Down Home and Deadly

joined and looking pretty dismal. He pulled my head under again.
    Suddenly , I felt and heard another splash. As my lungs burned for air, I groaned inside. Had he brought an ally with him? A lookout who’d come to rescue him and finish me off? I struggled to the surface and saw that the third person in the water was Seth, who did indeed seem to be trying to rescue Ricky. Panicked, Ricky continued to claw and fight. Seth drew back his fist and clipped Ricky on the jaw.
    Ricky’s grip on me immediately relaxed , and I scrambled away from the men and over to the ladder. I climbed out of the water and was debat ing running when I spotted the gun at my feet. Just as Seth came out of the water dragging Ricky, I snatched it up and pointed it toward the two men.
    Seth’s eyes grew wide. “Jenna Stafford, have you lost your mind? I had no choice but to knock him out. He was drowning me. And you , too, for that matter.”
    My slippery grip wavered, but I forced myself to hold steady. “Put him down.”
    He obeyed me and backed up a step with his hands up. “What did I do?”
    “What are you doing here?”
    He dropped his gaze to the floor. “Uh. I saw Ricky’s car in the parking lot and yours. And I . . . I . . . Doggone it, Jenna. I wanted to see if my partner had gone after the girl he knew I—” He dropped his hands. “I wasn’t breaking in or anything. And what about you? Why did you two decide to go for a swim with your clothes on?”
    Ricky groaned , and I trained the gun on him. I could see the truth all over Seth’s face. All Seth was guilty of was jealousy. Ricky was definitely in it alone. “It’s a long story.” I motioned with the gun toward the newspaper clippings still lying on the floor in the closet doorway.
    With a wary look at me, Seth walked over and picked them up. I kept one eye on the still unconscious Ricky as I watched Seth read the articles. A gamut of emotions flitted across his face. When he finished , his cheeks were red with anger. “He’s the killer?”
    I nodded. He picked up his cell phone from the side of the pool and called for backup. Within minutes, sirens wailed through the quiet night.

    *****
    “Jenna!” Carly waved a paper at me as she and Elliott walked up to the basketball court. “I meant to tell you, this came to the diner yesterday.” She handed me a postcard.
    I looked down at the picture, a cartoon of a red mustang and a leggy blond.
    “I don’t believe it.” I grinned. “Listen to this. ‘Hey, c hickie, I finally planted my roots practically in my granny’s backyard. And the next - door neighbor is a really nice fellow. A preacher, no less. Did I mention he’s single? Wink, wink. Thanks for hanging with me when I was in need of a pal. Jolene. ’ ”
    “A preacher?” Carly shook her head. “That man won’t know what hit him.”
    Zac dribbled his basketball up to us. “Y’all ready to choose teams? I got Elliott.”
    Elliott held out his hands , and Zac threw him the ball. He passed it to Alex who made a jump shot.
    When they were gone, Carly turned back to me. “ Alice called yesterday. She and Harvey are settling down in Florida . She told me they’d found a little diner for sale, so she keeps having to remind Harvey what the word retired means.”
    I smiled. “Sounds like they’re happy. Bob came to the club yesterday. First time he’s been there since we signed the papers three weeks ago. He didn’t come right out and say it, but he hinted that Lisa’s in a twelve - step program for her gambling problem. He said something like , ‘ I t’ll take a lot of work, but Lisa’s got a good man behind her,’ so I assume she and Larry are working things out. Oh, I almost forgot. He also said that Lisa had asked J.D. to take my pictures to the pool closet. Apparently he decided to stash his blackmail stuff there , as well. ”
    “Well, look who’s here.” Alex walked over from the court to stand beside me as Seth sauntered toward us. He relaxed slightly as Tiffany emerged from the other side of the truck and jogged in Seth’s wake. “Hey, y’all, ready to play?”
    Tiffany appeared to have lost weight since Ricky’s arrest, but she wore a smile along with her fitted jeans and cute T -shirt. Her hair was pulled into a casual ponytail, but she looked good. And happy.
    Seth stepped back to let her go first, and I suddenly remembered him being so defensive with me when he thought I was trying to steal Tiffany’s man. What had he said?