Page 73 of Take a Hike
“Thanks, Ki.” She grinned at him from her awkward position. “That would’ve hurtandbeen especially embarrassing. You know that Fifi would’ve gotten a picture.”
He just grunted, and she knew she had it bad, because the surly sound sent a rush of love through her.
“I love you.”
He placed her on her feet and snorted an almost laugh. “Love you too. Let’s find your mom.”
“Charlie!”
That sounded like Lou. Charlie scanned the churning crowds of animals and onlookers before she spotted the waving woman, on her knees in a cluster of goats. “There she is!” Charlie waved back as she waded through the surging goats. Kieran followed, his hand still holding a fistful of the back of her shirt, as if to be ready in case the goats took her down again.
“Charlie!” Lou shouted excitedly when Charlie and Kieran drew close. “Look who we’re sitting on!”
Charlie took a few steps closer, and the goats parted like a wiggly, fuzzy curtain, revealing Lou, Rory, Daisy, and Ellie—the entire Simpson Murder Club—all helping to keep a furious Jane pinned to the ground. Charlie grinned. “You guys give thebestgifts.”
Fifi and Bennett, having finally made it through the goats to Charlie’s side, suddenly halted. “Is that Mom?”
“Kind of hard to tell under all the goat poo, isn’t it?” Charlie laughed when Jane let out a frustrated roar at that. “Come on, Fifi. Our skip has a court date to make.”
“I’m not the one you should be chasing,” Jane insisted as they each grabbed one of her arms and hauled her to her feet. Fifi quickly pulled Jane’s hands behind her back and cuffed her. “I don’t have the necklace. Rhys or Bones must’ve lifted it offme. You can still catch them. They got out of the car at the same time I did, so they’ll be on foot.”
“Nah,” Charlie said, her grip not loosening on Jane’s arm. “They can keep it.”
“Whaaat?” Jane’s shriek held complete outrage. “That’smynecklace! You can’t just let them take it!”
“It’s okay.” Charlie made her voice as annoyingly soothing as possible, delighting when her mom gave an irritated huff in response. “After court, we can go to Target, and I’ll pick up another necklace just like the one the fortune hunters have. We can even attach the nifty GPS tracker, if you like?”
“The…” Charlie saw the second realization hit Jane, and she took advantage of her mom’s stunned silence to give Lou and her friends a wide grin.
“We owe you one, Murder Ladies. Thanks for all your help.”
“Thankyoufor bringing some excitement to Simpson,” Lou responded. “It’s been so sleepy and boring lately. What’s the point of having a murder club when there aren’t any murders?”
The chirp of a siren interrupted the other women’s chorus of goodbyes. Chris, Daisy’s deputy husband, gave up trying to maneuver his squad car any closer and got out to wade through the goats.
“Everyone okay at the school?” Daisy called to him.
He nodded, looking annoyed. “False alarm.” His sharp gaze landed on Jane. “Know anything about the bomb threat that was called in? Maybe to keep law enforcement out of the way while you were driving through town?”
Her mom’s face was blank with innocent confusion—tooblank. Charlie knew that look. “Just let us get this court visit over, and then we’ll bring her back to you for an interrogation,” she promised Chris.
He gave a grim nod before looking around at the chaos. “All this to replace me?” he asked, looking a little proud of the fact.
“We’d better go if we’re going to make it on time,” Fifi said, and Charlie nodded. Flanked by Bennett and Kieran, they hauled their mom through the goat sea to Fifi’s car and wedged Jane between them in the back seat. Bennett headed for the driver’s seat, and although Kieran looked for a moment like he’d challenge the other man to a quick rock-paper-scissors game to determine the driver, he instead headed for the front passenger seat without saying a word.
With a final enthusiastic wave to the murder club ladies and all the early-rising residents of Simpson, Charlie turned back around and caught her sister’s gaze across their still-quiet mother.
“We did it, Fifi.”
“Of course. Never doubt our awesomeness, Charlie.”
Seventeen
“…should never treat their mother the terrible way you’ve all treated me, especially you, Felicity. Puttinghandcuffson your poor mother’s wrists—and too tightly! You know I bruise easily. And you, Charlotte…” Jane shook her head sadly. “You used to be such asweetgirl. I don’t know where I went wrong with all of you, to raise such vicious and ungrateful daughters.”
“Mm-hmm,” Charlie said absently, craning to look over Kieran’s shoulder at the traffic in front of them—the veryslowtraffic. Jane had been going on in the same vipers-in-her-bosom way forhours, and her monologue had turned into white noise in Charlie’s brain by the time they’d gotten ten minutes out of Simpson. “Is traffic stopped up there?”
Jane abruptly broke off, a tiny smile touching her lips. “Oh dear,” she said with patently false concern. “We only have fifteen minutes. There’s no way we’ll make it in time.”
