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Back A Penny for Your Thoughts
Chapters (62)
  1. Cover
  2. A PENNY
  3. Dedication
  4. Acknowledgments
  5. One
  6. Two
  7. Three
  8. Four
  9. Five
  10. Six
  11. Seven
  12. Eight
  13. Nine
  14. Ten
  15. Eleven
  16. Twelve
  17. Thirteen
  18. Fourteen
  19. Fifteen
  20. Sixteen
  21. Seventeen
  22. Eighteen
  23. Nineteen
  24. Twenty
  25. Twenty-One
  26. Twenty-Two
  27. Twenty-Three
  28. Twenty-Four
  29. Twenty-Five
  30. Twenty-Six
  31. Twenty-Seven
  32. Twenty-Eight
  33. Twenty-Nine
  34. Thirty
  35. Thirty-One
  36. Thirty-Two
  37. Thirty-Three
  38. Thirty-Four
  39. Thirty-Five
  40. Thirty-Six
  41. Thirty-Seven
  42. Thirty-Eight
  43. Thirty-Nine
  44. Forty
  45. Forty-One
  46. Forty-Two
  47. Forty-Three
  48. Forty-Four
  49. Forty-Five
  50. Forty-Six
  51. Forty-Seven
  52. Forty-Eight
  53. Forty-Nine
  54. Fifty
  55. Fifty-One
  56. Fifty-Two
  57. Fifty-Three
  58. Fifty-Four
  59. A Sample Chapter of Don’t Take Any Wooden Nickels
  60. About the Author
  61. Other Books by Mindy Starns Clark
  62. About the Publisher

Nick wasn’t very organized or neat, so going through his things took a bit of time. He apparently liked science fiction novels, and he had a few of them in the drawers of his bedside table along with several clunky pieces of gold nugget jewelry. There was nothing else of interest there or in the closet. I was amazed at the size of his clothes, and I pulled out one pair of pants just to hold them up to myself. I realized my entire body could fit inside one of his pant legs. I wondered what he weighed.

It wasn’t until I got to the dresser drawers that I hesitated. In one drawer, among the paper clips and hard candies and Kleenex packs, I found a small bottle of injectable insulin.

Gingerly, I lifted the bottle by its metal lid and held it up to the light. It was about half full with less than an inch of clear liquid in the bottom. I memorized the words on the label and wondered if a coroner could determine if this was the same brand that had been injected into the body. Heart pounding, I put the bottle back where I found it and slid the drawer shut.

Angelina’s room was next. It wasn’t nearly as cluttered as Nick’s, nor as large. It was a simple room, painted an airy light blue with a white bedspread on the bed and a few knickknacks on the dresser. The closet held surprisingly few clothes—so few, really, that I flipped through the lot of them, counting three uniforms, two dresses, two pair of jeans, and about four shirts, finally coming to a huge navy blue overcoat at the very end. I pulled the coat out and held it up, wondering what it was doing in there. Checking the collar, I saw that it was a woman’s size 24—much larger than Angelina, who was about a size eight. I looked in the pockets, but they were empty.

I put the coat back and turned to Angelina’s dresser, a smaller, more feminine version of the one in Nick’s room. The drawers were all half-empty, though neatly organized with a small collection of socks, stockings, bras, slips, and nightgowns. The top right drawer held hair clips, bobby pins, and, in the back, several empty purses. There was a wad of cash tucked inside one of them; I counted out the money, realizing it added up to more than four thousand dollars!