Peaches And Screams (A Savannah Reid Mystery) by G. A. McKevett Page A

frame sprayed with gold paint, or a piece of clay with a small handprint and an “I Love You, Happy Mother’s Day” scrawled in it, any gift was precious.
    “Where do you figure Macon got an expensive chandelier like that?” Savannah asked.
    “Well, he didn’t earn it stocking groceries at Gillespie’s grocery store. I reckon he might o’ got it at the same place he got that bright-red carpet that he put down in his room out there in the shed.”
    “What room?”
    “He hauled everything outta the toolshed last summer—rigged up a lean-to to store the mower and stuff—and turned the shed into a sort of an apartment for himself. He comes in here to use the rest room and shower and the like, but he sleeps out there.”
    Savannah didn’t want to ask, but she had to. “Did anybody around here . . . ah . . . mention that anything was missing from their house about that time?”
    “Two weeks before, a new house that was being built up on the hill outside o’ town got busted into.”
    “Were they missing a chandelier and some red carpet?”
    “I didn’t hear the particulars.”
    Gran sniffed and pulled a lace-trimmed handkerchief from the pocket of her housedress. “I guess I shoulda asked for the particulars, huh? If I’d done the right thing and made him tell me the truth . . . if I’d called the law on him . . . maybe he wouldn’t be in the trouble he’s in now.”
    Savannah moved onto the ottoman in front of her grandmother’s chair and took her hands in hers. “I understand, Gran. It would’ve been the right thing, to make him ’fess up and all that, but it’s not like the time you sent him back to Gillespie’s with stolen candy and made him apologize.”
    “I know.” She dabbed at her eyes with the handkerchief. “He’s been in trouble before, you know, with him getting caught stealing the hubcaps off Judge Patterson’s Cadillac last winter and—”
    “He what? Oh, Lord, I didn’t know about that.”
    “Yes, and you heard about the moonshine in the bathtub.”
    “Yeah, that was bad enough, but Judge Patter—”
    “I know, I know. That’s why I didn’t say nothing. And now I wish I had of. If he’d paid for what he done then, maybe it would’ve stopped him in this career of crime.”
    Savannah had to stifle a smile: Gran had a flair for the dramatic, even under normal circumstances. And having a family member incarcerated for homicide was hardly ordinary.
    “Don’t beat up on yourself, Gran. There’s no way to know what would have happened, one way or the other. You’ve taught that boy—you’ve taught all of us —right from wrong. If he wants to be a donkey’s rear end and do what’s wrong, he’s a grown man and that’s on his head, not yours.”
    Gran blew her nose and nodded. Her tears ceased . . . at least for the moment. “I’m glad you’re here, Savannah. I don’t know what I’d do without you right now.”
    “Don’t worry about it. You don’t have to do without me. I’m right here, and I’ll stay till this thing is settled.”
    Gran’s fingers tightened around hers, and for the first time in her life, Savannah felt that she was the stronger of the two women. The sudden reversal of roles startled her. “Are you going to be all right, Gran?”
    “Sure I am. I got the good Lord in heaven and my family here on earth. What more do I need . . . except maybe to find out that my grandson didn’t do anything worse than steal some carpet and a light fixture.”
    “If you’re all right, I’m going to go poke around his ‘apartment’ out there in the shed, see what I can find that might help.”
    Gran nodded. “That’s a good idea. I figure the sheriff will be along any time now with a search warrant, wantin’ to do the same.”
    “That’s just what I was thinking. And I’d like to have a look-see first.”
    Savannah stood and headed for the door leading through the back of the house, then decided to go out the front and avoid her sisters.
    “By the