Body in the Barn Norma Jean's Mysteries Book Three

By Jo Ann Snapp

A flickering light in a barn that has been vacant for over a century draws Norma Jean to investigate and pulls her into her third mystery.

“Do you need some help?” Was I crazy? My heart began to pound and I realized how vulnerable I was. What did it matter what they were doing in the barn? Margaret was correct. It wasn’t my business.

I felt myself freeze, wanting to get back into the truck and not able to move. With a great effort I lunged back and had just slammed the door when I saw a figure silhouetted on the passenger side of the truck. . .

A young character, Julie Farnsworth, steps into the picture. She is in Herpel to fulfill a promise made to her dying uncle.

In the midst of it all, the old ways, folklore and slower pace of the area wind their way into the story, with the same familiar country folks helping and hindering the investigation.

The two ladies go a merry-go-round of mystery involving a civil war gold run through Arkansas. What seems to be obvious in the beginning turns upside down several times before Norma concludes this one.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Jo Ann Snapp
• Release date: Aug 20, 2012
• ISBN: 9781476457352

Jo Ann Snapp

Jo Ann Snapp was an Arkansas author of fiction. She had been writing books since she was around nine years old. After a long career in retail and logistics she took up the mantle to get some of her work out to readers.Whether historical, contemporary, mysteries or romances all her writing is from a Christian perspective so you can be assured a clean read even if the subject matter is controversial. Some of her work is inspirational; some of her work is just plain good storytelling. No matter the genre, to Jo a story was a story that had to be told.Jo Ann Snapp passed away on November 29, 2013Jo Ann lived in Mountain View, Arkansas and the area inspired her Norma Jean Mystery series.Find more of Jo Ann's books at:http://joannsnappauthor.com Jo Ann’s Blog Words with a MessageTitles by this author:May and Jed Beginning the JourneyA Reconciled HeartEmilyThe Pathway HomeMarisa’s DestinyA Twist in the Old Lasso (Short Story)Norma Jean’s Mysteries Series:Herpel Holler Homecoming Book OneBody in the Bluff Book TwoBody in the Barn Book ThreeBody in the Big Box Book FourBody in the Barrel Book Five

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Norma Jean’s Mysteries Book Three

Body in the Barn

a novel by

Jo Ann Snapp

Norma Jean’s Mysteries Book Three

Body in the Barn

Copyright 2011 Jo Ann Snapp

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Body in the Barn

Chapter One

We’d first seen the dim light moving back and forth on the hillside when we stepped out onto the porch as I was leaving Margaret’s big yellow house at Round Bottom. Margaret crossed her arms against the chill of the mid-April evening.

That’s Lanchester’s old barn. I don’t even know why I had looked that way, but with the trees being bare, it was easy to see. Been vacant for years. Who’d be snooping around there?

Now, Norma Jean. It’s none of our business. People hunt up in that area. Maybe it’s a hunter looking for his dog or something. Margaret shrugged.

Or something? I watched as the light dimmed then brightened and then the point of light disappeared to a glow. They must be in the barn.

So? It’s none of our business. Margaret firmly shook her head causing her short, brown hair to flip from side to side.

But it is strange. I started down the stairs.

There goes that mind that got you hooked before. Margaret waved. Better let it be.

That was like syc’em to a dog. I couldn’t wait to get up the hill and take a look. Thanks for dinner. It was great.

Coming around the road up at the hill, I could still see the glow. I rounded the bend onto Round Bottom road and went the few hundred feet to the old turn in for the barn. From my side window I saw the light go out when my beams turned in and focused on the barn. Call it stupidity, but I got out of the truck, went around to the front and called out.

Do you need some help? Was I crazy? My heart began to pound and I realized how vulnerable I was. What did it matter what they were doing in the barn? Margaret was correct. It wasn’t my business.

I felt myself freeze, wanting to get back into the truck and not able to move. With a great effort I lunged back and had just slammed the door when I saw a figure silhouetted on the passenger side of the truck running into the woods. I took on a shiver. A fifty-eight year old woman? Alone? What had I been thinking?

*****

The months it had taken to find a name for John Doe left me spent for awhile. After a wonderful Christmas and New Year, I settled in for a cozy winter of reading, painting and visiting. My Big Red Monster, as Margaret called my new truck, carried me through the worst of weather. Jason drove it more often now and had stopped making excuses for not using Daddy’s old heap.

If you haven’t read about my first two adventures, please do. The first about my homecoming and resolving the mystery of my Momma and Daddy, the second about the body in the bluff and all the time and investigation spent to give a found skeleton a name, and now?

My guy friends, Roy and Jason, teased me all winter about digging up some other mystery. I told them it wasn’t like I went out to purposely find something unusual; however, this one just seemed to fall into my lap.

I tell you Jason, it was spooky. I tossed my hat on the kitchen table and declined the coffee he offered in favor of my glass of ice tea. I had called Jason on the way back home and he came up from his house in the field to meet me at the cottage.

I’m with Margaret. You had no business going anywhere near the barn and to get out and see what was going on? Norma Jean! Jason wagged his head. He’d been my best friend since childhood, and I knew his disapproving look very well. What if it had been some drug guy trying to find a new place for a lab? What’d you think you were going to say if someone had come out?

I don’t know. I flopped in the lazy-boy. Curiosity just got the better of me . . . until common sense kicked in.

Maybe it was a homeless person just looking for a place to bed down for the night and you messed up his plans. Thank God he didn’t come at you. Jason sat in a straight back kitchen chair.

I lowered my head. That’s why I called you. I got to thinking, he may follow me home, but I never saw another vehicle. I looked back up at the man I had claimed as a brother. He worked the farm and ranch, but Jason had always been more than a work hand. Jason and I had been hand in hand since we were toddlers, my daddy and I considered him family. Being a man of color made that a problem with some folks, but it didn’t matter to me. Thanks for coming.

If you’re okay, I’ll get on back to the house. Jason set his cup in the sink.

Just the ‘what ifs’ rattling around in my head right now. I’m okay. Go on home. I stood as he went to the door.

I watched Jason and the flashlight disappeared down the pathway to his house in the field. He was alone now just like me. He’d lost his wife, Eva, early in life, and my Larry passed on twenty-five years ago when Jason and I were thirty-two. Jason had stayed on to help Daddy with the farm, and I’d continued my career in Boston until Daddy died.

I closed the house up for the night, but even as I crawled into bed the situation took over my mind. I had never felt afraid in Herpel.

We virtually had no crime, but Jason was right. The county had become somewhat notorious for meth labs and though the common person wasn’t affected by the activity, several labs had been located the last few years only to be relocated to some other remote area. I guessed Lanchester’s barn could be considered, but since Round Bottom road had been redone and the new housing built along the river, it wasn’t so remote anymore.

I lay awake staring into the darkness and listening to the just budding tree branches in the back and side of the house clicking against each other in the wind. I calmed myself by thinking about the fact that in a short month those branches would be bright and green and alive.

I pulled the blanket up to my chin and tried to get some sleep. When I did doze off, I jerked awake seeing the shadow of the man running from my truck. My fault. I prayed for peace of mind, but I had brought this on myself. I should have listened to Margaret.

Chapter Two

The first day I saw the little green, daffodil sprouts peaking up out of the rocky dirt where the homestead had been covered over I got the gardening fever with a vengeance.

The last three weeks had driven us into end of April and in my brain I knew true gardening wouldn’t be possible until after the last killing frost, but I got a head start on some seedlings on the enclosed part of the back porch of the cottage. On one exceptional sunny, warm day I began to prepare my pea patch. I’d seen peas survive even in late snows.

It was after my spurt of gardening that we had another frost, and I was pretty disgusted, I can tell you. I packed in my gardening ambitions and went visiting.

On my way into town I went by the Ricards’ house to see how Jonelle was doing. She’d had some heart problems, but last time I talked with her she was doing great.

Thanks for stopping by, Norma Jean. Jonelle knew me well enough to offer me tea instead of coffee, but I declined.

Can’t stay. Just wanted to make sure you were okay.

I’m fine except I didn’t get much sleep.

Is it your medicine?

No, she shook her head. I looked out the door the way I always do before shutting out the lights to go to bed and you know that dilapidated old barn there by Jellon road?

Yes? The hairs on my neck flexed.

"Well, there was a light going back and forth, here and there. It’s so