“I know these tunnels like the back of my hand,” Ron hissed at Rita. “Right now Billy is probably wandering around lost. Oh yes,” Ron said, “Billy thought he could hide in my tunnels and get the best of me. But he won't win.” Ron grabbed Rita's shoulder. “I'm going to win,” he growled. “Billy Northfield is going to die a dark, watery, death.”

  Rita drew in a deep breath of damp, air and braced herself. The odds were against her. If she tried to fight Ron he would just shoot her and throw her body into the hole. If she didn't put up a fight he would throw her in the hole anyway. Either way she was on the losing end of the stick. So she did what any cop would do in her situation—any good cop, that was—Rita stood brave. “You'll never win,” she snapped at his face. “The good guys will never give up.”

  Ron snarled at Rita. “And you're going for a very dark swim,” he said, shoved his gun into Rita's stomach, and began backing her toward the deep hole. “You're going to die a watery death. But don't worry, all of your friends will be joining you soon.”

  “I don't think so.”

  “Huh?” Ron said hearing a voice appear behind him. He let go of Rita, swung around, and saw a dark shadow standing before him.

  “Drop down onto all fours!” Billy yelled at Rita. Rita, shocked to see Billy appear, did as ordered. She dropped down just as Billy swung back his hand and planted a hard fist against Ron's face. Ron stumbled backward, hit Rita's body, fired a blind shot up at the top of the old, dusty mine dropped the penlight onto the ground, and let out a scream of terror as his arms began dancing in the air for balance. Billy, not wasting a single second, lunged forward, punched Ron in the face one more time, and knocked the man over Rita.

  “No!” Ron screamed as his body tumbled backward and dropped down into the dark hole.” No...”

  Rita heard Ron's body fall down through the hole and then hit the river with a painful crash. She grabbed the light, crawled over to the hole, and looked down. All she saw was angry, violent, raging currents rushing past the bottom of the hole. Ron Bufford was nowhere in sight. The river, which had never seen the light of day and never would, swallowed him alive and carried his body deeper into the earth. “He's...gone.”

  Billy dropped down onto his knees and peered down into the hole. He saw the raging river and nodded his head. “Yep,” he said in an easy voice. “Wasn't so hard to kill that snake….just had to think like him was all.”

  Rita, feeling like a silly damsel in a western movie who had been saved by a brave cowboy, reached out and hugged Billy. “You were great,” she said and kissed Billy on his cheek. “I thought...Ron thought you were lost in the tunnels.”

  “Oh, I saw that snake hiding behind a rock when I came up on this here mine,” Billy explained, loving each kiss Rita gave him on his cheek. “I just had to remember what my daddy told me was all.”

  Rita smiled. “Thank goodness for your daddy,” she said, stood up, and looked around. “It's very creepy in here...let's go find some daylight.”

  “You bet,” Billy said, took Rita's hand, and began walking away from the hole. As he did the roof of the tunnel made a scary cracking sound. Then dust clouds began to fall from the roof. “Uh...reckon we better run!” Billy yelled, and began making tracks just as the roof started to cave in. As the roof crumbled down other parts of the mine began to give.

  “Billy!” Rita yelled, spotting a beam collapse from the roof of the tunnel she was running through.

  “Run!” Billy yelled and almost threw Rita over the fallen beam as heavy rocks and dirt began hitting his head and filling his nose. Rita put her legs into high gear and ran as fast as she could as the tunnel continued to collapse all around her. When her eyes spotted the entrance to the mine she yelled out: “There!”

  “I see...I see!” Billy yelled back as another beam dropped down from the roof and nearly cracked him in his head. “Haul butt!”

  She burst out into the cold morning with Billy at her side. “Made...it!” she cried out in victory.

  Billy came to a stop, turned around, and watched the opening of the mine fill up with heavy rocks, lumber and enough dirt to keep a bulldozer busy for a year. He lifted his right hand and wiped his forehead. “Never did like that mine when I visited here as a kid. Still don’t like it.”

  Rita let out a nervous laugh and began slapping off her dress. “I can see why.”

  “Reckon that gunshot that snake fired caused all that trouble,” Billy said. He turned and looked into a beautiful face covered with tunnel dust. “My, now, aren't you just a pretty one.”

  Rita smiled. “I...well, I guess I am,” she laughed, wrapped her arms around Billy, and hugged him. “You saved us….you saved me.”

  “Oh, I just figured it ain’t right for one person to have to play by the rules while the other person don't.” Billy smiled and hugged Rita back. “It’s like my daddy said...if you're gonna fight, fight to win.”

  Rita took Billy's hand. “Your daddy wouldn't have made a good cop.”

  “Nope,” Billy grinned, “I reckon he wouldn't have.”

  Rita grinned back and walked to town with Billy. She found Zach standing outside of a wooden building that had served as a sheriff’s office. Rhonda was inside laying in a rusted jail cell. “Maybe we should keep her in there?” Rita joked.

  Rhonda raised her head, studied Rita and Billy's dirty faces, and smiled. “He's dead?”

  “Dead,” Rita confirmed and squeezed Billy's hand. “Thanks to Billy.”

  Billy blushed, bent down, and rubbed Chester's head. “Aw, wasn't much to it. Could have finished the fight long ago if Rita wouldn't have made a straight line for the hospital you were in. Reckon I can't blame her for being worried over you, though.” Billy looked at Rita. “You sure were doing some deep thinking,” he pointed out. “But what it boiled down to was that the simple way was the best way.”

  Rita felt like a school kid being taught a valuable lesson. Sure, Billy wasn't a cop—but the man sure had more sense than most cops roaming the streets. “When Rhonda was taken...I guess I stopped being...practical,” she confessed.

  “Aw, there ain't no shame in worrying your head off over a loved one,” Billy smiled. “Besides, a person can only do the best they can. Just because you're a cop...or a farmer...or a trucker...” Billy nodded his head at poor Zach, “don't mean you have life all figured out. Nah, life is too full of them uncertain variables I learned about in school. Don't make a lick of sense of me to try and figure out something I don't understand and it also don't make a lick of sense of me to do something until I see what it is I'm supposed to be doing.”

  “Such as destroying a killer,” Rita told Billy, “while the person who is supposed to be a cop runs in circles.”

  “You didn't run in circles,” Billy promised Rita. “You were just trying to think too deep...out think a snake instead of thinking like a snake.” Billy smiled. “You two ladies sure ain't dumb. You've already went and caught yourself some killers right there in Clovedale Falls. This time around you just took a hard hit is all, and needed some help.”

  Rhonda leaned up on her elbow. “I think we'll keep him,” she told Rita.

  Rita smiled. “Me, too,” she replied. Billy blushed.

  “Well...I guess it's safe to leave then, right?” Zach asked. He handed Rita back her gun.

  Billy studied Zach's tired face. The poor man looked like a raccoon preparing to walk across a busy highway in order to escape all his worries. “You know,” he said and looked around the dusty jail cell, “back in the old days folks cared about one another...helped one another the way folks should.”

  “This isn't the old days,” Zach told Billy. He shoved his hands down into the pockets of the blue jeans he was wearing. “Billy, I've got bills to pay. If I fail to pay those bills I'll be sent to...jail. No one is going to help me. I mean, my brother managed to give me a little money...” Zach shook his head.

  Billy walked over to Zach. “You did a lot to help us,” he said and patted Zach on his shoulder. “Now let Billy Northfield help you.”

  “How?” Zach asked.

  “I own a mighty big farm,” Billy explained. “There's sure enough work to go around and...” Billy paused. “Hey...now isn't that an idea?”

  “What?” Rita asked in a curious voice.

  “Yeah, Billy, don't keep us in suspense,” Rhonda begged.

  “You can come live with me in my farmhouse,” Billy told Zach. “Why, there's plenty of room. And it's like I said, there's plenty of work. I'll pay you a fair wage, too.”

  Zach looked into Billy's kind face. “Billy, I--” he began to speak.

  “You nothing,” Billy told Zach and smiled. “Old Billy will help you get those bills of yours taken care of,” he promised. “And trust me, you'll earn every penny. Now, let's get out of this town and go find us a Cracker Barrel. I'm starving.”

  Rita looked down at her sister. Rhonda smiled. “Help me up, sis...and take it slow. I'm a wounded woman.”

  Rita helped Rhonda stand up and then put her arm around her. “I don't think we should tell mom and dad about this,” she said.

  “If they ask how I got hurt...I'll just tell them I fell down some stairs,” Rhonda joked and looked at Zach. “This is normal for us,” she joked again. “You'll get used to it.”

  Zach studied Rhonda's beautiful face. Rita saw how he looked at her sister and glanced at Billy. Billy winked at her. He knew. “I guess if I'm going to move to Clovedale Falls I have a lot to do,” he said in a voice that sounded at ease for once. “Billy...I'll accept your offer...and thank you.”

  “Don't thank me until you get used to waking up with the night owls and running yourself bowlegged until the night owls come out again,” Billy told Zach, patted his shoulder, and walked the man outside into a cold, clear, day surrounded by miles and miles of desert landscape. “I reckon I know what Hoss and Little Joe feel like now,” he said.

  Rita helped Rhonda outside, walking slow and careful. She allowed her eyes to study the small wooden town. As she did she heard the sounds of horses carrying men in and out of town, the sound of women standing in front of an old general store talking about this or that, a blacksmith banging on a horseshoe and a bored sheriff checking his rifle. The sounds slowly began dancing in the cold wind, formed into one note, and exploded into an image of days long gone by—days filled with people just like herself who just wanted to live a good, peaceful, life. “Our life is in Clovedale Falls, now,” she told Rhonda.

  Rhonda stared into her sister’s eyes and nodded her head. “We better get home and see how Erma is doing in our bakery. And who knows, maybe we can still enjoy the Pumpkin Festival?”

  Rita smiled. “I still haven't bought my pumpkin quilt,” she said and looked around the town one last time. “The old days had its share of problems, sis,” she said, “but somehow...we just keep on putting one foot in front of the other.”

  “Well, if we don't get to walking I'm going to starve,” Billy complained. “I want to get to Cracker Barrel and get me some coffee and biscuits.”

  Rita and Rhonda both giggled. “Okay, Billy, okay,” they said and began walking back toward Zach's semi feeling at peace with the world. Zach paused, glanced at the old town, and saw a forgotten world. Then he saw Billy staring at him with caring eyes and knew a better world was waiting for him—a world topped with twin cherries.

  Live and Let Pie is available now!

  Click here to get your copy so you can continue with this series now.

  What’s Next?

  When twins Rita and Rhonda attend a distant friend’s wedding in a quaint, snowy town in Vermont, they assume it will be nothing more than a boring week filled with dull guests and plenty of snow.

  But when the bride-to-be meets an untimely death – and the primary suspect is connected to a powerful private academy that forms the town’s only source of income – Rita and Rhonda are faced with the difficult task of solving the case while not upsetting the small town they find themselves in.

  With the local mayor and the authorities eager to brush the killing under the rug to protect the academy, the situation soon spirals out of control when the twins’ top suspect is found murdered. Unsure who they can trust and surrounded by suspects, can Rita and Rhonda untangle the truth behind this sinister town? Or will they be pulled head-first into a world of corruption and cover-ups?

  Live and Let Pie is available now!

  Click here to get your copy so you can continue with this series now.

  Sneak Peek: Live and Let Pie

  Rhonda watched Zach lift a heavy bale of hay. “Working hard?” she asked through chattering teeth. A bitter cold wind was whispering in around a dreary gray morning that was scented with snow.

  Zach spotted Rhonda standing in the barn door holding a cup of coffee. The early morning light made her face glow with a beauty that Zach couldn’t really put into words. He liked Rhonda—a lot—but wasn’t prepared to confess his feelings.

  “Billy wanted this hay stacked,” he said. He tossed the bale of hay he was holding down onto a neatly stacked row and then slapped at the work gloves covering his hands. “Now that the Pumpkin Festival is over, there isn’t really much for me to do. Billy finds a few odds and ends to keep me busy.”

  “I don’t think it’s that there’s no work,” Rhonda pointed out, feeling grateful that she had tossed fashion to the side and worn a warm gray and white coat to Billy’s farm. “Billy said we’re going to have a terrible winter this year. This freezing weather arrived overnight.”

  Zach knew Rhonda was right. All the work Billy had planned for Zach to accomplish had been hampered by days of freezing rain and icy winds. Yet, Billy, staying good to his word, kept finding little jobs for Zach to do instead of handing him a pink slip. “Billy is paying me good money to stack hay. I feel like I’m cheating the man.”

  Rhonda took a sip of her coffee and studied Zach. The poor man was wearing only a thin green windbreaker over a pair of worn jeans. His head was covered with the usual ball cap he always wore, hiding a handsome face that Rhonda was very fond of. “Rita and I came to say goodbye,” she explained. “Rita will be here in a minute.”

  “Goodbye?” Zach asked, confused. “Where are you two girls going to?”

  “Mayfield, Vermont,” Rhonda told Zach, feeling a gust of icy wind push her further into the shadowy barn. The scents of heavy hay, cold dirt, and cows greeted her nose. Far above her head, nestled in the haylofts, she heard pigeons cooing. “A friend of Rita’s has invited us up to her lake cabin for a week.”

  Zach grabbed another bale of hay. “Sounds like fun.”

  “Not really,” Rhonda confessed. “Paula Capperson isn’t exactly the type of woman that goes well with my personality.”

  “Oh?” Zach tossed the bale of hay onto one of the neatly stacked rows resting in front of him.

  Rhonda sipped at her coffee. “Yeah,” she said. “Zach, you know by now that I like to cut up, laugh, and joke around.”

  “Sure.” Zach nodded. Deep down Zach was not only falling in love with Rhonda’s beauty but also her sense of humor. He admired how the woman could joke around even when times were tough. “There’s nothing wrong with having a sense of humor.”

  “Tell Paula Capperson that,” Rhonda complained. “Paula is the type of woman that would make a piece of square wood seem fascinating in comparison. She’s…so anal. Everything—everyone—has to be in a precise order.” Rhonda rolled her eyes. “The topic of which type of weeds to pull from your flower bed makes good dinner talk for the woman.”

  “Then why go?” Zach asked, his brow furrowed.

  “Two words: my sister,” Rhonda groaned. “Rita is blackmailing me.”

  Zach fought back a grin. He liked how Rhonda and Rita got after each other sometimes. “Oh?”

  Rhonda sipped some more coffee. “Either I go or she tells our parents that I was nearly killed falling out of the back of a truck,” she told Zach in a miserable voice. “If my darling sister was to carry out such a heinous act, my parents would scream at me until my ears fell off. And with Thanksgiving being so close…oh, Rita is good. Good, I tell you.”

  Zach grabbed a third bale of hay. “Yeah, I guess she is a little tricky. You can sue her if you want. I’ll represent you. The cows in this barn can be the jurors and Billy can be the judge. You’d win for sure.”

  “Funny.” Rhonda stuck her tongue at him. Zach didn’t see. “Well, anyway, I thought I’d say goodbye.”

  Zach nodded. “I’ll see you in a week.”

  “A week…seven days…one hundred and sixty-eight hours…ten thousand and eighty minutes…” Rhonda nearly began to sob. “Six hundred four thousand and eight hundred seconds…”

  “Beginning when you arrive,” Zach teased Rhonda. “You’re leaving out the travel time.”

  “Not funny, you.” Rhonda gave him a mock glare. “Paula Capperson is serious business. That woman can zap the fun out of Bugs Bunny.”

  “I kinda liked Foghorn Leghorn better.”

  Rhonda narrowed her eyes. “Don’t mess with the Bunny,” she warned.

  Zach threw his hands up in the air and backed off. “Okay…okay,” he said. “This unemployed lawyer won’t insult Bugs Bunny.”

  Rhonda quickly reminded herself that Zach was still working through his own troubles and knocked off the joking. “I guess things haven’t been easy for you, huh?” she asked.

  Zach shrugged. “Most of my money goes to the government,” he explained. “My ex-wife ran up a lot of bills that she chained to my wrists. I either pay or risk going to jail.” Zach looked around the barn. “I’m grateful to Billy. He’s really helping me keep my head above water.”

  “Billy is a good man,” Rhonda said and then, on very careful legs, asked: “Zach, the bakery did exceptionally well this season…better than Rita and I could have ever dreamed.” Rhonda took a sip of coffee. “Erma, of course, is the real reason the bakery did so well. Anyway…um…we have some extra money, and if you need—”