A Dime a Dozen Read Online Free PDF Page B

bed.”
    “Big night out on the town?” he teased.
    “Oh, sure,” I replied. “Three hours at the police station followed by two hours of church. I ought to be ashamed of myself.”
    He laughed.
    “Ah, yes, the police station. So tell me all about the big sting.”
    Picking up my carry-on, I stood and walked to an empty area where I could talk without being overheard. Tom and I always talked at the conclusion of a case, and he liked to hear every detail. This time was no exception.
    “The whole event went off like clockwork,” I said softly, launching into the tale of the party and all that had taken place there. I told Tom about everything, ending with my conversation back at Clement’s house and my presentation of the check from the foundation. “I wish you could’ve seen Clement’s face when he saw that money. He told me that he’d been praying for something like that for almost twenty years.”
    “So once again you’ve been instrumental in providing an answer to prayer.”
    “It’s your money, Tom.”
    “That’s why we make the perfect team, Callie.”
    I smiled, playing with the strap of my watch. We did make a good team, in every sense of the word.
    “Only seven more days,” he said softly, as though he could read my mind.
    “I know.”
    I held the phone close, glad he couldn’t hear the pounding of my heart.
    “Are you okay about going to North Carolina?” he asked. “Any worries?”
    “Maybe just a few,” I told him. “A part of me can’t wait to see the Webbers again. Another part of me would like to jump on a plane heading in the opposite direction.”
    He sighed.
    “In that case, you might end up here in Singapore. I like the sound of that.”
    “Hey, listen, if you weren’t coming home in exactly one week, I just might do it.”
    I bit my lip. More than once in the past few months I had entertained the notion of simply popping up in Singapore and surprising him the same way he had surprised me last fall by showing up at my house, out of the blue, when I thought he was thousands of miles away. But that was impractical, not to mention expensive, and I knew that his job there was keeping him much too busy to do anything more than work and sleep. That was another reason that he was looking forward to our reunion: He hoped to spend at least a week, maybe two, simply relaxing with me and recovering from the grind of the last four months.
    “Well, at least you’re flying to North Carolina,” he said. “I talked to Harriet yesterday, and she was getting ready to drive there. I told her she was nuts.”
    “You shouldn’t have said that,” I scolded, laughing. “She’s scared to death of airplanes, you know.”
    “Yeah, she told me. Let’s just hope I don’t ever need to send her overseas. I’d hate to see her have to paddle her way to an assignment!”
    I noticed some activity near my gate and saw that my flight had begun boarding. I stood, grabbed my carry-on, and told Tom I needed to get moving.
    “All right,” he said. “I hope it goes smoothly for you back there in the coach section.”
    He was just teasing, but I knew he hated the fact I wouldn’t fly first class when I was on business for the foundation. That was one perk I wasn’t willing to accept no matter how much he insisted.
    “Why, thank you, Tom,” I said sweetly.
    We talked a minute more and then said our goodbyes, and as I stood in line to get on the plane, I tried to focus my mind away from Tom and onto my next investigation—one which just happened to involve my late husband’s parents in the very town where he and I had met and fallen in love.
    Whatever was in store for me there, I prayed that God would provide the strength for me to handle it.

Three

    My final flight reached Asheville a few minutes after 5:00 p.m., providing a gorgeous view of the Smoky Mountains as we came in for a landing. The airport was as low-key and simple to navigate as I remembered, and I easily retrieved my bags and handled