Page 148 of Happily Never After

“Something’s different, Mindy.” Claire turned back to the street.

“Is it?” Mindy closed the chute of the mail collection box she had been peering into.

“You don’t feel it?” Claire swept her gaze over the surrounding area. There was a dry cleaner across the street. A law office to the right. A bank at the end of the block.

Inspiration struck like lightning, sending goosebumps down her arms. There, in a small courtyard behind the bank, was a towering tree.

“Mindy. William Hickory paid the ultimate price.Paid. Like a bank.” Was Barney’s riddle just a stupid pun?

Something inside her propelled her down the street. She crossed the street without looking, earning an angry beep from a Mini Cooper. The courtyard grew closer. Her heart hammered in her chest. Was it a hickory tree?

When she and Mindy approached, they took a small concrete path that curled toward the back entrance of the bank. A flower garden surrounded the tree and a simple iron bench stood at one end. Claire reached up and pulled on a branch. The rounded leaflets looked just like the picture of hickory leaves from the internet. She took a step closer and banged her shin into something hard.

“Damn it.” She clutched at her shinbone. It stung like she had punted a beehive. What had she hit? She crouched down and brushed away the thick green leaves of a clump of daffodils. There was a small, tarnished brass plaque hidden underneath.

“Mindy. Flashlight.”

Mindy’s phone illuminated the small plaque. They crouched together, reading breathlessly.

“The Colonial Bank was rumored to be a station on the Underground Railroad in the mid to late 1840s. John Bledsoe, the owner of the bank, was a secret abolitionist. He would leave one lantern lit at the base of this hickory tree on nights when it was safe for slaves to enter. They called it ‘waiting for Bill Hickory.’ Fugitive slaves were fed and sheltered before moving on.”

Tingles exploded up and down Claire’s spine. The plaque wasn’t one of the official Pennsylvania historical markers. That must be why it wasn’t on the website.

Was this the final resting place of one of Barney’s victims? Had he sat on that bench and reminisced about her murder?

“Does that mean…?” Mindy pointed at the flower garden that surrounded the tree.

Claire ripped her phone out of her purse. Her hands shook as she dialed Jack’s number. She was still mad at him over the whole convention thing, but this trumped her issues.

“Don’t tell me you tracked down the professor again.” Jack sounded annoyed.

“You mean you haven’t caught him yet? I’m so surprised,” Claire sniped.

There was silence on the other end. She took a deep breath and took another step away from the tree. “Listen. Mindy and I solved the riddle.”

“What? You found William Hickory?” The annoyance had vanished from his voice.

“Yes. There’s a tree at the Colonial Bank in West Haven. There’s a plaque—not an official one, I guess because it was only a rumored stop on the Underground Railroad.” Her words were tumbling out too fast. “Anyway, there was something about a lantern and the plaque says former slaves called it ‘waiting for Bill Hickory.’ How quickly can you get a cadaver dog here?”

“Stay right there. I’ll send Detective Smith.”

“You’re not coming?”

“I’m still in Los Angeles. It’ll be hours.” The phone disconnected.

Claire and Mindy stepped to the sidewalk and shivered under a streetlight. The night was too cold for spring. A sliver of moon peered out from behind a wispy cloud. Her eyes were drawn to the flower bed beneath the tree. The hair on the back of her neck stood up. This tree had once stood as a symbol of hope and freedom. Would Barney really be so uncouth as to commandeer a historical landmark and dump a body?

Mindy’s thumbs were firing away on her phone. “Sawyer’s not going to believe this.”

“Won’t he, though? This is kind of our thing. Doing the police’s work for them.” Her tone was light, but it didn’t unravel the ball of anxiety in her stomach. She pulled out her phone. Luke would probably like to know about this turn of events.

Claire:Will be home slightly later than I thought—might have found one of Barney’s victims.

Thirty seconds later, her phone buzzed.

Luke:What?! Where?

She hastily responded that she should probably wait for permission from law enforcement to divulge anything else. Luke sent a swearing face emoji.

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