Book 1-Annie Adams and the Mystery Club Detectives

Continue Annie Adams and the Mystery Club Detectives

     Annie and the others turned toward the voice, to see sheriff Cooper striding to them with a smile on his face.  "Hey!"  Annie said when he reached them.  "Don't you even take Sundays off?"   She was hoping he didn't see a guilty look on her face, like she was trying to hide something from him, which she was.

     He chuckled.  "No rest for the weary," sheriff Cooper said, looking around at the boys sitting interspaced between his amateur detectives.  "Ah, young men from Ridgewest I presume."  "Yes sir."  Collin said, standing and offering his hand to sheriff Cooper.  Collin was as tall as the sheriff at five foot seven.  He quickly introduced the other boys who shook sheriff's Cooper's hand also.

     After the introductions were made,  Katie and Annie made room on the sofa for the sheriff's girth to fit between them.  "Well, are you all having a good time today?"  He asked the teens.  Annie thought he seemed a little restless.  He was clasping and unclasping his hands and his eyes were darting about the room.  She wondered if his seeming anxiousness had something to do with the case, but she didn't think she would find out with the boys there.

     A few in the group gave a an answer to the sheriff's question, such as:  "Great!"  "Super."  "Lots of fun."  Zack ended.  Annie was very tense thinking of the what the boys now knew and the sheriff didn't.   She was very uncomfortable and couldn't stand it anymore, so she blurted out in a quiet voice,  "The boys know about the theft."

     The sheriff didn't seem surprised.  "Well, I guess news gets around fast even when just one person starts it.  After all, I'm sure that some of the older girls from your school date boys from Ridgewest, and they would have no doubt told their boyfriends about the missing money.

     The common room was filling up now with students from both schools, who had had their fill of the outdoors.  "Shall we find another place more private to continue our conversation?"  "I think that would be a good idea."  Annie said with a grin.  The sheriff had decided on the cafeteria, which should've been empty at that point in time.

     Annie walked on one side of the sheriff and Zack on the other as the group made their way down the hall to the lunch room.  The sheriff noticed the album tucked under Annie's arm and said, "Telling your new friends all about your mother and her friends escapades here."  He ended on a chuckle.

     Before Annie could answer, Zack piped up, (only quietly this time) "My Mom, Josie was Sara Adams' best friend.  And they were in the club together."  He said proudly.  The sheriff's eyes widened;  and Annie thought that sheriff Cooper had heard the word, "Club" and now knew that Annie had told them that they had resurrected the Mystery Club Detectives, and he wasn't happy about it.

     But, she was wrong.  "Josie was your mother?"  He said, now grinning from ear to ear.  Annie relaxed and grinned too.  (Now that she knew she wasn't in trouble, at least not yet.)

     The same short, dark haired custodian that walked by Annie, the sheriff and Annie's friends a couple of days before, was now passing the group going in the other direction, pushing a laundry cart.   He gave the sheriff a grimace while scrunching up his bushy eyebrows as he looked over his shoulder and watched the friends go through the cafeteria doors with an odd look on his face.

     The sheriff and his miniature friends took seats around the table where they normally had these talks, the sheriff still grinning.  "I can't believe this!  I'm now meeting another offspring of one of the nicest people I ever knew."  Zack beamed at him, at the compliment to his mother.  "Your mom was a great kid.  I remember how inseparable Sara and Josie were," he ended with a wistful smile on his face.