Read Online A Haunting Dream (A Missing Pieces Mystery) by Joyce Lavene, Jim - Free Book Online Page B

I’d fallen off of the climbing bars trying to impress Robby Maxwell when we were in second grade. I’d accidentally dumped a whole bowl of punch on myself at the fifth-grade dance. I couldn’t exactly remember how that had happened, but people had talked about it for a long time.
    I walked into the principal’s office with a big smile and was greeted by Cathi Connor. She and I had gone through school together here. She’d been a pale, freckled girl—still was—whose mother brought her lunch to school each day. It cemented her reputation as a weird person, like me. My grandfather was the sheriff. That made me weird.
    “It’s good to see you, Dae!” Cathi hugged me. “We haven’t seen you around much. We actually had Reading Aloud Day and you weren’t here. Something up with you? Or were you just busy plotting how to kill Mad Dog?”
    I laughed at that as we sat down. Who would’ve ever thought she’d be behind the school principal’s desk? Or for that matter, that I’d be mayor?
    “It’s been hectic,” I admitted. “You can’t believe what all goes into a political campaign. Last time, no one ran against me. This time, Mad Dog has his posters everywhere.”
    “Well, at least
now
you won’t have to worry about his smear campaign that was questioning your morals.”
    This was the first I’d heard of that topic. “What kind of morality are we talking about?”
    “Oh, you know. That thing about you and the man from the Blue Whale Inn. Mad Dog was making you sound like a scarlet woman. Since you broke up with what’s-his-name, that should take care of it. You have my vote anyway.”
    That was one way of looking at it. “Mad Dog can say what he wants. I don’t think he’d be a good mayor even if he’s been married and no one questions his morality. He’s got the same old ideas, you know? We’re not the same town anymore. We need new ideas.”
    Cathi applauded. “Brava! Nicely said. Sorry anyway, about the breakup. And right in front of everyone. People have no dignity anymore.”
    A subject change was needed, and since I hadn’t come to discuss morality, or the lack of it, in Duck politics, I smiled and leaned forward a little. “I need your help, Cathi.”
    “What can I do for you?”
    “I’m looking for a little girl who may go to school here. Her name is Betsy Sparks. Do you know her?”
    “I wouldn’t normally do this for anyone but members of the family, but since you’re the mayor, I guess it’s okay. Sure. Betsy Sparks is in first grade. She seems to be doing very well since the transfer.”
    “Transfer?”
    “She’s not from Duck. She looked at me, suddenly suspicious. “Why are you asking about her, Dae?”
    She obviously hadn’t heard about Chuck’s death. I bit my lip, not wanting to be the one who told her.
    And I didn’t know what the chief had in mind. He might be keeping Chuck’s death a secret to try and find the killer. I knew from being the sheriff’s granddaughter that some information was never given out. But this was Duck—usually it was hard to contain.
    If I told her, and the police
were
keeping Chuck’s death a secret for whatever reason, I’d never hear the end of it from Chief Michaels. But what else could I say? It seemed to me that finding Betsy, if she was really missing, was more important.
    Still I didn’t want to jeopardize anything the chief was working on.
    I decided to make something up. I really just needed to know if Betsy was there or not. “I heard she’s read a lot of books. I was thinking about starting some kind of book club for kids who read a lot. You know, stickers, that kind of thing.”
    She smiled.
She
doesn’t
know about Chuck
. “What a great idea! Let’s go talk to her. Why didn’t you just say so instead of sounding so mysterious?”
    We walked down the quiet hallway—all the children were in class. Our shoes clicked on the shiny green tile. I hoped Betsy was in her classroom, though I wasn’t sure what I’d say if