“And there are a couple of cousins I can tolerate.”
“The question is,” she said, unable to resist the opportunity he’d practically handed her on a silver platter, “will they be able to tolerate you?”
He lifted a heavy shoulder. “I am a bit of an acquired taste.”
Her phone rang before they got back to town, and she almost didn’t answer the unrecognized number. Tía Juana’s was calling her name and her mouth watered as visions of Mexican cuisine danced through her head.
“Are you going to get that?” Quincy asked, charging into her daydream like a hangry bull.
“I just want to eat.” She pressed the green button only to be surprised when her mother came on the line.
“Where are you?”
Alarm shot through her. “Mom? I’m on my way back. What’d she do now?”
“Who, sweetheart?”
It was sad that every time her parents called her anymore, Sun’s first thought slingshot to Auri. Or, more accurately, to what trouble Auri had gotten herself into. “Never mind. Whose phone are you using?”
“Wanda’s. Mine jumped out of my hands and fell in the toilet.”
Of course it did. “Wanda is with you?” She grinned at her sidekick, who scrubbed his forehead, keeping up the act. He loved the old girl and he would never convince Sun otherwise.
“Yes. I have you on speakerphone. Everyone’s here waiting.”
When she questioned Quincy with a raised brow, he just shrugged. “First, who’s everyone? Second, why are you at the station?”
The sauciness of her mother’s voice when she answered came through in glaring Technicolor. “Well, if you don’t know why we’re here, how do you know we’re at the station?”
“Because I can hear Darlene talking to my administrative assistant.”
“Oh,” she said, clearly impressed. “You’re good.”
“That’s why they pay me the big bucks.”
Her mother snorted. “We were supposed to come in today? Crime? Research? Ringing any bells?”
“Not any familiar ones.”
“That’s okay. I know Drew found a woman in the canyon.”
Freaking small towns.
“How is she? Will she be okay? Do I know her?”
“Mom, you know I can’t give out any info yet.”
“But I’m your mother.”
Sun took a left onto Highway 50. “I’ll be there in five. You don’t happen to have any taquitos, do you?”
“Not on me. But Ruby did bake some muffins. We brought a basket over.”
That woman and her muffins. “That’s probably why this poor girl got hurt in the canyon.”
“Sun, you can’t honestly believe Ruby’s muffins are cursed.”
She pressed the phone to her chest and said to Quincy, “I’m beginning to wonder.”
“I tried to tell you.”
She nodded and put the phone back to her ear.
“Did you find Levi?” a young girl asked. A girl with a startlingly familiar voice.
“Auri? Why are you at the station? Why aren’t you in school?”
“I’m going back now. I kind of accidentally missed fifth period. And possibly first.”
“Aurora Dawn Vicram.”
“I’m sorry, Mom. I thought I might know who that girl is, but I was wrong.”
Sun struggled for patience. “Mother, can you take me off speaker for a minute?”
“Why?” Auri asked. “Did you find Levi? What happened?”
“This isn’t about Levi, bug. I’ll see you in a bit.”
“Okay then,” she said, her voice deflating. “Love you.”
“I love you, too.”
“Okay, you’re off speaker,” her mom said, whispering into the phone. God, she loved these people. “What’s up?”
Since she had her on the phone, maybe she knew something about Sun’s first victim of the day. “Any thoughts on who might have stabbed Doug in the neck with a knitting needle?”
Auri chimed in once again. “Doug was stabbed in the neck with a knitting needle?”
“Mother,” Sun said, aghast.
“Sorry. I pushed the button, I swear.”
Sun could hear her mother literally stabbing her phone. “Okay. It’s okay, Mom. She knows now.” How the sheriff’s office managed to keep any secrets in this town was the biggest mystery of all.
“Why would you keep that from me?” Auri asked.
“Sweetheart, you’ve had enough violence in your life lately, don’t you think?”
“I guess. He’s a little creepy but he seems nice. Who would stab him?”
Sun stilled at the thought of Doug flashing her daughter. She would kill him. A plethora of charges ran through her mind—indecent exposure, public nuisance, assault with a limp noodle. “Auri, has he ever flashed you?”
“No. Gross, Mom. I’m just a kid.”
Relief flooded every cell in her body. “What about you, Mother?”
“No, Sunshine. I’ve told you before, he only flashes women he can get a rise out of. The first and only time he tried to flash me, I giggled.”
“I knew it! Everyone just needs to laugh at him. He’ll stop.”
“Well, I’m fairly certain your father paid him a visit later that day. That probably helped, too.”
She was right. That would certainly do the trick.
“Hey, Sunny,” her dad said.
He was at the station, too? Was it a block party and she hadn’t been invited? “Dad, did you threaten Doug?”
“Sure did. With a mallet and a chisel, if I recall correctly.”
Sounded about right.
“Why does he flash people, Mom?” Auri asked. “It’s disgusting.”
“We can discuss it later. For now, you stay away from that man, okay?”
“Aye-aye, Cap’n.”
She grinned. “Have you been sneaking my pirate romances again?”
“No,” she said with only a slight hesitation.
Sun rolled her eyes. She needed a better hiding spot. “So, Mom, Dad, any thoughts on who could’ve done it?”
“I’ve considered it,” her mom said. “Only I’d aim a little lower.”
“Yeah, well, you have a pretty solid alibi. Anyone else you can think of? He swears he was attacked by a gang.”
“A gang of knitters?”
“Exactly! If you hear anything, will you let me know?”
“Will do, hon.”
“I’m taking the kid back to school,” her dad said.
“Thanks, Dad. Can you make sure she stays this time?”
“No idea how to do that other than implanting a tracking chip under her skin.”
“Can you get your hands on one?”
“No,” Auri said. “That sounds painful.”
“So does a life of solitary confinement in your room. Get your ass to school and keep it there. You can tell me about your suspicions later.”
“All right.”
“Bye, pumpkin,” Sun heard her mom say, followed by kissy sounds. “Okay, I’m back. Where are you?”