Murder of a Small-Town Honey

'Probably tonight.' Skye stretched and yawned. 'I guess I'll get dressed.'

'What do you mean, probably?' May seemed to see that blue ribbon disappearing in the breeze.

'We've got a date, but I'm not sure if I'll feel up to it.'

'It would make you feel better to have some nice com­pany, I'll bet.'

'I should go see Vince again,' Skye said, teasing her mother.

'Abby is going tonight, and Dad and I are going after lunch.'

'Well, if I can get some rest this afternoon I'll probably feel more like seeing Simon.'

May got the hint. 'I'll clean up here and let myself out. Why don't you go back to bed?'

'That's a good idea, Mom. Thanks for taking care of me.'

As soon as May left, Skye hopped out of bed and grabbed the envelope she'd found the night before. She carefully bent the metal clips into an upright position and eased her fingernail file under the flap.

It opened with minimal tearing. She emptied the con­tents on the bed. Two small reels of home movie film and a dozen negatives landed on the blanket. Skye picked up one of the negatives. Each had four or five pictures in a hori­zontal strip.

She switched on her bedside lamp and held the negative up to the light. After turning it several times and trying to look at it from the opposite side, she still couldn't tell who the people were, but she could see that they were definitely in the throes of some sort of passion. She examined all the negatives carefully and was pretty sure the man was the

same in all the pictures. His partner appeared to be different in each one, although whenever a third person was involved she seemed to be the same person.

The reels of movie film proved even more difficult to decipher. Skye thought the film might be eight-millimeter or super eight, whatever the stuff was they used before VCRs became common.

When the phone rang, she was trying to figure out who would know about that sort of thing.

Simon's voice washed over her when she picked up the receiver. 'Hi, are you okay? I just heard about your adven­ture last night.'

'My head still hurts and I'm a little sore, but otherwise I'm fine.'

'When I tried calling you at school, they said you were out sick.'

Skye pushed the mess on her bed aside and curled up with her back against the pillows. 'After last night I wasn't up to crazy kids and demented parents.'

'Why did you go investigating without me? I thought we were a team.' Simon's tone was only half kidding.

'I went to visit Vince in jail last night. After I talked to him I had a hunch.'

'So, did you find anything?'

Skye took the nail file she'd discarded earlier and ran it across her thumb. 'Yes. I wonder if I interrupted someone else searching the station or what?'

'What did you find?'

'I think it would be better if you saw it rather than if I tried to explain it.' Skye put everything back into its enve­lope.

'Okay. How about if I come over now?'

'Ah, why don't you give me an hour to ... ah ... do a few chores?' Skye stalled, realizing her hair was a mess and she didn't have any makeup on.

'All right, but make sure your doors and windows are

locked. That person who conked you on the head and set the fire didn't just happen to be there. He must have been following you.'

Skye rushed around straightening up the cottage, doing her hair and face, and finding something suitable to wear. It was a tough choice, considering what an odd second date this was.

She settled on black leggings and a white oversized tunic top and was waiting at the door when Simon arrived.

He handed her a box of Godiva chocolates.

Skye led him to the sofa. 'Thanks for the truffles. They're my favorite.'

'Have one.'

'A little later. I haven't eaten anything but toast since lunch yesterday. I'm afraid Godivas are too rich for me right now.'

'Why don't I go pick something up?' Simon started to rise.

'That would be great, but I want you to see what I've found first.' Skye handed him the envelope and explained how it had come to be in her possession.

He looked through the contents. 'So you had this the whole time you were hit on the head, crawled out of a burn­ing building, and were found searching the police chief's drawers?'

'Yes, what do you think of it?'

'I agree with you. It's the same man all the way through but with different women. Although when there are three people, the second woman seems to be the same in all the pictures. Too bad we don't have any way of running this film.'

'Yeah, I guess I'll have to turn it in to the police after all. I can't quite see anyone around here printing it for us.' She narrowed her eyes in concentration.

Simon thought for a minute. 'Mike Young is the only person I know who has a darkroom.'

'That's not a good idea. Mike is one of our top sus­pects.'

'True. How about the rest of them?'

'Okay, I'm pretty sure Darleen and Chief Boyd are in the clear. Her problem is with Mike, not Honey, plus she has an alibi. And since I only suspected him because of her. ..' Skye trailed off, having gotten lost in her own logic.

'That makes sense, although like you said earlier, I have to wonder what she was paying Honey to keep quiet about.'

'Charlie has an alibi. I checked with Fayanne and she backs him up. I'll have to call him to find out what time the school board meeting ended last night. If it was after I was attacked, that would put Lloyd out of the running too.'

'I drove by there at ten, and the lot was still full of cars,' Simon said.

'Well, since we know it's not Vince,' Skye looked hard at Simon and he nodded, 'who is left?'

'Only Abby and Mike, if we're still using your original list.'

'Abby is very strong and jealousy can be a powerful emotion. Or she could be the woman in these pictures, and Honey decided to start blackmailing her now that she was dating Vince again.

'On the other hand, Mike could be the man in these neg­atives. We know he was being blackmailed.'

'Could it be Darleen in the photos?' Simon took one out of the envelope and examined it again.

'I didn't know her in high school, but unless she's changed a lot, the body type is all wrong.'

They thought in silence, until Skye's stomach growled audibly.

Simon got up. 'This is silly. You're hungry. Let me get us something to eat, and then I'm sure we'll both think more clearly. What do you feel like?'

'Would you mind driving over to Clay Center? I'd love some chicken from their restaurant.'

'No problem. Clay Center's only ten miles away. The restaurant you mean is the Shaft, right?'

Skye nodded.

'It shouldn't take me more than forty-five minutes. Meanwhile, don't let anyone in. I talked to Wally this morning. He said that if you hadn't been hit with a cheap aluminum flashlight that broke open after the first whack, you could have been in real trouble.'

'I'll lock the door as soon as you leave.'

CHAPTER 25

Bridge Over Troubled Water

Skye decided to take another look at the police report on Mike Young. She grabbed an apple from the fridge and curled up on the sofa with the pages. The police had set up surveillance at the local drive-in and caught him selling marijuana, LSD, and heroin to a high school crowd. He never did admit who his supplier was.

His original sentence was three years, but he Jiad been a model prisoner who attended church and took