Simon Says Die

All he did was cash my checks. I didn’t even have to fire him. He just stopped showing up on his own. I didn’t even know he wasn’t taking care of the yard until the cleaning service told me the weeds were getting overgrown. He’d better not ask for a recommendation. He certainly won’t like what I tell anyone about his lack of professionalism.”
    Pierce exchanged a glance with Madison. “He just stopped showing up? When was that?”
    She tapped her fingernails on the desk. “Hmm. Probably around the same time Mrs. McKinley fired our service.” She looked down her nose at Madison as if she’d committed some kind of unforgiveable faux pas.
    â€œI didn’t fire your service,” Madison insisted. “Someone else created that note.”
    â€œIf you say so.” Mrs. Whitmire looked across her desk at Pierce. “Was there anything else you needed?”
    Madison crossed her arms and sat back, tapping her foot.
    â€œActually,” Pierce said, “if you could give me the contact information for the yard service, I’d like to ask them a few questions.”
    She turned around in her chair and opened a filing cabinet. A moment later she handed Pierce a business card. “It’s just one man, Kevin Newsome. He was starting up his own service, and I thought I was being nice by helping him out. I’ll never do that again.”
    It sounded like Mrs. Whitmire had done her one good deed and intended to never help anyone else again. Madison eyed her with distaste.
    â€œThank you,” Pierce said, taking her hand. “You’ve been very helpful.”
    The older woman blushed, actually blushed.
    Madison thought she just might be sick.
    Pierce ushered Madison out of the office to his car.
    â€œWhere are we going now?” she asked, as she buckled her seat belt.
    He pulled out his cell phone and punched a button. “I want to talk to your yardman. I’ll see if we can make an appointment.” A minute later he shook his head and ended the call. “No answer. I’ll call Hamilton, see if he can send an officer over to do a wellness check.”
    â€œA wellness check?”
    â€œGo by his place of business, or his home if he’s not there, make sure he’s okay.” He made the call to Hamilton, nodding his head to let Madison know Hamilton had agreed to his request, then he pocketed his phone. “I assume you have some photographs of your husband back at your house.”
    â€œI’m sure he’s in some of the pictures of my family, and my wedding album of course.”
    â€œLet’s get a better picture than that driver’s license photo. If Hamilton locates Mr. Newsome, we can take the picture by and ask him why he stopped taking care of the yard.”
    She put her hand on his forearm. “ If he locates Newsome? You think something happened to him don’t you?”
    His jaw tightened. “From what Mrs. Whitmire said, Newsome was just starting out and couldn’t even afford to hire helpers. A man in that position isn’t going to just not show up at work one day, unless something is wrong.”
    M ADISON AND P IERCE headed through the family room into the front room of Madison’s house. It was originally supposed to be a dining room. It connected through an archway to both the kitchen and the family room. But Madison had set it up as her home office. She paused in front of one of the bookshelves, frowning when she didn’t see the picture she’d wanted to give to him.
    After her husband died, knowing what he’d done, she certainly hadn’t kept pictures of him sitting around. But this particular picture had been one of her favorites of Logan, so she’d kept it, even though her husband could clearly be seen in the background.
    â€œSomething wrong?” Pierce asked, studying the collection of picture frames on the shelves of the other bookcase.
    Madison edged a picture of her and Pierce behind a picture of her mom so that he wouldn’t see it and ask her why she still had it.
    She moved another picture of Logan and her mother to the side to more clearly see the frames sitting behind it. “I could have sworn there was a picture here that had Damon in it.”
    â€œAre you saying some pictures are missing?”
    â€œI don’t see how they could be.” She glanced around uneasily. Her security alarm hadn’t been tripped, and Damon