mrs. Anthony: About blowing up the White House.

Bruno: Oh, Ma, I was only fooling. Besides, what would the President say?

Mrs. Anthony: You’re a naughty boy, Bruno.

Only, we, the viewers, are pretty sure Bruno wasn’t kidding at all. Not like even a little bit.

Meanwhile, Guy has confronted his ex-wife who is a real “winner”. She says she wants a divorce but then she says maybe she doesn’t, now that Guy wants to marry the senator’s daughter. It’s in all the papers that they are going to get married and Miriam, the estranged wife, doesn’t like that at all. She threatens Guy by telling everyone that he wants to divorce her even though she’s pregnant. She’s pregnant, by the way, with another man’s baby.

Or…is she?

This is all called into question later when she’s running around with two guys at a carnival. That’s where Bruno catches up to her and proves to the viewers that he really is a psychopath who thinks if he kills Guy’s wife then Guy will kill his father.

As in all of Hitchcock’s movies, the angles and cinematography are insanely captivating.

It isn’t a spoiler to say Bruno takes Miriam out and when he does so we watch the killing through the reflection of Miriam’s glasses, which she knocked off in the struggle.

After the deed is done, Bruno can’t wait to tell Guy.

Guy is horrified, not thrilled, and tells Bruno he’ll call the police.

Bruno, however,  says, “You can’t call the police. We were both in on it, remember? You’re the one who benefits, Guy. You’re a free man now. I didn’t even know the girl.”

Yikes. Now Guy is trapped and the way the bars of the fence he is standing outside of fall across his face they look like prison bars.

If you want to know if he gets out of trouble, you will have to watch the rest of the movie, which involves a heart-pounding climax where Guy tries to make sure Bruno can’t pin the murder on him by planting Guy’s lighter at the scene.

Almost every scene with Bruno freaks me out but when he starts showing up everywhere Guy is, asking people weird questions like if they’ve ever thought about how to murder people, I really got freaked out.

Especially the scene where he asks a woman at a fancy party at the senator’s house how she would kill her husband. Then he starts to talk about how to strangle a person and offers to show her and – again. Creepy.

He says to her, as he puts his hands around her neck, “You don’t mind if I borrow your neck, do you?”

Shudder.

You’ll have to watch the movie but it’s pretty messed up.

It’s also very messed up to me that Bruno seems to get a thrill from talking about and committing murder. Like a sexual thrill. Yuck. He also seems to have a crush on Guy and when he tells Guy, “I like you,” Guy punches him so I am pretty sure Guy has the same impression.

 You can find plenty of critiques of this movie online, including one by Adrian Martin on filmcritic.com.au that states: “The film is ingeniously structured like an obsessive, inescapable nightmare – with uncanny repetitions of events, ghostly echoes of small details, and an ambiguous, implicitly homoerotic emotional transference between the central characters.”

See? I wasn’t the only one that got the vibe that Bruno was “after” Guy.

My husband read that the man who played Bruno (Robert Walker) actually died shortly after production. He accidentally died after he had a psychological breakdown and his housekeeper called a doctor. The doctor gave him amobarbital but Walker had drank alcohol earlier and the two interacted and he died at the age of 32. Ahem. He does not look 32. I thought for sure the dude was in his 50s. Either way, his death was very sad, especially because there is some mystery surrounding it. A friend claims he was there at the time and Walker was acting normally but that the doctor showed up and said he needed an injection and the friend actually held the man down when Walker refused. Walker died not long after. The friend is not mentioned as having been there in the official inquiry, however. Very strange.

A little aside here about Hitchcock: in case you don’t know, he was a sexist. He didn’t like certain women and really liked other women. So if he didn’t like a woman he harassed them nonstop on set. If he really liked them he stalked them. Not a great guy in real life even if he was a brilliant movie maker.

His issues with women showed up in this movie as well as shown in this paragraph on Wikipedia, which is also backed up by other articles about the making of the movie: “Warner Bros. wanted their own stars, already under contract, cast wherever possible. In the casting of Anne Morton (the senator’s daughter), Jack L. Warner got what he wanted when he assigned Ruth Roman to the project, over Hitchcock’s objections. The director found her “bristling” and “lacking in sex appeal” and said that she had been “foisted upon him.” Perhaps it was the circumstances of her forced casting, but Roman became the target of Hitchcock’s scorn throughout the production. Granger described Hitchcock’s attitude toward Roman as “disinterest” in the actress, and said he saw Hitchcock treat Edith Evanson the same way on the set of Rope (1948). “He had to have one person in each film he could harass,” Granger said.”

Ruth Roman as Anne Morton

Hitchcock also didn’t get along with author Raymond Chandler who he hired to write the screenplay for the movie. Chandler didn’t like Hitchcock’s changes to the original novel, for one, and he also hated working with Hitchcock who liked to ramble and analyze what they should do in the movie instead of just getting to the point and letting Chandler write the screenplay. Chandler apparently became so annoyed at Hitchcock that at one point, while watching Hitchcock get out of his car, Chandler said loudly, where Hitchcock could hear him, “Look at that fat b****** trying to get out of that car.” He quit not long after and the screenplay was written by Czenzi Ormond, a beautiful woman, which Hitchcock liked. There is a bunch of information online about his relationship with her as well, but you can look that up if you are curious. Ormond finished the screenplay with associate producer Barbara Keon and Hitchcock’s wife Alma Reville.

The production section of the Wikipedia article is very interesting, but I only have so much space for a blog post so I’ll leave the link here if you want to check it out: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Strangers_on_a_Train_(film)

If you want to read Erin’s impression of the movie you can see it here: https://crackercrumblife.com/2023/10/19/comfy-cozy-cinema-strangers-on-a-train/

If you want to follow along with us for our next movies, here is the list:

Rebecca (Oct. 26)

Little Women (November 2)

Tea with The Dames (November 9)

A break for Thanksgiving

And

Sense and Sensibility (November 30th)

You can also link up today below if you watched Strangers on a Train as well.

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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Sunday Bookends: Fighting for joy, not reading a lot, making plans for comfy and cozy watching and reading this week

It’s time for our Sunday morning chat. On Sundays, I ramble about what’s been going on, what the rest of the family and I have been reading and watching, and what I’ve been writing. Some weeks I share what I am listening to.

This week I’m joining up with  Kimba at Caffeinated Reviewer  and Kathyrn at  The Book Date.

What’s Been Occurring

I’m writing this post this week with a heavy heart. I’m overwhelmed mentally and emotionally with world events and personal situations. I almost didn’t write a post this week but I also know that trying to keep a routine and do something other than sit and cry about things is good for me so here I am.

I rambled about what has been going on in my world in my post yesterday if you would like to check it out.

Today we are huddled at home with cold wind and weather swirling around outside. I have taken almost no fall photos this year so I am hoping that there will be some sun tomorrow and I can take a few, even if it is only of the leaves on the ground.

Unrelated to my week or what has been occurring, but did you know I host a Clean/Christian Fiction Book Club on Facebook? If you’re interested, you can find it HERE. Soon we will be offering giveaways and author parties and chances for readers to meet new authors. I hope you will join us to discuss any clean or Christian books you are reading right now.

What I/we’ve been Reading

I didn’t read much at all this week.

I am reading Death Bee Comes Her by Nancy Coco and Walls Crumbling: A Seth Browne Novel by Alicia Gilliam.

Both are very good but I think I am enjoying Walls Crumbling a bit more. Alicia is such a good writer.

You can find her books HERE: https://www.amazon.com/stores/Alicia-Gilliam/author/B09PZ6SGTW?ref=ap_rdr&store_ref=ap_rdr&isDramIntegrated=true&shoppingPortalEnabled=true

I am also listening to Death at the Seaside by T.E. Kinsey and I feel like I will never finish it because I keep getting interrupted. I am determined to finish it this week!

Little Miss and I will finish Gone Away Lake this week.

The Boy and I will probably finish Red Badge of Courage this week.

The Husband is reading The Dark Wind by Tony Hillerman.

What We watched/are Watching

I watched way too much news this past week and I will be changing that this upcoming week. I plan to watch Strangers on a Train for Erin’s and my Comfy, Cozy Cinema (see our last comfy, cozy post about that feature and how you can get involved). 

We watched The Lady Vanishes last week and it was very good. It was an early Hitchcock film but more joyful than some of his films.

I watched Forgotten Way Farms on YouTube and that was so relaxing and nice. I also watched several Newhart episodes. Having my 9-year-old daughter ask to watch Newhart never gets old either.

This upcoming week I also hope to watch as much calming, fall stuff as I can, along with reading more. I need to decompress, even as I think of all those in the world who don’t have that option.

What I’m Writing

Gladwynn Grant Takes Center Stage is almost done but took a bit of a back burner this week, partially because I filled my mind with too much news and partially because I didn’t know how to end it. I think I’ve found my ending but it’s not what I wanted. Sadly, it is apparently what was meant to be and a character I didn’t want to be guilty is. Sometimes characters tell me their stories and I don’t like them.

I forgot to share a couple chapters from the book for Fiction Friday but will share a couple more this Friday.

I have joined a couple of other bloggers to co-host a blog link-up on Thursday nights/Fridays called Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot. Bloggers can link their favorite blog posts on any topic from the week. You can learn more in this post: https://lisahoweler.com/2023/10/12/weekend-traffic-jam-reboot-add-your-links/

On the blog this week I shared:

Saturday Afternoon Chat: A week of heartache in the world but trying to hold on to some happiness.Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot! Add your links!Comfy, Cozy Cinema: The Lady VanishesWe are all in this thing called life together.

What I’m Listening To

This week I listened to a lot of Matthew West and Brandon Lake.

Little Miss actually asked for Matthew West. His music is such a comfort to us when we are feeling down.

Blog Posts I Enjoyed This Past Week

I am behind on reading blog posts but I’d love it if readers would leave their own favorites this week in the comments for me to look at.

Now it’s your turn

Now it’s your turn. What have you been doing, watching, reading, listening to or writing? Let me know in the comments or leave a blog post link if you also write a weekly update like this.

Mention the group on Facebook and the blog share link thing..Weekend Traffic Jam

Saturday Afternoon Chat: A week of heartache in the world but trying to hold on to some happiness.

This week has been a heavy week and while I have so much I want to say today on the terrorism that struck Israel a week ago today, I also like to keep my blog as a safe place where people can escape for a bit. So today I will do my best not to bring the mood down, so to speak. I have expressed my concerns and my anger and my heartbreak on my social media sites (Instagram and Facebook) so you can read there if you would like to know my feelings.

For now, though, I’m going to ask what tea or coffee you are drinking this week. Or if it isn’t coffee or tea, what’s the warm or cold drink you’re reaching for as you read, write, or just hang out with others?

Earlier in the week I was drinking my old reliable of peppermint tea but today I am sipping hot cocoa with cocoa powder in lactose-free milk and maple syrup as the sweetener.

The warmth of my drink is needed right now as our temperatures have dropped significantly in the last week. Not winter temperatures just yet, but we are getting there.

A blogger friend commented on one of my posts that they are looking forward to my fall photos this year. I winced a bit when I read that because I have not taken many fall photos this year and our leaves are almost gone. I’m going to try to make up for not taking many and get some close-ups of the leaves we will have on the trees this week.

For now, I have a few of the leaves Little Miss and I have been picking up as we walk to our car or around the house. I’ve also added in a photo of the bacon pancakes I tried to make for the kids, as well as a view from my parents and the tree in our backyard.

This past week was somewhat routine. I was glued to the news and crying a lot but we also made time for homeschooling (though not all I wanted to do) and visiting with a former pastor and his wife who visited my parents yesterday.

My parents had offered this pastor, his wife, and their three daughters a place to stay more than 20 years ago when the pastor was sort of pushed out of the church that we were attending. It was an awkward time and sometimes I am surprised that I continued to go to that church for many years after that mess.

He was criticized for not bringing in enough new members/money and stepped down. Unsure of their next steps he and his wife were offered to stay in the house I grew up in by my parents. They spent three years there and yesterday they were able to thank my parents for the shelter they gave them from the storm.

They were also able to update them on their lives and the lives of their daughters and now grandchildren. They live three hours away and the woman had a hip replacement this summer so it was extremely nice of them to make the trip all the way up to see my parents.

This is the second former pastor of the church to make a special effort to see my parents in a month. No one from the current church family has contacted them to check on them or to see why they stopped attending the church and that’s been very disappointing, but sadly predictable in this day and age.

I didn’t mean the above statement to be as negative as it sounded – it’s just the way it is right now and it’s sad, but visiting with those former pastors and their wives really uplifted my parents’ spirits and I am grateful to them for making my parents feel special.

This weekend we are taking it easy other than attending a fundraising event for a local charity organization. That will be later this evening and the introvert in me is screaming at me to stay home, but the wife in me says I should actually attend an event with my husband for once since he has to go to so many for work and I rarely join him. I’m not a social person,, but he’s also working at these events so I don’t like to distract him. Tonight should be fun but after that, I am hiding away for the rest of the weekend and into next week.

I do have one homeschool event to possibly attend Monday but the next week is fairly clear for any major events, thankfully. I am really looking forward to being home and taking our time for schoolwork and making soup and whatever else we can do when it is too cold or snowy to go anywhere. Hopefully, I will also take some time to capture some photos before all the leaves fall off the trees.

How was your week last week and what are you looking forward to next week? Let me know in the comments.

Also, don’t forget to share one of your favorite blog posts from the week on the Weekend Traffic Jam blog link which you can find here:

Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot! Add your links!

It is my second week co-hosting the Weekend Traffic Jam Reboot with Marsha in the Middle and Melynda from Scratch Made Food For Hungry People.

I hope all my blogger friends will add your link to a favorite post from your blog this past week or even from previous weeks (there’s really no time limit). It helps to share your work more and connect with more bloggers, which is why I enjoy it.

I felt a bit numb this week from the news in the world so it was a nice break to wander from blog to blog and read about fashion and tours of photogenic villages and food and anything else not related to heartbreaking topics.

Here are my favorite posts from the week:

My Slices of Life: Our Trip to the Zoo

The Copper Table: Pumpkin Scones With Maple Thyme Butter

Shelbee on the Edge: What In The World Is This Wonderfully Weird Weather?

And the post with the most clicks last week was:

Thrifting Wonderland:  A Little Art Deco In Your Fall

If you have a post you would like to share, do so at the link below:

You are invited to the Inlinkz link party!

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