Chapter 1

"First day of school for the kids, first day at your new job - I wonder what my first for today'll be," I said as I poured my husband another cup of coffee.  "Maybe I'll join the PTA."  I couldn't be sure, but I think Jeff might have snorted.  He sure put his coffee cup down in a hurry.

"Darlin', I don't think the PTA here is quite ready for you."  He put his napkin on the table and stood up.  "I'd better not be late.  Gotta make a good impression on the new bosses."

It was my turn to snort.  "These people have known you since you were a kid; it's a little late to think about impressing them now."  I brushed a few crumbs off the front of his shirt as he leaned down to kiss me goodbye.

"Jake!  Taylor!  Daddy's leaving for work - y'all come say goodbye!"  I stepped back just as two children and four dogs came barreling into the kitchen.  Twelve-year-old Taylor launched herself into her father's arms and gave him a big kiss on the cheek.

"I hope you have a good day, Daddy," she said.  "Jake says he wants to take you for show and tell."

Jake is six and I am not sure he even knows what show and tell is - apart from what his sister may have told him about the longstanding school tradition.  I wasn't sure they still had show and tell at the elementary school in Piney Point - we'd just moved back home after living light years away in Washington, D.C.  Jake had attended kindergarten mornings at the church school near our house.  Our daughter, much wiser for having survived the fifth grade, was mentoring her brother in the ins and outs of first grade.  This should be interesting, considering their ongoing love-hate relationship.

"I don't think they'll have show and tell right away, but when they do, I'll come - okay, buddy?"  Jake gave his dad one of those little boy leg hugs and climbed into his chair at the table to do battle with his morning bowl of cereal.  "Milk, please," Jake said, holding his spoon aloft.  I dutifully poured until he gave the when sign and then dug in.

Jeff playfully smacked me on the behind as he headed toward the door.  "I'll be home on time for dinner.  Nothing ever happens in Piney Point."

We both knew that to be true, having grown up in this small town just a little bit north and east of Mobile, Alabama.  My childhood home was on the west side of the town park and Jeff's was on the north; we met on the sidewalk when we were both eleven.  My dad made me go and ask the new boy if he'd like to play baseball with us.  We've been inseparable ever since - well, except when I went off to college and he joined the Marines.  We got married when I was working on my PhD at CalTech and he was stationed at Camp Pendleton.  Later when I took a job with a government think tank in the nation's capital, Jeff put in for a transfer to Quantico where he trained the next generation of jarhead snipers.  After twenty years in the Corps, Jeff went to work for the US Marshal Service and we decided that I should try my hand at being a stay-at-home mom when we were surprised by Jake's impending arrival.  Taylor was thrilled at the idea of a little brother or sister; I had pretty much decided I was way too old for another addition to the family.

Fortunately, between the two of us, Jeff and I have a handle on the parenting thing and while we aren't sure whose idea it really was, we've adopted four dogs over the past five years: two cairn terriers named Willie & MacTavish, Zippy, the golden retriever and an Australian shepherd who answers to Duncan.  Add Jeff's dad, who lives in our carriage house, to the mix and that's the MacFayden clan.  The back door slammed just as I finished pouring out the morning dog rations.

"You all had better get a move on if we're going to walk to school and get there on time!" my father-in-law's voice boomed up the back stairs.  "Are they ready yet?" he asked me as he perched on a stool at the kitchen island.  I set a coffee cup in front of him.

"They've eaten, they're dressed and they are allegedly making their beds.  I thought we'd all go and walk the dogs at the same time."  I grabbed the mass of tangled leashes from the wall hook.  "Come on, you guys!  Grandpa's waiting on you!"

Once again, two kids and four dogs bounded into the kitchen.  I held up the leashes and three of the four canines stood patiently in front of me while I attached the leads to their collars.  Duncan peered at me from around the corner of the island as if to say, "Leash?  I don't need no stinkin' leash."  And he didn't actually; he is the best behaved of the four.  "Backpacks?  Lunches?  Brushed your teeth?"  Both children nodded in the affirmative.  And out the door we went, my children racing ahead down the sidewalk, headed off for their first day of school in the town where their parents grew up.  I guess everything does come full circle.

When Jeff had decided to take the job in Piney Point, we were both a little hesitant about moving back home to the scene of our youthful indiscretions and various misdeeds.  Southerners may be forgiving, but they don't forget anything.  Apparently, my husband had managed to make a good impression on his new bosses because they offered him the job on the spot.  Another sign that we had made the right choice in uprooting our little family was the amazing good fortune that an old house we had both loved since we were kids was for sale.  It had recently been gutted and renovated by yuppies who soon tired of the slow pace of Piney Point and moved back to the big city from whence they came.  Could it get any better?  The only fly in the ointment, as Pop would say, was that the teacher who had despised us both during our slightly wild high school days was now principal of the only elementary school in town.  I told Jeff that I hoped Miss VanBeek wouldn't recognize me; he laughed and reminded me that I hadn't changed in twenty-five years.  Besides, he told me, she thought he was the bad influence.  I was just afraid that our two apples hadn't fallen far from the tree.

Duncan, the shepherd of our flock, ran ahead and then back to check on the progress of his charges.  Jake was speed-walking up the sidewalk trying to stay ahead of his sister.  Pop and Zippy strolled along as if they didn't have a care in the world.  As usual, Willie and Mac strained at their leashes trying to sniff every blade of grass along the way.  About a block from my Uncle Jimmy's house, Duncan stopped in front of a fresh pile of dirt on Mr. Maguire's lawn.  He began to alternately bark and whine.  Jake bent over to inspect the upturned sod on the otherwise pristine lawn.

"Mom?" his little voice quavered.  "What's this?"

I stopped next to Jake on the driveway and looked down.  It looked like something had been buried in a hurry.  Duncan barked again and to my horror, the two terriers began to dig.  Yes - something had been buried in a hurry.  I took Jake by the hand and turned to my father-in-law who had finally caught up with us.

"Pop, will you walk Jake on to school right now?" I pushed Jake toward his grandfather.  "Now," I said.  "Taylor, run up to Uncle Jimmy's house and ask him to come down here.  Then you go on to school with Jake and Grandpa.  I mean it - go.  Now."

The three of them hurried off, with Zippy in tow.  I dragged the dogs away from Duncan's discovery, fished my cell phone out of my pocket and dialed Jeff.  He answered on the first ring.

"You know how they say nothing ever happens in Piney Point?" I asked.

"Yeah."

"Well, Mr. Chief of Police, we just found a dead body."  I told him where I was and he said he'd be right there.  I put my phone back in my pocket and looked back at the pile of dirt.  As my dad used to say, some days you step in it and some days you don't.