The Candy Cane Cupcake Killer by Livia J. Washburn

She smiled sadly at Sam. “No offense, Coach.”
    â€œNone taken,” he told her. “I’m sure if there’s anything Phyllis can do to help you, she’d be glad to. And so will I.”
    â€œWhat is it, Allyson?” Phyllis asked, feeling that under the circumstances she could address the young woman by her first name, even though they had never met until tonight.
    â€œI . . . we . . . well, Nate and I have read about the way you’ve been involved in murder cases before. We thought you might be able to help us.”
    Grimly, Nate said, “I still think you’re overreacting, Ally. There’s no point in getting ahead of ourselves—”
    â€œYes, there is,” she told him. She looked at Phyllis again and said, “We need your help, Mrs. Newsom, because I’m afraid the police are going to arrest Nate for my father’s murder.”

Chapter 6

    A llyson’s worried statement hung in the air for a moment before anyone said anything. Finally, Phyllis broke the tense silence by asking, “Why do you think that?”
    â€œShe doesn’t,” Nate interrupted. “Not really. She’s just upset, and who can blame her?”
    With a hint of the steel that she had developed over decades of facing classrooms full of junior-high students, Phyllis said, “I believe I asked Allyson.”
    The young woman drew in a deep breath, then said, “It was the argument we had with Dad earlier today. He and Nate got really angry with each other.”
    â€œFor God’s sake, Allyson!” Nate burst out. “Are you
trying
to throw me under the bus?”
    Sam said, “Take it easy, son. Nobody’s tryin’ to do anything except understand what’s goin’ on here.”
    â€œAll right.” Nate leaned forward and clasped his handstogether between his knees. “I’ll start from the beginning and tell you the whole thing.”
    â€œI think that would be a good idea,” Phyllis said.
    â€œI told you I work as Barney’s business manager. Well, a few months ago a man came to see me in my office here in town and had a proposition for me. He was a landsman. Do you know what that is?”
    â€œA fella who scouts up property for oil and gas leases and gets the owners to sign,” Sam replied.
    â€œExactly. This man, Frank Holbrook, was interested in putting a gas lease on Barney’s ranch. He gave me all the details and some legal documents for Barney to sign. But when I took the papers out there and told Barney about the deal, he took one look at them and refused to sign.”
    â€œWhy?” Phyllis asked. “A gas lease is a good thing, isn’t it? I know the boom in this area isn’t nearly as big as it was a few years ago, but people are still making money off their leases, aren’t they?”
    â€œAccording to Holbrook, they are,” Nate said, “and Barney’s ranch is a prime location because there hasn’t been a lot of drilling around there. The geologists who work for the company Holbrook represents say there’s still a lot of gas down there. But he still refused. He said he wasn’t going to have a bunch of gas wells ruining the land where he’d raised cattle for more than forty years.”
    Carolyn said, “I don’t blame him. All that fracking they do while they’re drilling—it causes earthquakes, you know.”
    â€œI’m not sure they’ve ever proven that—,” Sam began.
    â€œOh, it’s just common sense! You remember whathappened up in Azle a while back. A bunch of gas wells were put in, and they started having two or three earthquakes a week!”
    Phyllis remembered the stories on the news and in the paper, and knew that Carolyn was right, at least to a certain extent. There had been a number of earthquakes in a fairly short period of time in the northeastern part of the county, and the residents