Give Em Pumpkin To Talk About (Pumpkin Patch Mysteries Book 1) Read Free Page B

That’s how I knew you were in town and looking for answers. Believe me, my information is a hundred times more in depth than anything he has.”
    She glanced at her watch again, torn between wanting to meet with him and feeling vulnerable doing it alone. She didn’t want to wake Hunter since she had a long drive ahead of her. “What about later in the morning?”
    “It’s now or never.” He seemed to repeat her thoughts back at her. “You don’t realize how much I’m putting my life on the line to help you. Do you want the answers or not?”
    “Okay. I want the answers.”
    “I’ll meet you there in thirty minutes. If you’re not there, the answers leave with me.”
    He hung up abruptly. Sarah looked at the phone, trying to figure out if what he was talking about was worth the risk. Maybe he was as crazy as the squatter. Sheriff Morgan had said Burris had suggested alien abduction.
    But she had to take the chance.
    “And this time I won’t be fooled into letting go of my gun,” she promised herself as she reloaded the bullets. She wasn’t completely sure she could shoot someone, but she could at least scare him and run away.
    After changing clothes into jeans, boots, and a T-shirt, she left her room.
    It was dark and quiet outside. She could see the lights on a boat as it cruised down the river. This is crazy. I should turn around and go back inside.
    But she knew she was going.
    She wanted someone to know where she’d gone. She left a message at the front desk for Hunter in case she came to say goodbye. Her parents would know where to look for her, too, if something happened.
    Once she was behind the wheel and on her way back out to Misty River, she continued to berate herself for agreeing to meet this man before dawn at what was left of the farm. The property was a mile off the main road that ran through the middle of town. If the squatter was there, and dangerous, despite Sheriff Morgan’s opinion of him, she was out of luck.
    “And definitely out of your element,” she told herself in the rearview mirror as her heart pumped nervously. “You’re not even a criminal attorney. You know this is stupid. But here you are.”
    Knowing it could be dangerous didn’t stop her from turning the rental car off the main road toward the farm. The sign for the pumpkin patch that she and her grandmother had drawn had been amusing and nostalgic during the day. In the dim five-thirty morning light, it just looked creepy.
    She hoped George Burris might be in a car waiting in the driveway for her with his headlights on. They’d meet, and he’d hand her a package through the window without her ever leaving the relative safety of her car. It would be like a TV movie with a happy ending—there was a terrible mix-up but her grandparents were alive and well.
    There was a car in the driveway. It was backed in, but there were no headlights and no one inside as she drove up to it.
    “Now what?” She was parked but still gripping the steering wheel.
    She rolled open a window and called his name, but there was no reply. She wanted to hit herself in the head for not getting his cell phone number. She didn’t want to walk through a hundred and eighty acres in the middle of the night looking for him.
    That’s when she noticed a moving light inside the house. Maybe it was a candle or a flashlight. He had to be in there. Holding her gun in a savage grip, she locked the car and crept warily up to the house.
    There was no moon in the clear sky above her. There had been outdoor lights in various spots around the farm when her grandparents had lived here. Now everything was dark. She wished she had a flashlight, but she’d left her cell phone in the car. She started to go back and get it but was afraid she’d lose her nerve and leave.
    She followed the old, cracked sidewalk that led to the front door. She hoped the light in the house was George Burris and not Jack the crazy squatter.
    It doesn’t matter. She was ready to