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Back A Penny for Your Thoughts Save as PDF
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

It was quiet and cooler outside, and I closed the back door with only a faint click. The nearly full moon was both a blessing and a hindrance, and I knew that the sooner I got up into that tree house, the safer I would be. I made a wide arc around the garden and headed toward the back of the property along the fence. Once at the end, I saw there was no car parked there in Alan’s spot, no fresh footprints on the grass. Nevertheless, I crept to the barn and took a peek through the knothole, but the barn was quiet and dark.

Nearly running now, I crossed the lawn and reached the tree, quickly finding a ladder of boards nailed at 12-inch intervals up the side of the trunk. I climbed carefully until I reached the platform. Pulling myself through the hole and into the tree house, I looked around the small area, relieved to see that it was devoid of any nocturnal creatures and in fact held nothing more than an old faded comic book and a few spider webs.

I folded up the blanket into a square and used it as a cushion against the hard wooden floor. The tree house seemed sturdy enough, with room to sit fully upright beneath the child-sized ceiling. It certainly provided me with an excellent view. It was built almost like a watchtower, with window openings on all four sides. By shifting around, I could see the house, the barn, the poolside cabana, and nearly everything in between.

I settled down and waited, watching the house, listening to the night sounds, and wondering if this lost night of sleep would be in vain. As I peered across the quiet lawn, I wished I had a good pair of binoculars. I knew Eli would never have set out on a job like this without first stocking up on the necessities: binoculars, camera, recorder, Thermos full of coffee, and a little food.

I thought about Eli now, tangoing his way across his living room in Florida. The last case he took before his retirement had been to track the movements of a wealthy widow, helping her children to prove that the woman was mentally unfit and ought to be declared incompetent. Instead, he found himself falling in love with the woman, who absolutely had all of her faculties and was just a bit eccentric. After the trial, during which she succeeded in putting to rest any and all questions of her mental capacity, she asked Eli to marry her. They now lived in a condo in a retirement community, deliriously happy, taking long walks on the beach every morning and playing cribbage at the local Senior Center on Tuesdays.