Chapter Twenty-Three
Thursday morning, Elise peeked out the window to check for any lingering news people, but the stories had all been told. Wes had left Echo Ridge in a private helicopter and Elise had stayed holed up until the reporters all left. The skies were blue with hints of sunlight filtering through white puffy clouds and Elise needed a breath of fresh air. She walked to the end of the lane toward the yellow mailbox.
Elise yanked the mailbox open and pulled out the stack of business envelopes. She flipped through them and found the one from the county assessor third from the top. Today didn’t seem like the best day to open the letter, but it couldn’t get much worse so she ripped open the envelope. Instead of a bill, there was a receipt of total payment and a credit balance with
