Read Online The Girl from Felony Bay by J. E. Thompson - Free Book Online Page B

Bee, going as slow as she needed to as she limped along on her cane. I felt like a dog who was running away with its tail between its legs. It made me mad to get chased off, but it also made me curious. Something weird was going on at Felony Bay. If the land wasn’t part of Reward anymore, I wanted to know why. Also who had bought it, and why were they digging holes and chasing everybody off?
    When we got back into the yard by the big house, Bee turned to me. “Let’s not say anything to Grandma Em about that guy.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œShe’ll just tell me I’m never allowed to go near that corner of the property again. Trust me. I know how she thinks.”
    â€œOkay.” I shrugged and followed her into the kitchen, where we found Grandma Em cutting up a fresh chicken for that night’s dinner. She glanced at us over her shoulder. Maybe she saw the way my eyes went straight to the chicken, or maybe she knew how much I had loved her BLT sandwiches, because she asked, “Bee, you want to ask your friend to stay for dinner? We have plenty of food.”
    Bee smiled and looked at me. “Want to join us?”
    I nodded. “Thanks.” My mouth was already salivating at the prospect of having two home-cooked meals on the same day.
    â€œShe’s going to stay,” Bee said.
    Grandma Em let me use her phone to call Ruth and let her know I wouldn’t be home for dinner. The two of us started to walk out of the kitchen, but then Bee stopped and said, offhanded like, “Hey, Grandma, when we were walking around, we saw No Trespassing signs on some trees, but Abbey was pretty sure it’s our property. You know anything about that?”
    Grandma Em shook her head. “The only thing I really know about is this house and the grass that’s right around it. Best ask your daddy when you talk to him.”
    Bee went on. “But he wouldn’t have sold some of the land without saying something, would he?”
    Grandma Em put her hands on her hips and gave her head a shake. “Honey, that son of mine is too busy on that company he bought in India to think about anything else.” She turned toward the sink, and I heard her mutter, “Including his own family.”
    Bee and I walked out of the kitchen, and Bee motioned me upstairs. “Okay,” she said. “So if my dad hasn’t sold any land, what do you think is going on? Did your dad sell that land to somebody else and not tell you?”
    â€œNo,” I said.
    â€œYou sure?”
    â€œPositive.”
    â€œI hate it when some rude person tells me something is none of my business,” Bee said.
    â€œSo do I.”
    Bee nodded. “So we ought to figure out what’s going on.”
    I smiled and grabbed a pen and a pad of paper from her desk. “Let’s write down what we need to know. I’ll make the list.”
    Bee nodded. “First, if part of the plantation got sold, when and how did it happen?”
    â€œGreat question,” I said, writing it down. “The problem is Uncle Charlie was the real-estate agent who sold Reward to your dad.”
    â€œYou can’t just ask him?”
    â€œYou have to know Uncle Charlie,” I said. “I don’t think he’d tell me if my clothes were on fire.”
    Bee laughed, but then I saw her give me a searching look, as if she had as many questions about my life as I had about hers. Neither one of us was giving much away.
    â€œAnother question,” Bee said, after a few seconds. “If my dad didn’t buy Felony Bay, who did?”
    I nodded and wrote the question down.
    â€œAnd why do you think they were digging those holes?” Bee asked.
    I wrote down Holes?
    â€œThey sure had dug a lot of them,” Bee said. “But that reminds me. Who was that man?”
    â€œBubba Simmons,” I said. “He’s a part-time deputy sheriff on Leadenwah Island, but he’s somebody you want