“We need to call Kermit,” I said. We’d made it out of the house in record time and were already driving my truck to Henryetta.

Neely Kate waved her hand in dismissal. “We’ll call him after we know more about what’s goin’ on.”

I frowned, but in the end, I decided she was right. Kermit Cooper was a private investigator who lived and worked out of a ramshackle trailer on the west end of town. Neely Kate was bound and determined for us to become real private investigators, but the only way to become legit was to shadow a licensed PI for two years or get a criminology degree. So a few weeks ago, Jed had set us up with Kermit the Hermit to get our training . . . only training wasn’t an accurate term. More like we did all of his work and he got paid. We’d already worked two cases for him—a lost parrot and, just last week, a cheating husband. He was essentially useless, but we’d have to bring him in at some point. The only way we could legally investigate an active police case was if we were licensed PIs—or interning for one. Still, I couldn’t imagine someone as lazy as Kermit being upset that we’d skipped a step.

“What do you think Patsy’s doin’ at the Broken Branch Motel?” I asked. “That place is so seedy it could grow a garden.”

“Hidin’ out?”

I shot her a worried look. “So the police are lookin’ for her? She’s a fugitive?”

“We really should get a police scanner,” Neely Kate said. “Then we’d know for certain. I think I can find out another way.” She held out her hand. “But I’m gonna need my phone.”

I’d kept her phone in my pocket, but before I reached for it, I said, “No callin’ Joe.”

Her upper lip curled. “I’m sure as Pete not tellin’ him what we’re doin’.”

“I’m talkin’ about Dena. You need to cool off first.”

Her brow furrowed. “That’s a discussion for another time. We’re on a case.”

I gave her the phone, and she made a few calls—one to an ER nurse she knew, one to her cousin who knew a sheriff dispatcher, and a last-ditch call to her friend who worked at the courthouse, none of whom knew anything about a murder. I could have sworn she sent a few texts too, but the not-so-innocent looks she shot me meant they were probably unrelated to the case. Something told me Joe was about to get an eyeful.

“Maybe Carol Ann wasn’t murdered in Henryetta,” I said. “I know she wasn’t stayin’ with Patsy. Maybe she was stayin’ up in Magnolia or over in El Dorado.”

“Maybe, but something stinks about this whole mess.”

“I agree, and I guess we’re about to find out,” I said as the motel came into view.

I pulled into the Broken Branch Motel’s pea gravel parking lot. Most of the gravel was gone, leaving hard-packed ground. There were only a few cars parked in the lot, one of them a shiny bright red Lincoln with the words “Baby Spice” in the back window.

“That’s Patsy’s car,” Neely Kate said. “She just got it about six months ago and couldn’t stop braggin’ about how Calvin had bought it for her as an appreciation gift.”

“I’m scared to ask why it says Baby Spice.”

“That’s a story you’re probably better off not knowing, but I will tell you that it involves some kinky stuff Patsy tried to spice up her sex life with Calvin.”

I gawked at her. “What?”

Her mouth twisted to the side. “Like I said, you’re better off not knowing, but after that, Calvin started calling her Baby Spice.”

I frowned. “Dena said she’d heard through the grapevine that Calvin was sleepin’ with Carol Ann. That’s why the two cousins really got into a fight. Not over the fried chicken recipe.”

Neely Kate looked livid at the mention of Dena’s name. “Well, Dena’s slow on the uptake, because Patsy got her shiny new car after she caught her husband cheating with his secretary.”

“So Calvin’s a serial cheater?”

“The list is a mile long.”

The Lincoln was parked next to a beat-up pickup truck several doors down from room twenty-five, so I parked in front of the room and got out, meeting Neely Kate on the sidewalk that ran alongside the building. “If Patsy’s hidin’ from the police, she’s doin’ a poor job of it.”

Neely Kate shot me a grin. “Patsy may be known as a real-estate shark, but she got there through intimidation, not smarts. She probably figures she’s safe since this place is about ten feet outside the city limits. It’s the Fenton County Sheriff’s Department’s jurisdiction.”

She really thought that would save her? And why would it matter if Carol Ann had been murdered somewhere else?

I knocked on room twenty-five’s door. It opened a few inches, and Patsy Sue’s face appeared in the crack.

“Do you promise to help me?” she asked.

“How do you know Carol Ann’s been murdered?” Neely Kate asked. “I made a few calls, and no one knows about a murder.”

“Oh my God!” Patsy screeched, opening the door a few inches wider. “You told people!”

Neely Kate gave her a look of disgust. “Please. I’m not an amateur. I was discreet and no names were used. What I want to know is how you know she was murdered.”

I was starting to get a very bad feeling. “Patsy. What’s behind that door?”

Guilt filled her eyes.

“Oh my God!” Neely Kate exclaimed. “Did you call us to the murder scene?”

Patsy Sue threw the door open and grabbed my wrist, dragging me into the room before I had a chance to pull away. Relief made me light-headed when I saw there was no one on the disheveled bed.

Neely Kate, who’d followed us in, sighed the moment her eyes met the empty bed. She looked as relieved as I felt.

We’d let our guards down too soon. It wasn’t until Patsy shut the door that I saw Carol Ann lying on the floor on the other side of the bed.

Neely Kate came to an abrupt halt as her gaze landed on the body. “Patsy Sue! What the Sam Hill do you think you’re doin’?”

“Now you’re part of it,” Patsy said in a rush, waving her hands around. “Your DNA’s all over the place.”

Neely Kate gave her the evil eye, not that I blamed her. “That’s not how it works, Patsy,” she snapped, “and thank you very much for trying to implicate us. We need to call the police!”

“No! They’ll think I did it!”

“Did you do it?” Neely Kate demanded with both hands on her hips.

“No! I just found her here!”

I held up my hands, my head swimming. Poor Carol Ann was lying on the floor, but I didn’t see any sign of blood. What if she was just passed out? “Did you check to see if she’s alive?”

“No way!” Patsy Sue said, shaking her head. “I’m not goin’ anywhere near her!”

I shot Neely Kate a look, and she tilted her head toward the bed. I was the one closest to the body, so I got the task of checking for a pulse.

I tiptoed around the foot of the bed, then squatted next to Carol Ann. She’d showered and changed since the picnic, but her hot pink capris and white shirt didn’t seem to go with the thin blue scarf with giant white whales around her neck. It confused me until I realized it was a men’s tie.

Oh crap.

The tie was wrapped around her neck twice, the ends intertwined. Carol Ann’s face was pale, and I was sure she was dead, but I apprehensively pressed my hand against her neck and searched for a pulse. Her skin was abnormally cold, so I jerked my hand back and quickly stood. “Yep. She’s dead.”

Neely Kate swiped the screen of her phone. “I’m calling Joe.”

Patsy Sue lunged for Neely Kate, reaching for her phone. “No! I’ll pay you a thousand dollars to help me get rid of her body!”

Neely Kate’s face paled and she paused long enough for Patsy to snatch her phone and stuff it down the front of her shirt.

“You give that back right now!” Neely Kate shouted, holding out her hand. “Don’t you think I won’t go after it!”

This was going from bad to worse, so I called Joe myself.

“Rose,” he groaned when he answered. “If this is about me canceling on Neely Kate—”

“That’s not it,” I said in a rush as Neely Kate reached for the front of Patsy’s pink button-down shirt.

“I’ve already had my shirt ripped off once today,” Patsy Sue snarled. “What’s one more!”

“What’s goin’ on over there?” Joe asked, sounding more alert.

I could tell him straightaway or break it to him in person. In person seemed like the best approach. Carol Ann couldn’t get any deader. “I need you to come to the Broken Branch Motel.”

“Why?” His hesitation was evident. “What on earth are you doin’ there?”

“Let’s just say there’s a situation we need your help with right away. Room twenty-five.”

“And don’t you dare bring Dena!” Neely Kate shouted while holding Patsy in a headlock.

“Neely Kate said—”

“I heard what Neely Kate said,” he grumbled, then hung up.

“You called the sheriff?” Patsy Sue demanded, trying to twist out of Neely Kate’s hold. She reached into her shirt, then threw Neely Kate’s phone across the room. It hit the old TV with a hard thud, causing the screen to crack into multiple pieces as the phone fell to the floor.

Neely Kate let Patsy go and ran for her phone, but Patsy took advantage of her momentary freedom and bolted for the door. When she threw it open, it slammed into Neely Kate, knocking her off balance as Patsy ran toward her car.

“Come back here, Patsy Sue Clydehopper!” Neely Kate shouted as she got to her feet. “You’re paying for my new cell phone!”

But Patsy had already gotten into her car. She backed out of the lot, sending gravel everywhere when she hit the brakes and shot onto the county road.

“You know Joe’s gonna blame us for this,” I said, watching her speed away.

“Yep,” she said, staring at the car too. “How much trouble do you think we’re in?”

“I think we need to make a preemptive call to Carter Hale.”

“My divorce attorney?”

“My defense attorney.”

She held out her hand. “Give me your phone.”

I clutched it tighter. “Why?”

“Because Patsy cracked mine, and I know who we really need to call.”

“James?”

She snorted. “How’s Skeeter Malcolm gonna help us out of this? I’m calling Kermit.”

I shook my head. Of all the people who could potentially help us, the crotchety old detective would probably be last on my list. “What?”

“Just give me your phone.”

I did as she asked and she entered my password, tapped around, and then pressed the phone to her ear. A few seconds later, she said, “Kermit, this is Neely Kate.” She rolled her eyes. “Neely Kate Rivers. How many Neely Kates do you know?” She paused again and groaned. “Okay. I don’t actually need a list, but I do need you to listen. Joe Simmons is gonna be calling you, asking if Rose and I are workin’ on a case for you, and you’re gonna tell him yes.” She paused and irritation washed over her face. “Rose Gardner. The other woman who’s working with you. Listen! I need you to tell him we’re helping you prove Patsy Sue Clydehopper is innocent of her cousin’s murder. Can you do that?”

I gasped in surprise. How could she possibly think Patsy was innocent? We’d found her in here with Carol Ann’s dead body, and she’d offered to pay us to dispose of the evidence.

“No, I didn’t negotiate a fee,” she said. “I was too busy wrestling her for my phone, but whatever she’s payin’ is more money than you had five minutes ago, and you won’t even have to lift a finger.” She grinned. “Fine.” Then she hung up.

I gaped at her in shock.

Her brow lowered. “If we say we’re actually workin’ a case, we’re less likely to get hauled to the county jail.”

“Joe wouldn’t dare haul you off,” I said. “He already knows you’re ticked at him.”

“Good. I was worried the insults in my texts might have gone over his head. But you know just last week he threatened to haul us in after he found us takin’ surveillance photos of Edgar coming out of his girlfriend’s house.”

“That’s because someone called us in for prowlin’,” I said.

“And now he’s gonna find us standing in a motel room with a dead body, and we let the suspect run off. He’s gonna be pissed.”

That was an understatement.

Ten minutes later, we heard a knock on the partially closed door and Joe pushed it open. “What the hell is goin’ on, Rose?”

“What’s wrong?” Neely Kate asked in a bitter tone. “Was Dena pissed that you had to leave her to come help us?”

The scowl on his face suggested she was onto something.

I held up my hands. “Y’all can continue that conversation later. We need to focus on this first.” I held Joe’s gaze. “I need you to keep in mind that this wasn’t our fault.”

Joe groaned. “Oh, God. Did you break into this room?”

“We’ll have you know that we were invited in,” Neely Kate said.

Joe’s gaze landed on the busted television screen. “Why’s the TV broken?”

“Because Patsy Sue Clydehopper threw my phone at it,” she said matter-of-factly.

His gaze jerked back to his sister. “What was Patsy Sue Clydehopper doin’ here?”

“She’s the one who invited us,” Neely Kate said.

Joe turned to me with a look that suggested he was done with nonsense. “What in the hell’s goin’ on here, Rose?”

I grimaced and moved around the end of the bed. “I think you’re gonna want to see this.”

With a look of trepidation, he followed—and then abruptly stopped in his tracks. “Is that what I think it is?”

“Are you thinkin’ it’s Carol Ann Nelson’s dead body?” I asked.

Joe’s face was beet red as he glanced up at me. “It’s like you’re a damn mind reader.”

“Nope,” I said, forcing a light tone to ease the tension. “I just see the future.”

“Well, it’s not gonna take a vision to see that you’ve got some explaining to do.”

Boy, did I know it.