Read Between the Tines Read Free Page B

him. Soon his family members going about their day as usual would have their world thrown into turmoil.
    How horrible. Utterly horrible. I closed my eyes and offered a prayer for the family and their situation.
    "What're you doing?" Daisy asked after a few minutes.
    I opened my eyes. "Praying."
    She rolled her bluer than blue eyes. "Oh, yeah, I forgot you believe all that junk."
    Had she not been fresh from the discovery of a body, I might've snapped at having my faith called junk, but I cut her some slack. "Faith gets you through tough times."
    "I never did get what the big deal was. Like when Mitch tried to send you to jail last month. If your god could help you why didn't he make Mitch back off?"
    I pondered the serious expression on her face. Now was probably not a time to get into this, but I couldn't let the opportunity pass. "God could take away our struggles and sometimes He does. Other times He lets us go through the difficulty so we can learn from the experience. But He's always there, ready to listen."
    Her face remained blank. "Huh? You lost me."
    "Think of how you felt when you found the body. You needed someone to be with you so you called me. I needed to remember God was with me just now and praying is just like calling Him."
    She raised penciled-in eyebrows. "Okay, I kinda see, but I still don't know why he doesn't just help you out."
    "Because He's like a father. He wants you to have a wonderful life, but sometimes it's better for you to work through the problem so you learn to cope with all life throws at you."
    Her skinny brows crinkled. "So what did you learn from that whole mess last month?"
    "Things happen and you have no control over them so why spend time trying."
    "I don't try to control things."
    I laughed at her literal interpretation. "I meant me, Daisy. I like to control things."
    She nodded rapidly. "Don't I know it. At work, you're always acting like the boss."
    I shook my head and laughed again. "I am the boss."
    "Oh, yeah, right." Her eyes drifted off, and she jabbed a fuzzy finger at the edge of the woods. "Look, there's Adam."
    My sweetie, wearing dark blue jeans paired with a deep green polo shirt, stood arguing with a uniformed officer who was turning red and seemed to want to keep Adam out of the crime scene. When I first met Adam, I didn't think he was super attractive. His eyes and nose were a little too large for his face. If you stared at him when he was still, the features seemed out of place, but when he smiled or grew animated like now, everything fit splendidly and my heart raced from seeing him.
    That first day I'd nicknamed him an iris for the plain pointed leaves shooting from the ground before a stunning display of flowers took your breath away, and I haven't changed my mind. Irises were, in my opinion, the most varied and useful genus in the garden. Like them, Adam was very low maintenance and trouble free. Oh, and very important in life recently, irises were quite pest-free, which came in handy when I needed protection from a pest like Mitch.
    Sadly, Adam wasn't trouble free right now. In fact, he was waving his fists and raising his voice, demanding to see me. Mitch took his time, sauntering over to his officer to authorize Adam's entry.
    As soon as Mitch stepped back, Adam brushed past him and charged across the clearing. "Are you two okay?"
    At the concern in his eyes, I smiled to ease his worry. "We're fine. But I think Mitch might try to pin this on Daisy."
    Adam gave Daisy a tight smile. A practiced lawyer's I'm-here-to-help-but-I'm-not-a-miracle-worker smile. He used the same one on me at our first encounter when Mitch thought I was a prime murder suspect.
    Adam clapped his hands together and peered at me. "Okay, first things first. If you think Mitch is trying to implicate Daisy then you also think the man was murdered. Who is he?"
    "We don't know yet. But I think Mitch does."
    "He didn’t mention it, but let me see if I can find out." Adam spun and marched with