CHAPTER FIVE
Carly still fell a little dazed. The last couple of hours had been a whirl of frantic activity, and now she was looking out over midwestern farmland as the plane droned southwest into another time zone.
After she’d booked her flight to Albuquerque, she’d called Mom and Dad to let them know she was catching a cab to Downing Peoria International Airport and was on her way to work on a new case. She wasn’t surprised that neither one of them seemed especially distraught about her sudden departure.
Both of their responses had been pretty much monosyllabic.
“Come back again soon,” Dad had said, not exactly in a heartfelt manner.
“I hope you have a nice trip, dear,” Mom had said.
There had actually been a note of hardness in Mom’s voice. Carly realized that her mother was a bit
