Secrets in a Still Life, Kari Ganske [best fiction books to read .TXT] 📗

you so much. You didn't have to do this," I cooed. I placed the pie on the kitchen counter since I didn't have a table.

Mrs. Anita looked around the space with a bewildered expression. "Feel free to find Bobby or one of the farmhands when you need help hauling up the furniture."

"I just have a bed frame and mattress. My father and I can handle that," I explained.

"Oh, okay," Mrs. Anita said slowly. Then laughed. "When you said you travel light, I didn't think you meant this light."

"My apartment in New York was about the size of a postage stamp. And I wasn't there very often anyway."

"Feel free to make this place feel like home. If you want to hang pictures or add throw rugs, that might help make it homier. We just ask that you don't paint the walls."

"Oh, thank you! I was going to ask about hanging pictures," I said. "And I have no intentions of painting this wood."

Mrs. Anita smiled and started making her way to the door. I followed. "If you need anything, just holler. We're usually in the market or the fields until dusk, then at the house. You'll find the contact numbers in the lease."

"Thank you so much. This whole thing is really very kind."

Mrs. Anita patted my shoulder. "We're happy to have you."

Colleen already had the pie cut by the time I walked back to the kitchen area.

"Help yourself," I said, laughing.

"I did. Want a piece?"

"Of course. We'll have to eat standing up. Or sitting on the floor."

Colleen shrugged. "Grab your computer. Since Mrs. Anita said you could hang pictures, we should pick some more recent shots too. Make good on the promise to print more. And I need some too."

I booted up my computer while sitting crisscross applesauce on the floor by the fireplace. Colleen joined me with two slices of pie. "Too bad we don't have ice cream," she quipped. I added that to my growing shopping list.

"Let's start with your reservoir shoot and work backward from there. I'm sure you got some amazing local shots. Maybe you could even convince Mrs. Anita to let you set up a little display in the market. She's done it for other local artists," Colleen said.

"That's a great idea. And would help supplement my income. I got the quote from the mechanic." I rolled my eyes. "Apparently Fiat parts are hard to come by. I asked if I could pay with the promise of my firstborn son, but that was a no-go."

"Do you need a loan?" Colleen asked.

I looked up from my keyboard. "Thank you so much for offering. Really. But I'm okay. I have some savings from my last pro shoot. And the mechanic has a payment-plan option. I can't drive the stupid thing until I take that stupid safe-driving class anyway, so what's the difference."

"Tell me how you really feel about it," Colleen laughed. Then she pointed to the screen where I was scrolling through my flagged shots from the reservoir. "Oh, that one is lovely."

She pointed to one with the water lapping against the rocks on the reservoir edge. I had lain on my belly to capture the exact moment the small waves broke against the shoreline. The angle made them seem larger than they really were. Colleen pulled the laptop into her lap to get a better look.

"You took this at the reservoir? It looks like ocean waves," Colleen remarked.

"It's all about the angle and the lens." A bright bit of bokeh caught my eye in an otherwise darker part of the frame.

"What's that?" I asked, pointing to the bright spot. Colleen zoomed in.

"Hard to tell," Colleen said. She put her face inches from the screen. "Probably some kind of metal. Jewelry, maybe?"

"Let me see." I pulled the laptop back in front of me. I used the exposure and dehaze sliders in the editing software to bring down the glare a little bit. The shape of a locket came into focus. Goose bumps broke out over my arms.

"Looks like a locket," Colleen confirmed.

"I think so too. Guess who shoved a locket into my face the day I took these pictures?"

Colleen's eyes went wide. "Missy? Shut up. We have to go look for it!"

"I'm sure the police already collected it," I said, but my heartbeat threatened to pump right out of my chest.

"But what if they didn't? What if it's evidence?" Colleen asked in a hushed tone.

"Then we should call the police and tell them about it," I said without any conviction. I didn't trust Chief Duncan as far as I could throw him.

"You don't even believe that," Colleen said, reading my tone perfectly. "Besides, we need to verify that it's there and that it belongs to Missy before we call the police. Otherwise, they'll think we're idiots."

"Too late for that," I said, thinking of how Chief Duncan looked at me that first night. I saved the files, closed the program, and shut the laptop cover. "Okay. Grab my camera. Let's go look for a locket."

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter 18

 

 

 

We opted to park in the reservoir parking lot since that path was more worn. My ankle felt loads better, but with moving today, I didn't want to press it. I texted my parents to tell them we were going out "for supplies." Yes, I was thirtysomething, but I didn't want them to worry if they came back to an empty apartment. And, given their history of missing children, they would definitely worry. We made our way to the spot where I'd taken the picture. I sat on a tree stump to rest my ankle and pointed in the general direction.

"Somewhere over there," I said, massaging the aching muscle. Probably I'd overdone it today what with moving