When he finished eating, I watched as Rex got up and approached the table with Nigel, Dr. Martin, and Sheriff Carnack. The doctor and sheriff shook his hand amiably, but Nigel cast me a weary look. Was he worried that my husband being here would complicate matters legally? Or had I worn him out already? Or maybe his face was just like that.
"You know," Kelly said after finishing her pancakes. "I like having Rex here."
"Me too," I agreed. "He'll have our back."
"No, that's not why. It'll just be nice to have another grown-up."
I ignored the dig. "I didn't tell you, but Betty brought ninja outfits for the girls."
Ava, Inez, Lauren, and Kaitlyn turned to Betty and began protesting.
"You weren't supposed to tell anyone… Now it's not a secret anymore…"
"Chill." Betty waved them off. "I'm being stranemic."
"I think you mean strategic."
"Whatever," the girl said. "I've got an idea."
The girls grinned, thinking they were up to something. What Betty hadn't counted on was that, with Rex, we had one more adult to keep an eye on things. And thank God, because between killer frogs, ropes course phantoms, the threat of aliens and ghosts, and a murder to solve, Kelly and I needed all the help we could get.
I watched my husband as Nigel excused himself and the sheriff invited him to sit. The two men seemed to be hitting it off. Maybe he could get intel I couldn't. After all, they were colleagues and had a friend/cousin in common.
"I wonder what they're talking about," I muttered.
"You'll find out soon enough." Kelly pushed back from the table. "I have to admit, these are the best pancakes I've ever eaten. But what are we going to do with all the food we bought?"
"How long are we staying?" Inez asked.
It was then that I realized I had no idea. We'd been here a couple of days already, and I wasn't sure how much longer we'd be. Which meant that the girls' parents had no idea either.
While most leaders might be worried about that, I was lucky (or unlucky, depending on how you saw it) to have parents who really didn't seem to care how long their daughters did anything with the troop.
"Two more days?" I asked.
Kelly looked at the girls. "Do any of you have to be home right away?"
"You're kidding, right?" Betty asked.
"What about you?" I asked my best friend and co-leader.
"My in-laws are in town," Kelly sighed.
"Ah. So that's why you wanted to come here."
"They're not that bad," she said. "They're just, well…"
Kelly was not the kind of person to badmouth anyone. Her husband, Robert, and their little girl, Finn, were wonderful. But Robert's parents were a little over-the-top. His mother, Valerie, always talked at a decibel that could be overheard in Ohio and ended every sentence with an overly eager exclamation mark. His father, Andy, was nice enough, but he was also very loud. And they wouldn't let Kelly do anything around the house, from cooking, cleaning, or taking care of the grandbaby.
"I always feel like I'm in the way," she said. "They won't even realize I'm gone."
"We can't stay here forever." I drew circles with my fork in the maple syrup.
"Why not?" Kaitlyn asked. "I like it here."
I pictured living here in that house with five girls, Kelly, and Rex. It seemed like a nightmare. Oh sure, I'd have a great time, but a nightmare nonetheless.
Nancy asked if we needed anything else as the bell over the door jingled.
"Hi, Virgil!" Nancy shouted. "Be with you in a minute."
I turned to see the postmaster/tooth keeper/possible suitor for Aunt June. Virgil nodded, giving me a strange look before loping over to the counter, where he took a seat.
The man looked to be in his sixties, in good physical shape. His brown hair had a tinge of red when the light hit it. With thick, black-framed glasses and a trimmed mustache and beard, he seemed like a promising suitor for Aunt June.
"That's him!" Ava whispered. "The guy with the tooth!"
"I still need to see that," I said quietly.
"Well, we have to go to finish looking for clues in the house," Betty insisted.
Lauren agreed, "We need to have our priorities."
"Yes," I said, not taking my eyes off of Virgil's back, "but I need to interview him. And I want to see the tooth."
Rex joined us, giving me a quick kiss on the forehead before sitting down. Behind us, I could hear Basil gasp.
"That was interesting," Rex said.
"What did he say?" I turned to look at the sheriff, who was staring back at me.
Rex waved to Nancy and pantomimed writing a check.
"I'll tell you later. He's watching."
"What did you think of Nigel?"
Rex took the check from a happy Nancy, who smiled at him a tad too long.
"Typical small-town lawyer."
Rex went and paid the bill then returned to our table and left a tip.
It only took a couple of minutes to drive to the house.
I gave him the outside tour since he'd seen the inside last night.
"I've always thought about getting a cabin in this area of the state," my husband gushed. "Are you sure you want to sell it?"
"This is a lot more than a cabin," I countered.
"I think she should keep it too," Kelly interjected. "She could rent it out."
Rex nodded. "I'd love to come here and do some fishing."
"I didn't know you fished."
"I used to. I haven't had time since marrying you." He winked. "How many bedrooms? I can't recall."
"Three guest rooms and a master. But the whole third floor could be converted to bedrooms too."
"We could come up here with my parents, the twins, and their new husbands," Rex said.
Kelly's in-laws were extra. My in-laws were extraterrestrial. Not his parents. They were nice—owned a Greek restaurant in Des Moines. But his twin sisters, Randi and Ronni, were another story entirely.
The twins were older than Rex and mostly identical in appearance but not in demeanor. While Randi was sweet, warm, and fun, Ronni was the antichrist whose one
