Murder Gets a Life by Anne George

the group. “Howard, honey, run tell your papa we’ve found Sunshine. He’s worried sick.”
    “Where is she?” Howard Turkett asked.
    The sheriff mopped his face with a handkerchief. “We don’t know. Mrs. Crane got a message on her voice mail from Sunshine saying she’s okay. It was made about an hour ago. That’s all we know.”
    “Here.” Mary Alice handed the phone to Kerrigan. “Punch four.”
    Kerrigan beamed when she heard the message and handed the phone to Meemaw.
    “You still want me to blow the whistle, Sheriff?” Leroy asked. “You never did say how many times.”
    “Just blow it a bunch of times. They’ll get the idea. And let’s go get in some shade.”
    By the time we got back to the Compound, other groups were emerging from the woods, most of them expecting the worst. Pawpaw, however, alerted by Howard, emerged from his trailer smiling. He looked, I realized, exactly like a prospector in the movies, one who’s been down by the creek too long. He made a beeline for Mary Alice and hugged her. “Our baby’s all right,” he said.
    Fred had realized the same thing I had about Pawpaw. “He reminds me of Gabby Hayes,” he whispered.
    Mary Alice seemed to think so, too. She was looking around rather wildly, perhaps as fearful that Meemaw would see what was going on as anything else. But Meemaw had disappeared into her trailer.
    “Old fool.” Kerrigan went over and tapped her father on the shoulder. A very sound tap. “Behave yourself, Paw.”
    He turned and Mary Alice seized the opportunity to move away faster than I thought she could move. So fast it made me right proud.
    Leroy was still blowing the whistle though the sound was getting weaker, more like a chirp. Sheriff Reuse told him he could quit which he did and went to sit by Kerrigan’s trailer fanning himself with his hat. Henry took him another bottle of Evian.
    “Are we going home now?” Tiffany asked. Some of the cars were already leaving the cotton field.
    “I don’t see why not.” Fred looked around. “Where did Mary Alice go?”
    “Probably hiding from Pawpaw.” I looked at my watch. It was a few minutes after seven. Lord! I had thought it was at least noon.
    Meemaw came out of her trailer holding a large pitcher and a stack of Styrofoam cups. “Hawaiian Punch!” The crowd surged forward.
    There was such a feeling of relief in the air, it was almost palpable. Given the circumstances of Sunshine’s disappearance, there wasn’t a person there who hadn’t feared what he would find with his next step into the woods.
    “I’m going to go get some punch,” Tiffany said. “Y’all want some?”
    “Sure. I’ll go with you.” Fred turned to me. “Honey?”
    “Bring me some.” I sat down on an old wheelbarrow that was turned upside down and looked around. The gathering was turning into a party, with laughing and joking, celebrating the fact that Sunshine was all right. But—a tiredness settled over me—something terrible had happened here yesterday, and Sunshine’s disappearance was part of it. Her body might not be in the woods, but she was definitely not all right.
    Kerrigan sat down on the ground beside me. “You want some punch?” She held up a Styrofoam cup.
    I shook my head no. “Fred’s bringing me some.”
    We sat silently for a moment. Then Kerrigan said what I’d been thinking. “My baby’s in terrible trouble, isn’t she?”
    “I don’t know. I don’t have any idea what’s going on.”
    “Will you tell me about yesterday? I’ve heardMama’s version a dozen times, but none of it makes sense. None of us even knew the guy who got killed. He just showed up murdered in Mama’s trailer and Sunshine was gone. Plus, everything in my trailer was messed up.”
    “I’ll tell you all I know.” I went through the sequence of events starting with us running into Meemaw at the restaurant (I didn’t tell her how we happened to be at the restaurant) and ending with us nearly getting killed at the