Criminal Little Secrets

by Vinnie Hansen

About the Author: Vinnie Hansen, a two-time Claymore Award finalist, is the author of the Carol Sabala mysteries, the novels Lostart Street and One Gun, as well as over forty short works.

Excerpt

On the last day of school, I tore home, singing, “School’s out, school’s out, the teachers let the mules out!” The prairie spread green before me, the sky blue.

When I reached the gravel in front of our house, the screen door of the porch opened and slapped shut. I clammed up. My dad’s six-foot-four frame loomed in front of me. “You’ll be working for the Shultzes this summer.”

I stood there with the knobby knees and sharp elbows of an underfed twelve-year-old. There was no argument. My dad made plans and dropped us into them.

“The twins are headin’ off to Brookings’ summer session.” He got in his pickup and said out the open window. “Be up there Monday at six.”

I went inside, changed out of my jumper into cut-offs, and crawled from my bedroom window to sit on the porch roof. I wouldn’t be staying with one of my sisters and watching their kids or going with Mama and cleaning rooms at the hotel where she parked her little trailer to attend the summer session of college.

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