MURDER AT THE MOVIES

They’d only gone a short distance when she spotted someone sitting in a lawn chair about ten feet into the trees. If she hadn’t happened to shine her light in just the right direction, she might not have noticed him at all. The man was slumped down in the chair with a hat pulled low over his eyes, making it seem likely he’d dozed off during the movie. The empty beer cans scattered at his feet might’ve had something to do with that.

Her mom moved up beside her. “Oh my. Should we leave him to sleep it off or try to wake him up?”

Abby considered their options. “The park ordinarily closes at sundown. The city council made an official exception just for the movie-in-the-park program this summer. I’d hate to have him get in trouble just because he dozed off.”

They continued to study the sleeping man, still maintaining a safe distance from him. “Do you know who he is?”

“I don’t think so, but it’s hard to tell, with his hat covering half his face like that.”

Abby was picking up some bad vibes about the situation, but that was probably just her own nerves talking. After stumbling over three dead bodies since she’d moved to Snowberry Creek, she’d developed an unfortunate tendency to imagine the worst . . .