Down Home and Deadly

soon.
    *****
    “Well, from what you told me about Jolene , ” Carly said, as we lazily paddled around the lake using foot - power , “Debbie’s more J.D.’s type than Lisa is.” She neatly turned our paddleboat away from a collision course with the twins.
    I smiled as I cycled with my feet, too. “Wait until you meet Jolene. She makes Debbie look like Princess Di. But you’re right. Of the two, Debbie is more like Jolene than Lisa is.”
    “So why didn’t he just tell Lisa?”
    I shrugged. “Maybe he just wanted to have Debbie as insurance in case things didn’t work out. Debbie said they ‘told themselves they were just friends.’ So technically, they weren’t dating. Maybe J.D. was just keeping his options open. And I’m sure he didn’t want to lose his job. ”
    “Or maybe he had planned to manipulate the situation in some way but died before he could,” Carly mused.
    Before I could answer, cold water sprayed us.
    “Whooo!” Carly rubbed her hand across her face. “You sneaky girls splashed us on purpose!” Our blue and white paddleboat rocked as we turned and pedaled furiously to try and catch the twins.
    “Y’all looked like you needed to have a little fun , ” Hayley called, grinning over her shoulder at us. “Hurry, Rachel, they’re gaining!”
    “I’m going as fast as I can,” Rachel yelled.
    “We’re getting too old for this.” Panting, Carly looked over at me and grinned. “Besides , they’re lighter. They can go faster.”
    “No kidding.” My muscles burned as I pedaled harder. “Youth wins again,” I declared dramatically as the twins beat us by inches to the dock, our finish line.
    “No more splashing us,” Carly told the giggling girls. “Let’s just relax and paddle around for a while. That way I may be able to catch my breath.”
    As the girls paddled their boat across the lake, Carly and I leaned back against our seats and tried to slow our pounding heartbeats. Carly kept an eye on the girls’ boat as we talked.
    “I can’t even imagine what it would be like if something happened to one of them.” She nodded toward the twins. “Poor Harvey and Alice.”
    “Yeah. I feel so sorry for them. I wish we knew exactly what happened.” I leaned back and stuck my hand into the cool water. “I hate it that Marge didn’t tell me not to mention J.D. to them.” I trickled water down my sweaty face. “And Marge won’t tell me anything else.”
    “Did you ask Mama?” Carly fanned herself with her hand. “She would know.”
    “No.” I filled her in on Mama’s plea for me to stay out of this case. “So I’m trying to keep a low profile.” I relaxed against my seat. “Besides , I need an unbiased report.”
    “I think most of the people involved are pretty biased,” Carly said dryly. “Too bad we can’t just g oogle it. But I’m pretty sure something that old won’t be on the I nternet.”
    “The archive room at the newspaper!” I turned to Carly. “As soon as we can , we need to go to the Monitor o ffice. All we have to do is find the paper with the article in it.” I didn’t mention that there were forty years of papers to go through. No need to scare her off before we even g o t started.
    “Sounds easy enough.” Carly guided us up to the dock. We levered ourselves out of the boat and motioned for the girls to come on in.
    While we were waiting for them to get out of their boat and join us , Daddy came toward us with fishing poles in one hand and his tackle box in the other.
    “Is it okay with you if the girls and I fish for a while?”
    Carly nodded. “Jenna and I need to run an errand , anyway.”
    Daddy offered the poles to the giggling twins. “Let’s see if we can catch some supper.”
    I glanced at the watch on Daddy’s wrist. It was a little after five. Most of the Monitor employees should be gone. “Can the girls stay with you until we get back?”
    “Of course they can. We may be out here an hour or more , anyway.” Daddy rigged a pole for each of the girls , and they sat on the dock with their legs hanging off. “We’ll take our catch up to the house when we finish.”
    “Pretty sure we’ll catch some, aren’t you, Grandpa?” Rachel said sassily.
    “He knows I will,” Hayley spouted off.
    Daddy laughed , and Carly and I exchanged a grin. “They’re growing up,” she murmured. “Before I know it, they’ll be grown and gone.”
    I stared at her as we climbed into my vehicle. “Are you okay?”
    She nodded and