Genny's Ballad: The Sisters, Texas Mystery Series, Book 5 Read online

  Genny’s Ballad

  The Sisters, Texas Mystery Series

  Book Five

  Becki Willis

  Copyright ©2017 by Becki Willis

  All rights reserved. No part of this book may be copied, shared, or reproduced without written consent of the author.

  This is a work of fiction. All characters, businesses, and interaction with these people and places are purely fictional and a figment of the writer’s imagination.

  Books by Becki Willis

  He Kills Me, He Kills Me Not

  Forgotten Boxes

  Tangible Spirits

  Mirrors Don’t Lie Series

  The Girl from Her Mirror, Book 1

  Mirror, Mirror on Her Wall, Book 2

  Light from Her Mirror, Book 3

  The Sisters, Texas Mystery Series

  Chicken Scratch, Book 1

  When the Stars Fall, Book 2

  Stipulations and Complications, Book 3

  Home Again: Starting Over, Book 4

  Genny’s Ballad, Book 5

  Nov. 2017: Christmas in The Sisters, Book 6

  Genny’s Ballad

  Becki Willis

  Books by Becki Willis

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  Chapter Twenty-Two

  Chapter Twenty-Three

  Chapter Twenty-Four

  Chapter One

  A noise alerted her to the danger.

  Genesis Baker awoke with a start, hearing a car door slam nearby. A bleary-eyed study of the alarm clock revealed the early morning hour. Two-o-five. Much too early for visitors.

  Genny lifted her mussed blond head from the pillow, cocking it to one side as she listened for more. A noisy bump. An unmistakable grunt.

  Someone was definitely outside.

  She sat up in bed and grabbed her phone, her fingers already poised on the buttons. Her heart tapped out a crazy tempo as her mind went blank. Whom should she call?

  Maddy would come, no matter the hour. But, really, what could her best friend do? It would be two women against an unknown enemy.

  She could call 9-1-1. The Sisters police department would come, even though she technically lived just outside the Naomi city limits. If not Brash deCordova and his small team of police, the River County sheriff’s department would come to her aid. It just might take a while.

  Or she could call Cutter. He lived less than a mile away. Not only was he the chief of the Volunteer Fire Department, he was also some sort of honorary member of local law enforcement.

  Without further hesitation, Genny scrolled down to his name and hit re-dial.

  “’Lo?” He answered on the first ring, his voice rusty with sleep.

  “Cutter?” She spoke in a loud whisper. “Someone is outside my house.”

  He came instantly awake. Genny heard movement on the other end of the line as he flung away the covers and departed from a squeaky mattress. “Don’t open the door until you hear my voice,” he instructed gruffly. “I’m on my way.”

  Ten seconds ticked by. Fifteen. Unable to just sit there and wait for potential danger to strike, Genny jumped from her bed and padded across the room in her bare feet. She moved into the hall cautiously, avoiding the squeaky spot just outside her bedroom door. The same board had been a tattletale for years, even way back when she was a teenager.

  Despite the inopportune timing, an old memory sneaked into her heart. It was a summer night, hot and sultry, and Tommy waited just outside. For Tommy Evans, life was one big adventure, and he wanted to share it with her. Their parents said eighteen was too young to marry, too young to know true love. But their parents were wrong. With a backpack flung over her shoulder and stars in her eyes, Genny had slipped quietly from her room that night, eager to take the future into her own hands. Who knew that her future with Tommy would last no more than twelve hours? And that the whole of Tommy’s future could be measured in mere weeks?

  Unexpected tears pricked Genny’s eyes. She rarely thought of her first love anymore, perhaps because it was too painful. Or perhaps because her parents had been right, after all. Tommy was not her one true love. Tommy, with his twinkling eyes and rakish smile. He made everything sound fun, everything feel exhilarating. With Tommy, life was all about the highs. Genesis had truly loved him. She had. But love, like life itself, had to weather the lows, and Tommy did not do lows. For a love to last, it had to stretch the distance between the two.

  Shaking the unwanted memory away, Genesis focused on the present. Now was not the time for distractions, or for wandering down Nostalgia Lane. Now was the time for action.

  She crept down the hall and entered the small living room. The room was dark as pitch, except for the pale light filtered through vintage wooden shutters. A year ago, when Genny moved back into her childhood home, she limited updates to a fresh coat of paint and her own furnishings. She found it comforting to be surrounded by her past and the assurance that some things never changed.

  Sidestepping a chair and small side table, Genny sidled up to the windows facing the front of the house and peeked outside. The security light in the yard revealed nothing unusual. She moved along to the side windows for a different view.

  There, off to the left. Was that a faint glimmer of reflection? Was that movement? She thought she detected two distinct objects, moving subtly in the shadows. And what was that pounding noise? Was it coming from outside, or from within her chest? Genesis slapped a hand over her heart, willing it to quieten down. She was trying to concentrate here.

  The shadows shifted. Separated. Divide and conquer? The thought sent her heart into another noisy round of clatter. But no, she saw a flash of light at the edge of the yard, this one distinct. A car door, perhaps, as it opened and shut. That would explain the sudden flash of red. Brake lights.

  Lights from an approaching vehicle glinted off the chrome bumper, momentarily illuminating the vehicle as it darted away from her house. It was little more than glitter in the night, a streak that disappeared as quickly as a falling star.

  Genny sighed with relief, expecting to see Cutter’s big truck pull into her driveway. Instead, she watched as lights raced past her house in pursuit. Genny ran back to the front windows for a better view. All she saw was a streak of red as it disappeared round a curve.

  It seemed an eternity before the lights came again, bouncing across her front yard. Cutter jumped from his truck and bounded up to the door she had already flung open.

  “I told you not to open the door!” he chastised, even before his boot touched the first step.

  His deep scowl did not concern her. “I knew it was you. I was watching. Did you catch them?”

  “No.” He ran a frustrated hand through his dark blond hair, rumpling it even more than it already was. In his haste, he had not donned his customary cowboy hat.

  Cutter Montgomery looked good with bed head.

  Genesis turned away with deliberate nonchalance, determined not to notice. Yet her eyes kept straying to his rumpled shirt, the buttons not properly aligned.
He had not taken the time to tuck his shirttail into his belt. The off-kilter sides revealed a half-zipped fly. Not that she noticed that, either.

  “I chased them all the way back to town, but I guess I lost them somewhere along the way,” he said in frustration. He followed her into the dark house without waiting for an invitation. “Tell me what happened.”

  “Watch your eyes,” she warned as she bent to switch on a lamp. The defused light was softer than that of the overhead fixture, something she was certain they could both appreciate at two in the morning.

  “I heard a noise,” she recalled. “A door slammed. It woke me up from a dead sleep. Someone was outside.”

  “What were they doing?”

  “I don’t know, but they must have come into the yard. I heard a bump. And a grunt, like maybe they ran into something.” She frowned. “Whoever it was would make a terrible thief. They weren’t very stealthy.”

  “Maybe they were drunk,” Cutter offered. “I’ll take a look around outside.”

  “Be careful!”

  He gave her a lop-sided grin. “They’re long gone by now, Genny. You stay here while I check it out.”

  He was gone long enough to circle the perimeter of her modest home. Genesis curled up in a chair while she waited, but flew out of it when he opened the door.

  “Did you see anything? What is that in your hand?”

  “I found this lighter around back.”

  Her voice rose with a note of mild panic. “They were trying to start a fire?”

  “I don’t know. Maybe they were using it for light. Maybe they were smoking.” He shrugged. “Maybe it’s one of yours.”

  Genny shook her blond head, her own short locks in disarray. “I don’t have one like that.”

  Cutter shook the small plastic casing, holding it up toward the light for inspection. “Doesn’t matter,” he declared. “It’s empty.”

  She sighed with relief, until a new worry struck her. “Did they try to get in?”

  “Not that I could tell. I didn’t see any footprints, just some disturbed grass around the flowerbeds. There was an overturned bucket, so maybe that’s what you heard.”

  “Probably,” she murmured. She ran her hands up and down her arms, warding off a sudden chill in the air.

  “Do you want me to call this in?” he offered.

  “And say what? That a car stopped out front and woke me up? It wouldn’t do any good,” she admitted in frustration.

  “It might make you feel better.”

  “What could the police do that you haven’t already done?” Resigned, Genny shook her head. “I’m sorry I drug you out of bed for nothing, Cutter.”

  “It wasn’t ‘nothing’. Someone was definitely outside. I followed them, remember?”

  “But they’re gone now, and we both need to get some sleep. Maybe we can still salvage what’s left of the night.”

  He looked dubious. “Are you sure?”

  “Absolutely,” she lied. “I probably over-reacted. Maybe it was just someone stopped along the road. They slammed the car door, so they obviously weren’t trying to sneak up on me. Maybe it was a cat I heard. And there’s no telling how long that lighter has been out there.”

  Cutter looked down at the lighter he held. It showed no signs of being out in the elements. The metal igniter was shiny and untarnished, the plastic housing still vivid with color. Yet he pretended to go along with her theories, if only to ease her mind.

  “You’re probably right. I’m sure it was nothing.”

  Genny faked a yawn. “I’ll be all groggy in the morning.”

  Cutter flashed a smile. “Okay, I can take a hint.”

  Genesis followed him to the door, where he looked down at her with lingering doubt. “You’re sure you’re okay? I can hang around for a while, if you like.”

  “I’m fine, Cutter, really I am. I’m sorry I got you out in the middle of the night.”

  “I’m a fireman. Comes with the territory.”

  “Yes, but it shouldn’t include crazy old women who panic every time they hear things go bump in the night.”

  “One, you’re not crazy. Two, you’re not old. And three, you’re not the type to panic.” He leveled her a long look. “So what’s the difference this time?”

  She squirmed under his scrutiny. “I’ve had a few calls lately,” she admitted. “I answer, but no one’s ever there.”

  He was instantly concerned. “How long has this been happening, Genny?”

  She lifted one shoulder. “I don’t know. A little while.”

  “How long?”

  She pushed her toe along the grooves of a wooden plank, following the movement with her gaze. “A few weeks.”

  “Why haven’t you told me about this before?”

  “I’m telling you now.”

  “Genny...”

  She stopped him before he could give her a lecture. “You know how unreliable our telephones are. At first, I thought it was just a bad connection.”

  “At first,” he repeated flatly. “So what made you change your mind?”

  She worried the edges of her hair, torturing one blond tendril as she twisted it round and round her finger. “Not even our service is that spotty,” she admitted.

  “Why haven’t you mentioned this before now, Genny!” he exploded. He made it a statement, more than a question.

  “Because their number doesn’t show up on caller I.D. or *69. They never say anything, so they’ve never made a threat. All they do is call and hang up.”

  “It’s harassment, Genny.”

  She released a sigh. “It’s bothersome, that’s for sure.”

  “Maybe I should call this in...”

  “No, really, please don’t. It’s not worth reporting. I’m sorry now that I even called you.”

  “Don’t be. Don’t ever hesitate to call me, Genny. I’ll come, no matter how late it is.” His hazel eyes were sincere.

  Genny laid her hand onto his arm. “I know. And thank you, Cutter. I appreciate that.”

  His eyes slipped to the outfit she wore. Pale pink, with leopard-print words ‘Purr-fection in Pink’ that matched her spotted shorts. The V-neck was a bit too low and the material a bit too thin to be Genny’s idea of perfection, but she was a sucker for cute nightclothes. They cheered her up when she crawled into her bed alone each night.

  He smiled and drawled, “It’s purr-fectly fine, Genny darlin’.”

  She rolled her eyes, fighting off a blush as she pushed him out the door. She had forgotten how skimpily she was dressed, but this was not the first time he had seen the pajamas. She had worn them while recuperating from smoke inhalation just a few short weeks ago. “Good night, Cutter.”

  “Night. Lock your doors,” he added needlessly.

  Genny made sure the deadbolt fastened. She re-checked three times, just to be certain.

  No matter what she told Cutter, she knew it had not been a cat outside her house tonight. She went back to bed, but she did not sleep another wink.

  Chapter Two

  One week earlier...

  “You’re coming over tonight to watch the show, right?” Madison Reynolds asked.

  “Can’t skip an episode now,” Genny grinned. “Just three more before the big finale.”

  “And then maybe, just maybe, life can go back to normal,” her best friend said, blowing out a wistful sigh. “Remind me again. Why did I think being the star of a reality television show was a good idea?”

  “Because it was the only way you could afford to remodel The Big House and bring it into the twenty-first century.”

  “Ah, yes, that’s right. My dearly departed husband left me broke and desperate. My grandmother sold me a one-hundred-year mansion for the price of an exclusive designer handbag, then conned a celebrity carpenter into remodeling it for free. All I had to do was open my life to the prying eyes of the public.”

  “Three more episodes, my friend. Then Nick and Amanda will be off to revive the next house, bringin
g fame and chaos to some other poor, unsuspecting soul. Soon, the public will forget all about this tiny little spot in the road we call home.”

  “One could only wish,” Madison sighed.

  While the crew added final touches to the old house, the family was banned from the premises. The next time Madison and her family went inside, it would be for the final reveal.

  The thought was oddly terrifying. After months of having the house overrun with carpenters, designers, and crewmembers, after wading through the media, the curious sightseers, and all the hoopla that came with filming a television reality show, Maddy and the twins would have the house to themselves. Just the three of them.

  Not for the first time, panic threatened to overcame her. “After all I’ve been through getting to this point, I’m suddenly a nervous wreck. It’s crazy, I know. I’m crazy.”

  “You’re not crazy, Maddy. Of course you’re nervous about it,” Genny reassured her best friend.

  “The house is so huge,” she said, sipping on a cup of freshly brewed coffee. “I don’t think I ever stopped to think about just the three of us, rattling around in all those rooms. And can you imagine what my electric bill is going to be?”

  “Yes, but you have the energy-efficient version of everything. It probably won’t be as bad as you think.”

  Madison turned to stare out the café window, but her hazel eyes were blind to the cars gathered out front. “It’s just that it’s all coming down to the wire now, and they won’t even let me in to see it,” she grumbled. “Plus, there’s so much else going on. We’ve seen a surge in clients — thanks for letting me borrow my old booth, by the way — Murray Archer has me working on this new case, the Centennial Celebration is just around the corner and, in between it all, my babies turn sixteen.” Emotion pricked at her eyes and her voice turned melancholy. “I can’t believe it, Gen. Where did the time go?”

  Genny’s voice was firm and upbeat. “We agreed. No more of that. This is a happy, exciting time, for all of you. And this party is going to be great.”

  “Thanks to you. You’re the one doing all the heavy lifting.”