The Marquesa's Necklace (Oak Grove Mysteries Book 1) by P.J. MacLayne

narrow beam of brightness leaked from a crack in the curtains in Luke and Joe’s bedroom. Everything appeared normal. I could handle normal. In fact after all the excitement, I craved it.
    But I hesitated as I pushed open my door. I held my breath and listened for the slightest of noises, a faint rustling where it didn’t belong, or the absence of the ticking of my clocks before I flicked on the lights. I didn’t relax until a quick inventory of my front room showed everything where it belonged.
    I locked the door behind me, dropped my bags on the loveseat, headed for the bedroom and flopped down on the bed. I planned to only lie there for a minute and then get up and wash my face. I didn’t plan on falling asleep.

    Morning came with an awful headache, bright sun peeking through my curtains, and a pounding on my door. I considered ignoring it all, covering my head with my pillow, and going back to sleep, but I dragged myself out of bed and into the front room.
    “I’m coming, I’m coming,” I called, and immediately regretted it. It made my head throb even more. I was in desperate need of aspirin. At least the knocking stopped. That helped.
    I opened the door without looking out the peephole first. Big mistake, I know. Detective Thomason would yell at me. I didn’t care. That’s who I expected to see. I was wrong.
    Sarah and Janine pushed through the door, grabbed me, and wrapped me in their arms. I would have fallen, pushed down by their onslaught, if they hadn’t had me trapped between the two of them. “Where have you been? Are you all right? Why didn’t you answer your phone? Are you okay?” The questions came so fast I couldn’t even figure out which one asked what.
    “I’m fine, I’m fine.” I answered as I returned the hugs. “Other than a well-deserved headache. Why?”
    “We’ve been trying to call you and you didn’t answer, didn’t answer your messages, and didn’t respond to our texts.” Sarah pulled back and looked me over. “You look awful. Are you sure you’re all right?”
    My phone. I remembered. I turned it off when I left Saturday morning. I shuffled over to the loveseat, pulled it out of my purse, and turned it on. I thought it would explode as it started beeping madly as all the messages poured in. Grimacing, I turned the volume down and dropped it on the coffee table. “Somebody missed me,” I said.
    “We were worried about you,” Janine told me, shaking her fist at me. “Especially after Detective Thomason’s wreck, and your car and you were gone, and your landlords didn’t have any idea where you went.”
    Wait, what? “Backup. You said Detective Thomason was in a wreck?” Just because I hated him right now didn’t mean I wanted something bad to happen to him. Or maybe I did, but I wanted to be the one to make it happen. “What happened? Is he hurt badly?”
    Janine and Sarah exchanged glances. “No, from what we’ve heard, nothing broken, he’s just badly bruised and shaken up.” Sarah said.
    “And if you had answered your boyfriend’s calls, you would know that,” Janine added pointedly. She liked Detective Thomason.
    I clenched my fists. “He’s not my boyfriend. I’ll explain later.” And maybe not. My conscience was working overtime. Was the accident somehow my fault? “What happened?”
    “The report in the newspaper said somebody ran him off the road.” Janine answered. “It happened Saturday night. The report quoted him as saying it was a black sedan, but it was dark and he couldn’t provide a good description.”
    That explained a lot. I would have expected him to remember more details. “I should go see him.” I said reluctantly. “Is he still in the hospital?”
    Oak Grove doesn’t have much of a hospital. For anything major, you have to go out of town. But the staff can handle bumps and bruises and the occasional broken bone. I reached for my purse. Hopefully I had dropped my keys inside when I got back last night.
    Sarah stopped