Balloons Can Be Murder by Connie Shelton

Author:Connie Shelton
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Tags: detective, mystery, cozy, New Mexico, women sleuths
ISBN: 9781453692257
Publisher: CreateSpace
Published: 2010-07-18T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter 15

I got home feeling restless and agitated. Too many encounters with strangers and too much time in the car left me wanting to run, to exercise, to punch something. I wanted to talk to Drake, to let his strength and even disposition make me feel centered again. But it was way too late to disturb him. On these jobs he was always up well before daylight and bedtime came correspondingly early. I settled for exercising to a thirty minute video of aerobics followed by thirty more minutes of Tai Chi.

By this time it was so far past my usual bedtime I knew my internal clock would be screwed up for days. I showered and fell into bed.

When the alarm sounded at six, I slapped the button and went right back into a deep sleep. Insistent prods from a dog nose finally got my attention around nine and I groaned and rolled off the edge of the bed. I’d probably missed my window of opportunity to talk to Drake but I dialed his cell anyway. Sure enough, the voice mail came on and I left him a message.

Next, Ron. I knew he’d spent the early morning hours staking out William Fairfield’s apartment and I really didn’t want to end up having to take over that duty, although it would have been the right thing to at least offer. I’d try the office first, then his cell phone, but only if necessary. With any luck I could stall him by letting him know that I’d be at Rachael’s tonight as we’d discussed.

“Charlie, where are you?” he demanded. Sally’d said he was on the other line, but he’d obviously put that call on hold long enough to share some stress with me.

“I’m home now, Ron, you know that,” I said in my calmest, sweetest voice.

“Yeah, well. I need you to get to Rachael’s.”

“What’s going on that can’t wait until this evening?”

“There’s been a new threat on Rachael and she’s pretty shaken up.”

“What happened?” I visualized sabotage to her balloon or a near-miss in traffic.

“Another letter like the last one.” He paused for effect. “But this time they left it on her doorstep, along with the body of her dead cat.”

I felt my stomach do a high flip. “Oh, geez.” Poor little Misty.

“She found it when she returned from Sam’s this morning. I can’t tell if she’s more shaken by the note or the cat. She needs company right now and I’ve got a deposition at two o’clock that I can’t miss.”

“Do you think it was her father?” Could he have left his job after I’d watched him check in?

“When I got there at six this morning he was still on the job and I followed him home.”

“Could he have left during his dinner break?”

“Supervisor says he didn’t and his time card wasn’t punched out.”

I tried to come up with other possibilities and the only thing that came to mind was Ryan Tamsin.

“Plus,” he continued, “we don’t know when the, uh, message was left.

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