Sequestered with the Murderers by Dr. Tanner (books for 8th graders TXT) 📕

my inner voice say, “The case will be solved tomorrow.”

“Gam, I was just told that the case will be solved tomorrow.”

“What! Do you know who murdered Duffy?”

“No,”

“Then how do you know the case will be solved tomorrow.”

“I trust what I heard.”

“Baby, we’re having dinner with Mom and Daddy tonight. You won’t get a chance to work on the case tonight. So how are you going to solve it by tomorrow?”

“I don’t know, but it will happen.”

The phone rang. It was the hostess letting me know Gam’s parents had arrived.

After hanging up the phone, I said, “Gam, let’s go. Your parents have arrived.”

“Okay, let me use the men’s room, then we’ll walk out together.”

When Gam and I approached the booth, his parents were heavy into reading the menu. They didn’t see us standing there.

“Mom, Daddy, we are here,” Gam said.

They both looked up at us, then got up from the booth, and hugged us both.

After a round of civilities and pleasantries, Cutty asked, “What are you two going to order?”

“I’m going to order the fried chicken. It’s excellent. You can order any sides you want. I’m ordering cabbage and stuffing,” I said.

“I’m going to order the same as you, Baby,” Gam said.

“I don’t think I want chicken again. I had chicken salad for lunch. Rach, are you ordering chicken?” Cutty said.

“It smells so good. I know we had chicken salad for lunch, but I’m going to order the fried chicken. The smell has sold me,” Rachel said.

“I’m getting the pork chops, mashed potatoes, and turnip greens,” Cutty said.

A waitress walked over with four glasses of water and a basket of biscuits just as Cutty finished his statement.

“My name is Gail, and I will be your server tonight. I’ve brought you water and a basket of hot biscuits. Are you ready to order now?”

After Gail took the orders and walked away, Gam spoke.

“What’s going on with you two? Why the last-minute cloak and dagger routine?”

“Son, it’s not that at all. We got an approval on something today, and we want to share it with you. That’s all,” Cutty said.

“What is it?” Gam asked.

“We’ve been looking at a home in Florida, and this morning we got approved to buy it,” Rachel said.

“You buying what!” Gam screeched, then looked at me.

“Now, son, this is good for us. It is a senior citizen and gated community. We saw the community when we were in Florida last year. We loved it,” Cutty said, trying his best to appease Gam.

“What are you going to do with your home here?” Gam asked.

“Gam, we are going to sell it. At our age, there is no reason to hang on to it,” Rachel said.

“Mom, why didn’t you tell me about this earlier so I could check out the place? Vett and I could have gone down and checked out the place to make sure you are not getting a raw deal,” Gam said.

“Junior did that for us,” Cutty said.

“You told Junior about your plans ahead of time, and you are just now telling me,” Gam said. Cuthbert Ellison, Jr. was Gam’s older brother with whom he didn’t get along.

“Junior volunteered to check out the place. We didn’t ask you because we knew you would behave exactly the way you are behaving now. You want to keep us wrapped up in a safe bubble. I appreciate that and love you for it, but it’s our life. That community offers so many things that we will never get to do staying put in Blairs. We want to live; we want to have fun. We have the money to do it, so we decided to do it,” Cutty explained.

“What do you think, Vett,” Rachel asked.

I was stuck on the draw to Florida, but I heard her question. Earlier today, Aunt Clove told me about her friend that spends half the year in Florida, and now Gam’s parents are moving there. What’s the lure? It has to be more than the sunshine.

I reached over and held Gam’s hand. “I’m a little surprised by the short notice to Gam, but I do see how strongly you want to do this. Do you have any literature we can read?”

“I do. I brought these brochures with me,” Rachel said as she pulled the brochures from her bag. She handed them to Gam. He didn’t take them, so I did.

“Son, I can promise you Junior checked out the place thoroughly, and his lawyer is reviewing all the documents,” Cutty said.

“Daddy, did it occur to you that I would want to be involved upfront in this, too. This is a major decision you are making. What if you don’t like it in Florida? You won’t have a house to come back to,” Gam said.

“We’ve vacationed in Florida for the last five years. We love it there. I really didn’t want to bother you with all this. You and Vett are still newlyweds. Junior travels a lot with his job, so it was easy for him to check out the place on one of his trips to Florida,” Cutty said.

“Daddy, no disrespect, but don’t bring my marriage into this. Vett and I have seen you and Mom at least once a month since we got married, and I have talked to you on the phone at least once a week. Neither one of you said a word about moving to Florida. So if you. . . .” Sensing Gam was about to say something he would regret, I squeezed his hand tightly. He got the hint and stopped talking.

“Son, I’m sorry. I see now that we should have told you about this at the same time we told Junior.”

From what Rachel had previously shared with me, there has always been a sibling rivalry between Gam and his brother; there are no other siblings. Now that they were adults, Rachel believes Junior has turned his rivalry into envy. Junior wanted to be a sheriff’s detective, but his domestic abuse record and the car accident he was in contributed to him being