"Cahoots," by C.C. Guthrie, in Cozy Villages of Death, edited by Lyn Worthen, Camden Park Press, 2020.
Alan Peterson is a banker, and son of the wealthiest man in a small East Texas town. The story opens with him running into Beulah's diner in a panic because his beautiful wife TeriLyn has disappeared.
Scary stuff but things don't seem to add up. She's only been gone a few hours. And isn't Alan supposed to be out of town? And why is he claiming she has been having mental problems?
Very suspicious. Beulah tells us the details of the search that goes on for weeks, and the reaction of the town's residents. My favorite are the two gossips known as the mover and the shaker.
A well-structured story with a very satisfactory climax.
