Page 38 of Moonshine Kiss
I felt the corner of my mouth lift.Who would have guessed that Scarlett would fall for a law nerd?
“I ran all of this by Jayme and she approved it. Especially the part where none of you get arrested for beating the hell out of a blogger or photographer,” Devlin added.
He ran through the points one by one, and we agreed to a general strategy. Basically, don’t give them anything to report.
“Remember, this only works if we don’t give them a weak link,” Leah Mae said pointedly.
I shot a look at Gibson.
“Why’s everyone starin’ at me and Gibs?” Scarlett demanded.
“Because you two are the most reactive,” I told her.
“I can control my temper,” Scarlett scoffed.
Gibson grunted again.
The rest of us cracked up. “Neither of you have any more control than a three-year-old comin’ down from a sugar high,” Jameson pointed out.
“Fuck off,” Gibson shot back.
“Point proven.”
“There’s something else I’d like to bring up if you two can put your bitchin’ aside for a minute,” I told them.
They all looked at me expectantly.
“I feel like this Detective Connelly is convinced Dad did this. I don’t know if we can trust him to do a thorough examination of the facts, especially if those facts don’t line up with his theory.”
“So what are you saying?” Gibson asked, crossing his arms. “You want us to start our own investigation?”
“Not anything officially. But we knew him, we knew Callie, and we know damn near every person in this town. Maybe there’s something the police missed. Maybe there’s something they overlooked. Maybe one of us holds the key to why that sweater came into his possession.”
“I agree,” Scarlett piped up. “I think doing some digging on our own is better than sittin’ on our asses, twiddlin’ our thumbs and trying not to smash a camera in a dumbass’s face.”
“Agreed,” Jonah said. He was quiet during family gatherings. Maybe he was still finding his place with us. Or maybe it was the fact that Gibson still treated him like an outsider.
“Where should we start?” Jameson asked.
“Let’s start with the week Callie disappeared. Try to figure out exactly what each of us were doing that week and maybe one of us will remember something important.”
“This is bullshit,” Gibson said, getting to his feet. “He did it. And you want us to speed up the process to prove it?”
“How can you be so sure?” Scarlett asked, jumping to her feet.
He glared down at her. “Because Jonah Bodine ruined everything he touched in this lifetime. The whole town knows it. Y’all might as well get on board.” Without another word, he snatched his coat off the back of the chair and stormed out.
The room fell silent for a minute. We heard Gibs’s truck rev and pull away with the churn of gravel.
“He does that on purpose so I have to rake the damn rocks out of the damn yard,” Scarlett complained.
Ignoring my brother’s typical abrupt, angry departure, I let his words echo in my head.The whole town knows it.“Speaking of the whole town,” I began.
“No,” Jameson said adamantly.
“Yes!” Scarlett insisted. “This is more than just our problem. It’s affecting the whole dang town.”
“It has to be done,” I said.
