It was still early as the pair sat down to French toast and bacon, prepared by Susan, at the small breakfast nook. The informal setting seemed to fit their mood, and soon they were chatting about their childhood and life as a whole.
“So you have always wanted to know why those two horses were left up on the mountain?” David asked as he pushed his breakfast plate away.
“Yes,” Susan smiled. “I was always pestering Gram to tell me the story. I had a hard time believing she and Gary hadn’t walked off with someone’s prized ponies, but no one ever claimed them.”
“As far as I know my family never had any horses like those. An old uncle had a brown pony he used to plow his summer garden, but the rest of us had cars.” The man’s bright grin was contagious and soon Susan was laughing.
“And here I thought all you Watkins were still riding mules to town.”
David grinned, surprising himself. He had come from nothing and felt it for most of his life. His family had worked for every little thing they had. “No, we have been driving since the Model T arrived in them thar hills.” His eyes sparkled as he realized that though Susan had been born to wealth, she was very much like him underneath it all.
Susan spluttered on her coffee at the man’s dry wit. “You could kill a body that way,” she grumbled her blue eyes bright. “Does your family still own the old homestead?” she added suddenly curious about David Watkins and his life outside what she knew.
“Yes, my father actually has the place, and we still put in a garden each year. Pop is retired and is visiting some old friends up in Tennessee right now.” For a moment David’s shoulders sagged. He shook his head dreading the fight with the insurance company this week. “I don’t know what I’m going to do about the truck,” he finally spoke. “I have one more semester of college to complete before I’m done, and I was planning on keeping that old clunker on the road until I had a good job.”
“I hadn’t thought of that,” Susan’s smile turned into a frown. “Are you missing classes with all of this now?”
“No, I have a couple of weeks off until the next round start. I’m doing as many online classes as I can, and I already called my boss at the steak house from the hospital. He understands that I’ll be out until the doctor clears me.”
“You know you’re welcome here as long as you need to stay, right?” Susan reached across the table covering David’s hand with hers. “And don’t worry about the truck too much. I’m sure it will work out.”
David looked up, offering a soft smile. Of course a Holmes would think that everything would turn out right. All you had to do was throw a little money at a problem and poof it was gone.
A subtle silence filled the space between them as Susan withdrew her hand. Somewhere between the moments he walked through her grandmother’s door, and when she carried him a creamy coffee at the hospital, she had started to like David Watkins. The wild Watkins had a reputation for some shady business in the past, but this man was a straight arrow all the way through.
“Should we go?” she asked standing and taking the dishes to the dishwasher. “Maybe you can find something I missed at the impound lot.”
David felt his lips twitch at Susan’s words, apparently she had seen through his suggestion to have a look at the truck. Still, he was grateful to have someone willing to help him, not only get around town, but to solve the mystery that had for so long plagued his family. Perhaps at first he had resented the nosey woman butting in on his case, but now he was thinking that two heads truly could be better than one.
Chapter 7
Many a man proclaims his own steadfast love, but a faithful man who can find?
Proverbs 20:6
The bright blue Jeep trundled from the driveway of the big old house, an easy target to trace as it sped down the dirt drive and onto the main road.
So far the two armature sleuths didn’t seem to have any real inkling of what had happened in the mountains all those years ago, but careful watching was needed to insure they never did.
One insignificant man’s disappearance, long ago was only the tip of the iceberg in this tale and two meddling kids wouldn’t prove an obstacle for someone who had come so far.
Aiming one large hand in the direction of the speeding Jeep, the watcher cocked a thumb, pulling an imaginary trigger. Only time would tell if the young people in the blue Jeep would become a problem that needed to be dealt with. In the mean time, watching them chase their own tails was rather amusing.
“You look terrible,” Susan said an hour later as she and David walked back to the Jeep. The man beside her looked completely dejected as he slouched toward her ride. “I know what will cheer you up,” Susan tried to fill her voice with joy she didn’t feel. “Lunch at my favorite restaurant.”
David flicked his eyes toward the young woman at his side, catching the strained smile on her face. “You don’t need to take me to lunch,” he drawled.
“No, but I do have to feed my face,” Susan’s giggle was real this time as she beeped the Jeep engine to life. “Come on, you might even like it.”
David slipped into the Wrangler pulling his seatbelt into place and sighed. He couldn’t imagine where Susan Holmes would want to go for lunch. There weren’t that many places in town to dine and nothing high end enough to warrant the label favorite.
“I know you’re disappointed about not finding the journal,” Susan spoke as she sped toward Big A street, zipping through every
