Death Over the Dam (A Hunter Jones Mystery Book 2) by Charlotte Moore Page B

know what store that was and where it was?”
    Hunter said if he could wait until after the paper was out, she would try to find the store for him.
    “She likes long skirts and faded things,” he said, “It’s kind of hard to explain, but, well, sort of like what you had on the other day. Not like ladies from around here wear..”
    Hunter said she would try to find the place or another good place just as soon as she got through with the newspaper work. Then she told him he was going to be on the front page, and asked him about repairing the paintings.
    He was thrilled about the front page picture, and knew just what to do about the paintings. He said, repeating three times that he stretched all Dee Dee’s canvases, that if he had known they had flood water on them, he would have taken them home and fixed them before his Mama sold them to anybody.
    When they hung up, they were both smiling, and Hunter had directions to the Bennett house, where she would take the paintings a week later. He offered to come and pick them up, but she insisted that she’d really like to meet the artist. She didn’t mention an interview. That could wait until she had made friends with Dee Dee or Deirdre, who must be a real scatterbrain if she couldn’t remember the name of her favorite shop.
    She knew Novena was dying of curiosity, but she decided Deirdre Dee Dee Donagan Bennett didn’t need her fashion issues discussed all over Merchantsville. She allowed herself a big Cheshire Cat smile, and then got back to work.
    She filed another story with photos and cutlines, and checked her list. She thought she could see the light at the end of the tunnel, but that would turn out to be wrong.
    At 5 p.m., just as he was ready to leave for the day, Sheriff Sam Bailey got a call from Bubba Shipley, who had found a car on the road to his hangar.
    “There’s a dead man in it,” Bubba said. “Real dead.”

CHAPTER 10
    T HE DIRT ROAD WAS POORLY MAINTAINED and barely wide enough for two cars. It had a few scattered pine trees on either side.
    “I hardly ever come out this end of the road” Bubba was saying, “but I wanted to check the road after all that rain, and I came up on this. I’ve seen some bad stuff, Sam, but it still made me sick.”
    “You ever saw the car before?” Sam asked.
    “No,” Bubba said. “Never laid eyes on it.”
    The Georgia car tag, from Cobb County, had already turned out to be listed under one Camilla Hopkins, who didn’t have a listed telephone number… Sam was reluctant to call and leave a message. It might well be the man’s wife, and she didn’t need to hear about this over the phone. He could arrange for somebody up there to go to her address.
    “Looks like he rolled down the window and the shooter got him right in the face at close range,” Bubba said. “Poor man. Can I get out of here, Sam? I’ve told you everything I know. I just hope y’all can get this car towed out of here tonight.”
    “We’re going to do that,” Sam said. “We’ll get a statement from you later.”
    After Bubba had gone, Sam and his two deputies put up crime tape. A few cars had already slowed down along the highway to try to see what was going on.
    “Looks like the shooter came in this side of the car after he shot him,” Bub Williston said. “Pushed him forward to get his wallet. See how the pocket is turned inside out.
    “Cold blooded SOB,” Skeet Borders added.
    “And probably took anything else in sight,” Sam said. “Hard to see somebody killing a stranger on the off chance that he had some real money in his wallet.”
    The car was buzzing with flies and both of them were willing to leave the search of the car to the crime scene tech team.
    “Could have been somebody the victim knew,” Skeet Borders said cautiously. He was the new kid on the block and he hadn’t been at a murder scene before, but he liked applying common sense. “Who’s going to stop and roll down a window to a stranger on a road like