Down Home and Deadly

mind your own business?”
    Alex shifted in his chair to look at me. “I’ll be right back, hon. I’m g onna ask John a couple of questions. Will you be okay?” When I nodded, he rose , and together he and the chief strode out of the kitchen.
    I stood and walked to the staff bathroom to check out my head. No matter how I contorted, I couldn’t see the bump, but I could feel it. I blinked my eyes. No double vision. I didn’t feel particularly sleepy. And other than feeling a little disoriented from finding a dead body, I wasn’t dizzy. I washed my hands and opened the door.
    “Surely you know I wouldn’t blame you,” Alice said as I stepped back into the kitchen.
    She and Harvey looked at me and froze.

Chapter Three

    As nervous as a long-tailed cat in a room full of rocking chairs

    Harvey’s face lost most of its color , but he laughed. “It wouldn’t be the first time you’ve accused me of turning the burner up under your soup,” he said.
    Alice’s answering chuckle sounded forced. “Of course, you’re right. But I’m not accusing you this time. Just saying that I wouldn’t blame you if you had turned the burner up in all this excitement.”
    “I didn’t,” he said firmly.
    “That’s fine,” she said.
    I smiled weakly and walked into the dining room where everyone else had gathered . Whatever that had been about, it wasn’t soup.
    Carly looked at me as I walked in. “You want me to go to the ER with you?”
    “No, I’m fine. I’m going to stay and help you clean up.”
    “You most certainly are not,” Carly said. Alex and John moved closer as if they were her strongmen ready to enforce her decree.
    “I will help clean,” Marco offered.
    Carly smiled at the twentysomething Italia n. “Thanks. And Elliott’s supposed to stop by and help , too.” She turned back to me. “Go get your head checked out. We’ve got this covered.”
    “I’ll just go home and rest then. The EMT checked me out , and I don’t have any signs of a concussion.”
    I’d expected an argument from Alex, but before he could say anything, John put his hand on my arm. “I think you should go on down to the ER.”
    I smiled. “You, of all people, should know how hard my head is.”
    He frowned. “I can’t believe you’re joking. You could have been killed.”
    “Aw, it’s nice to know you care.”
    Alex snorted. John and I had never really outgrown our childhood “one up” type of friendship. Bless her heart, my friend Denise, who married the big lout, always ended up having to mediate.
    John shot me a wry grin. “Truth is, Denise would kill me if anything happened to you on my watch. If you have any symptoms, you go get it checked out.” He sauntered over to where Ricky and Seth were sitting at a booth looking at Ricky’s notebook.
    As we walked out of the diner, Alex kept his arm around my waist. “You know in spite of his gruff talk, he thinks of you as a little sister.”
    “Yeah, an annoying little sister that he wishes he could box up and ship to Siberia .”
    Alex laughed. “I’m glad to see you getting back to normal. You were pretty pale when I got here.”
    “Getting c onked on the head tends to do that to a person.”
    His smile disappeared. “You speak from entirely too much experience on that subject.”

    *****

    “Found another body, did you?” The old man from the feed store on Main Street gave me a snaggletooth ed grin.
    “Yep.” I gritted my own full set of teeth into some semblance of a smile and tapped my order pad with my pencil. “What can I get for you today?”
    “I’ll have the meatloaf special. Gettin’ to be a habit of yours, idn’t it? Gettin’ involved with murder? I’m surprised you’re not out back helping the police look for the gun.”
    His cronies laughed.
    “Hush up, Grimmett,” Marge Templeton scolded from the booth across the way. “Jenna can’t help being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
    “Grimmett” ducked his head, his weather ed face mottled with embarrassment. Apparently he hadn’t realized that Marge was nearby. Her late husband, Hank, had been my first “ wrong place at the wrong time .” Even though I hadn’t actually found the newspaper editor’s body, I’d eventually solved his murder. Sort of. And almost gotten m yself and Carly killed in the process.
    I gave Marge a grateful glance. We shared a bond of having been in a sticky situation together. I knew I could count on her to watch my back. She owned the paper