IN FOR A PENNY (The Granny Series) by Nancy Naigle, Kelsey Browning Page B

days, but afterward I would like to ask you one more favor. Please pick up Daddy’s Torpedo. I’ve left the key on top of the front tire. It’s in the parking lot at 5400 Ellington Boulevard, Salisbury, Georgia, as soon as you get a chance and then store it in the garage.
     
    Maggie, I know right now you’re confused. You may even find yourself hurt and angry eventually, but please know I did what I thought was best for everyone involved. There’s no one in the world I trust more than you.
    Thank you for being my best friend for all these years.
    Love always,
    Lil
     
    An unnatural weight pressed against Maggie’s bladder, and she trotted into the downstairs powder room and plopped on the toilet. What was Lil thinking, leaving her that letter, a piece of paper that no more explained what Lil was about than a man on the moon?
    If you think I’m going to wait until after the Fourth to get to the bottom of this, the brain in that skinny little head of yours is going mushy.
    Maggie flushed, washed her hands and face and stormed outside to find her new best friend, Sera.
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    Chapter Ten
     
    She marched to the gazebo where Sera sat cross-legged in the grass, humming a tune while she painted fine detail on Yankee Doodle Dandy’s top hat.
    “Sera, I know I’m asking favors right and left today—” Maggie tried to catch her breath, “—but I need you to go somewhere with me.”
    “But what about the scratch-off tickets? I was going to work on those as soon as I got done with this costume.”
    “This is even more important.” Shoot. Maggie remembered her truck had under a quarter tank of gas. “And I need you to drive.”
    Some of her desperation must’ve shown in her face because Sera popped to her feet and tossed her paintbrush into a can of water. “It’ll take me ten minutes to break camp.”
    “I’m really sorry about this, but—”
    Sera held up a hand. “You should stop apologizing. It decreases your psychic stamina, opens your brain and body to toxic chemicals.”
    Okay.
    Sera hotfooted it around the house and across the meadow. By the time Maggie caught up with her, the tarp was down and folded and Sera was stowing the last of her few belongings in the van. “Where are we going?”
    “I don’t know.”
    Now, Sera stared at Maggie like she was a pancake shy of a short stack. And oh, didn’t maple syrup sound delicious about now? Maggie shook her head. “I mean, I have an address. Do you have a GPS?”
    Sera waved a hand toward the east. “I go where I’m moved to go.”
    “Then stop by the house and I’ll grab mine.”
    A few minutes later, they were putt-putting out of Summer Haven’s driveway and headed northwest.
    An hour and a half and three pit-stops for Maggie to pee later, Sera pulled up to a gatehouse flanked by tightly woven chain link fence. Maggie leaned toward the driver’s side window and said, “Hi, we’re here to pick up Lillian Summer’s car, but I’m not sure we’re in the right place.”
    “Do you know when she arrived?”
    “Yesterday.”
    He flipped through his papers. “I see it here. It should be in slot number 56. I’ll need your names and IDs before I can let you into the lot.”
    They passed him their driver’s licenses and he jotted down something on his clipboard and passed them back. He had a patch on his shirt sleeve, but the embroidery was too tiny for Maggie to make out the words. It was obvious this was some kind of official facility though.
    She said, “Forgive me—” She glanced at Sera to see if she’d caught Maggie apologizing again. Busted. “I mean, could you tell me what this place is? Our friend left us a note to pick up her car, but no other information.”
    The young man’s face scrunched with what looked like pity and he pointed to the sign to the right of the gate. If it had been a snake, it would’ve bitten her.
    The letters on the metal sign were raised and slightly faded. Strung together, they