Page 97 of Hometown Girl

“Daisy. Sit.” Molly had done her best to sound commanding, but the puppy continued to circle around them.

“Need some help?” Drew handed Beth Roxie’s leash and commanded his dog to stay, then took Daisy’s leash and gave it a tug. With his free hand, he pushed Daisy’s hind end down to the ground. “Sit.” She sat for a split second, and he pushed her backside down again. “Sit.”

The dog finally obeyed, but they knew it wouldn’t last long.

“You gotta help me with this dog, Drew,” Molly said, trying to catch her breath.

Drew met Beth’s eyes, and she mouthed the wordstwenty bucks. He rubbed Daisy’s head. “She’s a good girl,” he said. “She’s just a puppy.”

Roxie whined.

“I’ve been handing out barn-sale postcards since I got here,” Molly said, thrusting a stack of them at Beth. “You can do the rest.” She pulled her hair into a ponytail and wrapped an elastic around it.

“I designed them. You were supposed to hand them out.” She handed them back.

Molly frowned. “Do you know how hard it is to talk to people with this dog?”

“Maybe you should’ve left her at home.”

Daisy sniffed Roxie, who looked irate but didn’t move.

“That’s the other thing,” Molly said.

Beth glared at her. “What’sthe other thing?”

“My landlord said no dogs. She’s going to have to live with you and Mom.”

Beth said nothing.

Drew looked at her, then at Molly and back to Beth. “She can come live at the farm.”

“Yes!” Molly practically shouted.

“No!” Beth crossed her arms over her chest. “This is exactly what I was talking about, Molly.”

“Not now, Beth. I have good news.” She took a step closer. “I talked to Bishop about that case.”

Molly’s train of thought looked a lot like the inside of a pinball machine.

“He’s pulling the file and bringing it over tonight. We’re going to look through the entire thing.”

Beth shook her head. “He could get in trouble for that, couldn’t he? Showing you a case file?”

Molly ignored her. “I went to the courthouse yesterday and had them print out everything that’s public record, but maybe Bishop’s file can fill in the holes.”

Drew gave Daisy’s leash a firm tug and stood. “What are you talking about?”

“Oh, gosh. You probably don’t even know!” Molly said. “Twenty years ago, there was a kidnapping on our property. The owners’ only daughter.” She pushed a postcard into the hands of a passerby.

For a moment, Drew lost his breath, as if all the oxygen had been sucked out of his lungs by a high-powered vacuum cleaner.

Beth drew in a deep breath. “Can you keep your voice down, Molly?”

“It’s not a secret.” Molly looked around, like she was only just that second aware they were in public. More postcards into more hands.

They were digging around on the case? Why? And why was this the first time he’d heard anyone mention it?

A bohemian-looking woman in a long purple skirt stopped beside them and looked at the glossy card. “You’re the Whitaker girls.”

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