A Page of Murder (A Seabreeze Bookshop Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Penny Brooke

Author:Penny Brooke [Brooke, Penny]
Language: eng
Format: azw3
Published: 2021-03-31T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER TWELVE

I didn’t mind the questions: How had Anna seemed that night? What was on her mind? Those were questions I could answer.

What I really minded was the look that Chief Lee gave me as he stared me down. In my small back office, he leaned forward in his chair and watched me carefully, as if I were some “troublesome newcomer,” as he liked to call us, with something big to hide.

And—ouch, this was the hard part—I supposed the chief was right. Oh, not that I was troublesome! That was just not me. But I was hiding something—that could soon explode. I took a deep breath and exhaled. Calm down, Rue. You’ve got this, I said to myself. I took comfort in the knowledge that I was on the side of good. I was keeping secrets—but in service of a higher kind of truth. After all, I told myself, if Chief Lee saw that phone, he’d go after me, no doubt. And I wanted him to focus all of his resources on the jerk who murdered Anna.

My inquisitor towered over me with a stern expression that seemed to suck all of the life right out of the store. Then he ran a hand over his balding head. “Well, you know where to find us, Rue, if you think of something else. I want this person off the street—and soon.” He crossed his arms and glared as if he were mad at me and not the person with the knife. In his head, I imagined, he was cursing the “outsiders” and the mayhem they brought with them to his peaceful town.

Gatsby lay at my feet in a watchful pose, growling softly at the chief. My faithful furry buddy could always sense a bad vibe, although they were few and far between at the Seabreeze Bookshop.

I shifted in my seat. “Did you know Jules Granger kind of hangs around at night?” I asked. “He’s always on that bench between my place and the bakery. I always thought it was so weird, the way that he just sits out there in the dark when all the stores are closed.” I cocked my head at the chief. “Something makes me wonder if Jules was out there waiting on that night when Anna left the store.”

He waved away the tip as if it were so much rubbish. “Jules is an okay guy, Rue. A little odd, not exactly one of us. But as far as we can tell, the guy is fine. He didn’t have an alibi. But that happens more than not with guys who live alone.”

“He made things hard on Anna. Here, she gave him work, and he seemed to go head to head with her on every little thing.”

“Yeah, we’ve heard about the trouble between the two of them. But that’s hardly motive for the guy to up and stab his boss. There are other ways than knives to fix an employment situation that’s gone bad. It’s called Get another job. And from what I understand, he already had his bags packed by the time this thing went down with Anna.

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