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“Exactly,” Philip said.
“Then let’s do it,” Drayton said.
“Give me a minute,” Theodosia said. “I want to grab a market basket out of my Jeep.” Philip’s words had left her feeling somewhat reassured. And while she didn’t fully approve of what Holly and Philip had done, Philip impressed her as serious and hardworking. His plan to repay the money in six months actually sounded plausible.
“Then you walk with me, Drayton,” Philip said. “I want to show you the most amazing crop of butter beans. And you for sure have to take a look at the cattle ranch next door.”
Theodosia walked back to her Jeep slowly, deciding this might be a good time to spy on Lucket, but he was nowhere in sight. His car was there, but he wasn’t.
Doggone it. Where did he go?
On the way to grab her market basket, Theodosia caught a quick glance at a fluffy red hen sprinting across the grass. Then, as if the hen was being pursued by a hungry fox, it darted inside the red barn.
Curious, wondering if it was a Derbyshire Redcap, similar to the Hamburg chickens her aunt Libby raised, Theodosia detoured over to the barn and peered in. And saw... not a single chicken.
Where did that little cutie run off to?
Theodosia took a step inside the barn and looked around. Dust motes twirled in the air and the place felt cool and dim, smelling of fresh hay and chicken feed. The interior wood, the struts, and the crossbeams were pleasantly weathered, and some leather horse tack hung on the walls.
She continued to look around but didn’t see the chicken. Could it have fluttered up into the hayloft? She peered upward but saw only a shaggy overhang of hay and small birds—finches?—roosting in the rafters high above.
But there was something. A low, scuttling noise. Maybe chickens, maybe... Lucket?
Theodosia was momentarily gripped with fear. Her head pounded as she wondered if Lucket was hiding somewhere inside this barn. Was that where he’d disappeared to?
Doggone, seeing him here just feels too weird to be a coincidence.
Just as Theodosia was about to step back outside to find Drayton and Philip, she heard a gentle clucking sound. And as she looked around, her eyes caught a quick flash of red over in the corner.
The little chicken?
She hesitated a split second, then stepped over to investigate.
But no. The thing that had caught her eye was bright red, but it wasn’t any kind of chicken. Rather, it was something shiny and hard, covered with a beige canvas tarp. Maybe a farm implement?
No, it looks too small for that. Then what?
Feeling a blip of nervous energy, Theodosia reached a hand out and pulled back the tarp. And stared at a shiny red-and-black Triumph motorcycle.
Her mouth went dry, her head started to pound again.
It was a Tiger Sport 660, a motorcycle not unlike the one that had been seen speeding away from the scene of Claxton’s murder.
What were the partial plate numbers on the motorcycle that the eyewitness had seen?
Theodosia racked her brain even as she felt sick to her stomach. Then she remembered the numbers and suddenly saw them in her mind’s eye, like a white neon sign outlined against a brilliant blue background. The numbers were nine five three.
Bells clanged in her head, her heart beat a timpani solo. The last three numerals on this license plate were nine five eight. Could an eight have been misread or misremembered as a three? Of course it could have been.
What to do? And just whose motorcycle was this? Did Lamar Lucket have some strange connection to this farm? And if Lucket was the one who’d murdered Claxton, if he was the killer in the beekeeper’s suit, then they were in big trouble.
Distraught, terrified at jumping to conclusions, but faced with possible evidence, Theodosia suddenly remembered Drayton! And Philip!
Could Drayton and Philip be in grave danger this very minute?
31
Philip had walked Drayton the entire length of the butterbean field, when, off in the distance, he noticed Theodosia suddenly disappear into the red barn. He thought for a moment, decided she was smart, maybe too smart for her own good. So he turned back to Drayton and said, “Now that you’ve seen these amazing fields full of produce, how would you like to tour the farm where they raise the Wangus beef?”
