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willful, even when she didn’t know it. And those were just the traits she would openly acknowledge. Her poor good-natured Buddy endured much from her.
    He came to a stop under the shed. He gave her a smile and a wink as he opened the car door and began gathering papers from the passenger seat. “Hey, Flash. I love it when you meet me.”
    Her being home and out of mischief was his preference, but not necessarily hers. Still, she loved being home before him. It gave her a feeling of being a pioneer woman greeting her man home from a hard day of hunting and warring. She smiled. “Hiya, Wyatt”—she often lovingly called him Wyatt Earp—“I’ve got beer in the fridge and a casserole in the oven.”
    “Good Lord. A welcome home and cooked food to boot. I must’ve done something right today.” He unfolded his solid six-foot, two-inch frame from the car’s interior. Lord, he was handsome in his starched white shirt and khakis. He wore his white Stetson at just the right set on his head.
    She walked to him, wrapped her arms around his neck andhungrily kissed him. Oh, yeah, she could pass up a supper of tuna casserole and feast on her husband’s kisses. That is, if Edwina were not inside the house.
    “Hmm, I like this,” Buddy said, one hand squeezing her bottom. “But I have to admit, it scares me a little. What’s up?”
    Debbie Sue pushed him away and gasped with feigned indignation. Just then, Edwina came out of the house and called out, “Hey, good-looking.” She walked toward them.
    “Well, hello, Ed. I didn’t see your car out front.”
    “I rode out here with Debbie Sue. Vic’s supposed to pick me up in about half an hour. He’s coming in from the West Coast. Man, have we got a new case to tell you about.”
    Debbie Sue shot her partner a murderous look, but the woman was paying her no attention.
    Debbie Sue preferred briefing Buddy in advance on the activities of the Domestic Equalizers. He wasn’t crazy about the detective agency and was quick to either declare that something she and Edwina had committed to do was “too dangerous” or “over their heads.” She tried not to lie to him directly about the cases they took on, although she sometimes didn’t tell him everything she knew. In her mind, she always debated if a fib by o -mission was equal to a lie by co -mission. In Debbie-Sue logic, choosing to omit every detail usually won the argument and unfortunately, this caused her no inner conflict, though it sometimes caused great outer conflict between her and Buddy.
    Indeed Buddy had divorced her once for her hardheaded ways, and now that she had him back, withholding facts here and there seemed to make things go more smoothly betweenthem. His learning of some of her and Edwina’s escapades and unintended consequences upset him much less after the fact than if he knew of them beforehand.
    “I’ll tell you all about it over supper,” Debbie Sue said, taking his arm. “Ed, why don’t you call Vic and tell him to come over here when he gets to town? Y’all eat with us tonight.”
    “Thought you’d never ask,” Edwina said. “I’m about one burned-to-a-crisp meal away from losing that man altogether.”
    “Thought Vic did all the cooking,” Buddy said.
    “He does when he’s home. But when he’s coming back off the road, I make an effort. It’s hard because I have to start by dragging all my shoes out of the oven.”
    Buddy laughed. “You kill me, Ed.”
    Edwina took Buddy’s other arm and the three of them walked toward the door.
    “I’ll wait until Vic gets here to tell you everything,” Debbie Sue said. “I don’t want him to miss it and I’m not sure I’d believe it if I had to repeat it.”
    Vic arrived on schedule and he and Edwina had such a charged homecoming, Debbie Sue was almost embarrassed. Through the meal, Debbie Sue, with Edwina’s help, explained the mysterious events in Justin Sadler’s house. Buddy’s comments amounted to mostly Hmm ’s, a few