“Watch out for the poison ivy,” Jonah shouted, pointing to the shiny, purple-tinged leaves along the side of the cottage. The man from Central Indiana Power & Gas glanced down at the dangerous weeds, then grabbed a pair of work gloves from his tool belt. “Thanks,” he shouted back. With the gloves on, he reached…

Jonah came down for breakfast one morning looking tired and worried. “Did you hear a gunshot last night?” “Gunshot?” His mother stopped pouring cereal into a bowl. “Around here?” Carol Bixby and her son lived on a cul-de-sac with only one other house nearby. Jonah nodded. “I heard Mr. and Mrs. Grover next door fighting,…

It was a frigid day in February as Carol Bixby warmed herself in front of the fireplace in Aunt Penny’s old-fashioned living room. Sitting beside her were her cousins, Aunt Penny’s two other nieces. All of them stared silently at the Victorian brooch lying on a footstool, its central diamond gleaming in the fire’s red…