Music to Die For by Radine Trees Nehring

to the van tonight. I looked through the windows to see if...maybe Dulcey... I didn’t see anything inside except a blanket on the back seat. Car was locked, but the blanket was too flat for Dulcey to be under it.”
    “Best keep quiet fer now,” Brigid said. “It’s time we all got some rest. Soon as we’re home, I’ll brew up some of my special feverfew tea. That’ll help. Nothin’ more we can do, ’lest we talk to Sheriff Wylie...”
    “ No ,” her son said.
    “Well, then...”
    Carrie spoke up. “According to the note, the kidnappers will be in touch with you tomorrow evening, most likely to ask for ransom. It sounded like money was all they wanted, unless there’s some other reason you know about?”
    Neither Brigid nor Chase said anything, so she went on. “If we haven’t made progress soon, you simply must tell the sheriff about the kidnapping—if he’s the one that would have jurisdiction. He or the police would likely call in the FBI, wouldn’t they? That’d bring us expert help.”
    “Sheriff has jurisdiction at the Folk Center grounds,” Chase said.
    “But Dulcey was taken from your home.”
    “I’m out in Stone County,” Brigid said, “on Harmony Road, north o’town. Besides, I figure Police Chief Bolen only takes the city law job ’cause he likes the uniform, and on account of he’s related to mosta the city council. There’s lots of Bolen kin. ’N’ he’s related to the Teals on his wife’s side, way back at least.”
    She snorted, dismissing the police chief.
    “Sheriff Wylie, then.” Carrie paused to watch Tracy’s face and quiet breathing for a moment before she asked, “Did either of you get a good enough look at the car or man at Farel’s to identify them?”
    Chase and Brigid were both silent.
    I’ll bet they saw the man as clearly as I did, Carrie thought, or at least his shirt.
    “Don’t know much about cars,” Brigid said finally, “but it was old, wasn’t it? Rattled a lot. Didn’t see any license plate.”
    “I saw one,” Carrie said, “but it was smudged with dirt, and there was mud or tape masking the light above it. It wasn’t an Arkansas plate. White and blue, but no red.”
    “Missouri, maybe,” Chase said as they started down Mountain View’s main street.
    “That’s what I thought.” Carrie wanted to ask if Bobby Lee Logan would be driving a car with a Missouri plate, but decided she should keep some information to herself—for now, at least—so all she said was, “Can you drop me off somewhere near the Folk Center Lodge? I hope it’s not much out of your way. I don’t think I could make it up that hill on foot tonight.”
    Chase nodded and turned off on the road they had come down earlier in the evening.
    Carrie continued, thinking aloud. “As soon as I can get out tomorrow I’ll try to find Margaret Culpeper, and, whether you tell the sheriff or not, I will tell her I know there’s a child missing. Why would she find it necessary to say anything more about that to me if I don’t tell her how true her prophecy is? It could encourage her to talk to me if she knows a child has been kidnapped.”
    “I think she knows already,” replied Brigid as the van turned up the hill toward the Folk Center.
    “I wasn’t kidding when I mentioned to be careful there,” Chase said. “Family is quirky...real strange, maybe even dangerous. Lots of rumors around that family for years. People don’t mess with ’em.”
    “Well, since I was born a Culpeper, I have an advantage,” Carrie said. “I may not be a real relative, but why not act as if I am? Why can’t I have a few peculiar quirks myself? Besides, I have a friend coming here tomorrow who can help. He’s a neighbor from back home, a good man, and a very smart one. He can go with me.” She didn’t add that her friend was a former homicide detective.
    “Lady,” Brigid said, “I think there’s things we haven’t heard about you yet, like how you knew about the feud, or, uh, the