Murder at the Courthouse by A. H. Gabhart Page B

office beside the barbershop. From the way unopened mail was piled on the secretary’s desk, it looked as if Janelle’s little boy must still be sick. Michael went on back to Reece’s office, where the lawyer was dozing in his chair with Two Bits curled in his lap. Michael rapped lightly on the door facing.
    Reece opened his eyes, almost as though he’d just had them closed in deep thought rather than being asleep. “Michael, I’m afraid you caught me napping.” He grinned sheepishly. “I miss Janelle out front. She wears those clickety high heels that always wake me up before she gets back to my office to tell me somebody’s here.”
    Michael laughed. “Guess I should have stomped a little coming down the hall. I was coming over to get a haircut, but I see Joe’s closed shop and left you holding the cat.”
    Reece stroked the sleeping cat lightly. “Joe’s gone to see his sister, Elizabeth. The one down in Tennessee.”
    â€œSort of a sudden trip, wasn’t it? I mean, for Joe.”
    â€œShe’s been sick, and he said he got word she was some worse. Said he had to go check on her. Asked me to watch Two Bits for a few days. Joe told me to just leave him in the barbershop, but I didn’t want the poor thing to get lonesome over there all by himself. So I brought him over here for the day.”
    â€œHe looks content enough.”
    â€œJust like me, eh?” Reece laughed a little. Folks in Hidden Springs had been bringing their problems to Reece Sheridan for more than forty years, and in all that time, Michael doubted he’d made even one enemy. The worst anybody could say about him was that he kept his best fishing spots secret.
    â€œYou said it. Not me.”
    Reece’s laugh settled in the deep creases around his eyes to let his smile linger on his face. “Alex would say too content. Did I tell you she’s coming down for a visit this week?”
    Alex Sheridan was Reece’s niece. Until she went away to college, she’d spent at least a month every summer in Hidden Springs at Reece’s house across the street from Michael. On those long summer days, the two of them had been practically inseparable, solemnly vowing one day to be friends forever and the next day vowing with considerably more heat to never speak to one another again.
    After the wreck, Alex had written him every day even before he came out of the coma because she thought somebodyneeded to keep him up on the important things happening in the world. Not just the headlines but more obscure news about endangered panda bears, what color fingernail polish was all the rage, how the rain forest was disappearing, and which songs were number one. Old-fashioned handwritten letters. They were still at Aunt Lindy’s house somewhere.
    â€œIs Alex keeping things under control up in Washington, DC?” Michael asked.
    â€œShe says she’s giving it her best shot.” Reece shook his head. “Don’t tell her I said this, but I think all the politicking is getting to her. I told her to chuck it all and move down here. I’d hang out a new shingle. Sheridan and Sheridan.”
    Michael laughed. “She’d have us whipped into shape in less than ten minutes. Then what would she do?”
    Michael didn’t say what he really thought. That Alex would never be happy in a small town like Hidden Springs. But then again, maybe people had said the same about him a couple of years back, and look at him now. Just about as content as Reece Sheridan.
    â€œSometimes things aren’t all that quiet here in Hidden Springs.” The smile leaked off Reece’s face.
    â€œI guess that’s true enough this week,” Michael admitted reluctantly.
    Reece looked up at him from under bushy white eyebrows. “You think your little friend Karen would mind if you took Alex out one night while she’s here? You know, just to show her a good time.