Miz Scarlet and the Bewildered Bridegroom by Sara M. Barton Page A

sidewalls.” Even as she said
that, I knew it had to have happened at the inn. The entrance to
the interstate was less than a quarter of a mile down the road.
What other explanation was there? The question was who and why? Was
someone really out to get Jenny? I tried distracting her. “What
kind of car is Hammerhead driving?”
    “VW
Golf.”
    “What
color?”
    “Black,” Jenny informed
me. I searched the horizon for some telltale sign, and sure enough,
I spotted blinking tail lights in the distance.
    “I think we’ve found
you.”
    A moment later, Kenny
pulled up behind the small compact car. “Thank God the kid had the
good sense to put on the emergency flashers and get the car onto
the shoulder. Can you call Danny DiPietro for a tow? Here’s his
home phone number, Scarlet. I just want to take a closer
look.”
    Kenny gave me the
information before he pulled a long Maglite flashlight from the
toolbox he kept on the floor behind the front seat and got out of
the car. He went over every inch of the Golf’s exterior with a
light bright enough to illuminate the airport runway at Bradley
Field. Bur and Hammerhead stood behind him, consulting from time to
time. Jenny had the good sense to come and sit with
me.
    “I can’t believe this,”
she admitted, her teeth chattering. “Why did someone do this to us?
It’s so mean!”
    “It is, isn’t it?” I
patted her knee. “Don’t you worry, Jen. We’ll get to the bottom of
this mess. In the meantime, let me call for that tow
truck.”
    Danny was at home,
watching television, when his phone rang. He was less than
enthusiastic about personally coming out to pick up the car until I
told him it was for Kenny. “Give me ten minutes, Scarlet. I have to
grab my helper. You said all four tires are flat?”
    “Couldn’t be any
flatter. Kenny thinks it’s related to the apparent break-in we had
at the inn earlier today. Someone smashed a window trying to get in
through the sun porch.”
    “Did you ruffle some
feathers again, Miz Scarlet,” I heard Danny chuckle on the other
end. “Is someone out to get you?”
    “Actually, we think the
target might be the teenage girl who lives with us. It could be a
stalker.”
    “Hmm, in that case, I
think I’ll tow the car to my garage and lock it up for the night.
Tomorrow, I’ll examine every inch of the car, just in case some
creep sabotaged it.”
    “Sabo....” I stopped
myself. Jenny was upset enough as it was. Why make her even more
apprehensive? “Um, why do you think...that might be the
case?”
    “I had a lady come in
about three months ago. Her ex-husband not only vandalized her car,
he popped a tiny hole in her brake line, so the fluid drained out
slowly. She found out the hard way when she was going down Avon
Mountain.”
    “Geez! That’s
terrible!” I shivered at the thought someone might do that kind of
thing to poor Jenny. “Yes, it’s a good idea to take the car to your
garage, Danny.”
    “What?” Jenny wanted to
know what the mechanic told me, but I thought it best to leave out
the details. After all, it wasn’t necessarily the same kind of case
as the vindictive ex-spouse, was it? I didn’t want to plant the
seeds of fear in the teenager’s fertile mind if this was just some
jerk trying to rattle her...or Hammerhead. Maybe he was the real
target. Or was he the perpetrator? Was this his way of getting
Jenny to depend on him? I felt like a jerk for suspecting the boy,
but I had to wonder.
    “How long have you and
Shark Boy been dating?” I asked. We had met several of her college
friends earlier in the year, but he wasn’t one of
them.
    “About two weeks. He’s
friends with Lally’s boyfriend, so we double-dated a couple of
times and went to that big Cinco de Mayo bash with the
gang.”
    “Any chance somebody’s
mad at him?”
    “Are you kidding?” In
the glow of the dashboard lights, I saw her examining me to see if
I had sprouted a second head. “Hammerhead is Mr. Nice Guy.
Everybody