Read Online Brownie and the Dame by C. L. Bevill - Free Book Online Page A

the map. She ticked off items on her fingers. “Go to the scene of the crime. Then secure the crime scene. Find out all about who’s involved at each crime scene. Gather evidence, and make sure it’s all accounted for. Communicate with other law enforcement agencies.”
    “Well, we went to the scene of the crime at the McGee’s. Should we look at the kitchen again?”
    “Miz Adelia doesn’t know when the spatula went missing,” Janie said, “so I’m not sure if that would do us any good. Plus there was just a bunch of people in the house for the Spring tour.”
    “Did she tell you about the man playing with her sauté pan?”
    Janie nodded. “Sounds like a real fruit loop, a skell, a perp.”
    “Maybe we should go examine that lemon icebox pie again,” Brownie suggested.
    “It should be guarded,” Janie agreed.
    * * *
    It turned out that there were no perpetrators in the kitchen. Brownie and Janie disposed of their own evidence by washing the dishes they’d used and cleverly covering the pathetic remainder of the pie with aluminum foil.
    Brownie gave Precious a dog biscuit while Janie petted behind the dog’s ears.
    “Who’s a precious-wecious-mecious-doggie-doo?” Janie cooed.
    Apparently Precious was just that. She rolled over onto her back and held the biscuit in her mouth while she waited for Janie to scratch her belly.
    “Boomers?” Janie said.
    “Check,” Brownie said promptly. “I know where a couple of bikes are located. They’re old but they work. Let’s fade before the skirts are onto us.”
    “They said to let them know— ”
    “Ifin we wait for them, we won’t get nowhere,” Brownie said seriously. He was onto Miz Demetrice and Miz Adelia. They were to keep him and Janie busy through fair means or foul. Solving a mystery was great stuff but not when trips into town and whatnot were involved. “As far as they’re concerned we’re out back with a metal detector and a shovel. See, sweetheart?”
    “Let’s find the pigeons before they fly the coop,” Janie said and grinned. “We can make a pinch by sundown and embarrass the local coppers.”
    Brownie nodded approvingly. “That’s my girl.”
    * * *
    It took them an hour to find the Boomer’s farm. It wasn’t that it was complicated; it was that people gave odd directions.  
    Mary Jean Holmgreen was a woman in her seventies who stopped to see what Brownie and Janie were up to and also to ask about Bubba. With an avid eye for potential gossip, she had pulled her antique-looking sedan up to them and introduced herself. Then she had followed through with the key question of impertinent curiosity, “What you kids up to?”
    “We’re on an investigation,” Brownie announced, tipping his fedora at the older woman. His mother would have approved. He almost fell off the oversized bike but he managed to keep his balance. The bike was meant for a much older person, but Janie got the smaller bicycle because she couldn’t even get on the ten-speed.
    Miz Holmgreen looked at him and then at Janie. “Well, I reckon that’s interesting. What ya’ll investigating?”
    “Thefts,” Janie said seriously. “Do you know of any?”
    “You must be related to Mike Holmgreen,” Brownie interrupted, finally remembering that he’d heard the last name before.
    Miz Holmgreen leaned her head out the window of her sedan and sighed. “Mike is my grandson. He just graduated from high school. Almost dint make it on account of the fact that he tried to burn the school down. But that’s neither here nor there.” She paused and rubbed her chin for a moment. “As for thefts, I heard that someone stole one of the trees from the Ford building downtown. They dug it up and done took it away.” She looked around as if making certain no one was listening who shouldn’t be listening. “Communists. Reds. Bad men. Only ter’ble people would take an innocent tree. Tree dint hurt no one, no how. Think it was a cedar. Mebe it was an ornamental