CHAPTER NINETY FOUR – NOTHING GOES FOR NOTHING

A few minutes later, they were following the rackety path of Bertha the pickup, its exhaust-choked rumblings echoing strangely through the still, pastoral surroundings. They twisted through a series of picturesque back roads and farming routes until Gus's estate - if it could be called an estate - came into view. "There she blows, my humble home!" The old man caroled with a toothless grin, swinging Bertha into a potholed drive that curved around a sloping grassy incline. "Sorry fer the state of disrepair - ain't nobody but me 'round these parts to keep it up proper." That much was certainly evident, Jasmine reflected as she pulled her car to a coasting stop behind Gus's dilapidated parking spot. 'Fixer upper' didn't even seem an adequate descriptor for the ramshackle assortment of sagging outbuildings, deteriorating barns, and faded homestead structures clustered in a loose semicircle. "Wow..." Claire breathed, already practically vibrating out of the passenger seat with unspoke