I was lost in thought, driving home, when Mason called. “Sorry, Rose. I was in court this afternoon. What did you have to tell me?”

“My neighbor heard arguing coming from Miss Dorothy’s house this morning.”

“Did your neighbor happen to hear what the arguing was about?”

“No, he couldn’t make it out.”

“Would he be willing to go down to the police station and give a report?”

I paused. “Uh…that might be a little difficult since he’s only four.”

“Only four what?”

“Four years old.”

Mason was silent.

“Well?” I finally asked.

Mason paused a few more seconds. “Rose, a four-year-old child is hardly a reliable witness.”

“Come on, Mason. You have to admit that two elderly woman dying within two weeks of each other is a little odd.”

“Both deaths were from natural causes.” He paused. “Or as natural as a heat wave can be.”

“But why now? This entire summer has been bakin’ hot. Why are people dying now?”

“I don’t know.” He sounded exasperated. “Maybe they don’t expect it to be this hot since it’s late September. Both women had their air conditioning off.”

“But were their windows shut?”

“Well, yeah…”

“If they turned off their air conditioning, why wouldn’t they have their windows open? They may have been old, but I know they weren’t senile. Are you really not going to follow up on this lead?”

“You canvassing the neighborhood and finding a toddler who might have heard something is not a lead.”

My irritation took root. “You make it sound like I was interrogating the neighbors. I didn’t ask anyone anything. Keith just told me.”

“Keith? The four-year-old?”

“Four-year-olds have ears, Mason.”

“But they’re not very reliable witnesses in court, Rose.”

“Court? Who said anything about court?”

“That’s what it would come to. He’d be called as a witness. I can tell you right now, I wouldn’t call a four-year-old to the stand unless he had something I couldn’t live without. And it’s sure not overhearing an argument he can’t remember. How do you know it wasn’t someone’s TV? How do you know it was even her house?”

Defensiveness shot through me. “Don’t be jumpin’ down my throat. I was just calling to tell you what I heard. Excuse me for trying to do my civic duty.”

He sighed. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I had a rough afternoon in court, and I’m taking it out on you. You did the right thing by calling me.”

“Thank you.” I tried not to sound miffed.

“I’ll have Detective Taylor ask some of the other neighbors if they heard anything, but I don’t think anything is going to come from it. There was no forced entry. No sign of violence. She was lying on the floor as though she’d collapsed with a heart attack.” His voiced warmed. “Your neighborhood is safe.”

After the last several months, I wasn’t sure I’d ever consider my neighborhood safe. “Thanks for believing me.”

He sighed. “It’s not a matter of believing you, Rose. It’s a matter of whether the four-year-old actually heard something. But like I said, I’ll have Taylor do some checking.”

“He won’t like it. Especially when he hears it was me who told you.”

Mason’s words were clipped. “He’ll do his job, and he won’t know it came from you.”

“Thanks.”

“Anytime. But just in case…be sure to lock your doors, okay?”

“Yeah.” He didn’t have to tell me to lock my doors. I made sure to do it every night. Not that it had done me much good. I was pretty sure my back window had a flashing neon Welcome murderers and thieves sign over it.

Chapter Six

After I made a sandwich, I sat on the front porch watching Muffy do her business in the yard. I snuck a glance down at Miss Dorothy’s house, wondering why someone would want to kill her. Or Miss Laura for that matter. Mason said that in both cases there’d been no forced entry and nothing had been stolen. How could someone make the old ladies’ deaths look so natural that they didn’t arouse the suspicions of the Henryetta Police? Not that much made the police suspicious of anything. Unless the suspect was me.

I had to admit that even though it looked suspicious to me, it just didn’t add up to murder.

Muffy kept looking longingly down the street, and a wave of guilt made my stomach knot. I’d neglected my little dog too much over the last few weeks while Violet and I were making the final push to have everything ready for the opening. The boys next door had “dog sat” her over the weekends, but I knew for a fact they hadn’t taken her on walks. The only thing I had to do tonight was laundry. Maybe a walk would help me sort out my unsettled feelings.

When I approached Muffy with her leash, she got so excited I had trouble getting the hook attached to her collar. Once she was connected, she took off running, and I nearly tripped trying to keep up. She sniffed and peed over half the surfaces we passed, practically shaking with excitement. My plan had been to take her a square block, but she still had a ton of energy when it was time to turn back. The truth was that I wasn’t ready to go back to my empty house yet, so we just kept going. I spent the next forty-five minutes thinking about my encounter with Jonah Pruitt. I hadn’t been to church since Momma’s funeral, which hadn’t even been a service. I’d turned my back on church, but Jonah Pruitt’s church sounded like everything I’d ever dreamed of in a church. A place where everyone was wanted and accepted. Shoot, I’d spent my entire life looking for that. Violet, Aunt Bessie, and Uncle Earl were the only ones who’d ever truly accepted me until Joe had come into my life.