Page 10 of Be A Detective, They Said. It’ll Be Fun, They Said

“She’s in my Facebook group,” he said robotically, quite suddenly gripping the sides of his metal folding chair.

“Did you see her the night you went hunting for Bigfoot in the woods?”

Earl blinked. “Nuh-uh.”

Dang it all.

But Nina didn’t give up quite yet. “Was she supposed to come to your meeting? Her comment on your post said she was gonna be there. I need to know everything you know about Neerie Lincoln. Spit it all out.”

“I don’t know a lot about her. She just joined the group a couple of months ago. She was supposed to meet us there, but I didn’t see her. I think Benson did though.”

Nina lifted Earl’s chin higher, straddling his chair so she loomed over him. “Benson’s the guy who shot that cheating fucker in the woods, right?”

Earl’s nod was slow. “Yeah…”

Nina gripped his shoulder harder. “Did anybody else see her?”

He shrugged his sloping shoulders. “I don’t think so. But I got a text from her. I just didn’t see it until after all that stuff went down in the woods.”

“Do you remember what it said? Do you have your phone on you?”

I’d been so engrossed watching Nina, I didn’t see Marty disappear. She held up a donut under my nose, the smell irresistible.

“Donut? It’s glazed. Your favorite,” she said, taking a big bite of her chocolate one, chomping happily.

“Don’t mind if I do,” I whispered. “So Neerie was at the meeting in the woods.”

“If you listen to Benson. But he did shoot someone he thought was Bigfoot. Can we consider him a reliable witness?”

As I chewed on my donut, I watched Earl take his phone from the pocket of his overalls and scroll his messages until he held it up to show Nina.

As she read it, she grunted. “What did she mean by, ‘I have to go to the basement?’”

His face went confused, as though he hadn’t given it much thought. “I don’t know.”

Nina took a picture of the text and handed the phone back. “Did Neerie tell you anything personal about herself? Did she have a boyfriend or anyone who was pissed at her?”

Earl’s eyes glazed over. “I’m tellin’ ya, I didn’t know her real well. She was new to the group. She didn’t say much about anything but Bigfoot.”

I licked my fingers clean and wiped them with a napkin Marty provided. “I think we’ve hit a dead end. Unless someone else in the group has something to share.”

“Give it a minute, Wanda. Maybe someone else knows something.”

But as Nina moved from one person to the next, they all claimed they hadn’t seen Neerie that night, and she never said anything about any trouble she might be having outside the group.

“Now, you all sit here until we’re gone and you won’t remember a damn thing. When you see us leave the room, you can carry on with whatever you nuts were doing.”

“Nina!” we both hissed.

She ignored us and let go of Earl’s chin, giving him a pat on his arm. “Thanks for the help, buddy.”

As she made her way across the floor, no one stirred. We gave her a silent cheer and a quick hug before she crossed the threshold, and we made our way back down the rickety hall to the main area, where only one customer still sat at the bar. The television blared a college basketball game, and it appeared both the old man and the bartender were engrossed in the action.

But not so engrossed that the former didn’t say, “Bye, good-lookin’. Be glad I ain’t yer age or I’d give ya a real run for your money.”

Nina smiled at that before she glared at him, fixing her eyes to his. “We were never here, Paw-Paw.”

We hit the exit with a giggle and headed for the SUV, the gravel under my feet crunching as we scurried to get into the car, the cold night air producing snowflakes.

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