Page 212 of Taken Away

"Patsy Jordan?"

"That's right."

"She a suspect?"

"Not unless Mabel Blackwood was murdered by a seventy-year-old woman over tea."

Sara was quiet for half a beat.

"That sounds weirdly possible in this county."

Despite himself, Burke smiled.

"Find me an address."

"You got it."

He ended the call and looked back at the planner.

Page after page told the same story.

Mabel had been preparing.

Not just a will. A plan.

Like she knew time was running short.

Burke's radio crackled ten minutes later.

"Sheriff?"

He lifted the handset.

"Go ahead."

"Found your Patsy Jordan. Patricia Jordan. Seventy. Widowed. Lives off Old River Road in Cullowhee. No criminal history. Longtime member of First Baptist. Looks like she taught Sunday school for about forty years."

"Any connection to Mabel?"

"Nothing official," Sara said. "But Frannie says they were close. Like close close. High school friends, church friends. The kind of friends who don't need an appointment."

Burke slowly closed the planner.

The investigation hadn't gotten simpler.

It had gotten bigger.

Who was Patsy Jordan...

...and why had Mabel trusted her enough to help orchestrate whatever this had been?

Burke started the truck.

The road to Cullowhee waited at the bottom of the hill.

FORTY-THREE

Blackwood Estate Winery