Hidden Fire by Terry Odell

Author:Terry Odell
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: romance, romantic suspense, police procedural, Small town police, Pine Hills Police, Smuggling
Publisher: Terry Odell
Published: 2013-06-04T00:00:00+00:00

NEVILLE’S ATTEMPTS at a friendly smile did nothing to reassure Sarah. He cleared his throat. “Understand you’ve had a lot of problems with your little gift shop.”

Her stomach twisted. “Until the other night, they were in the past. Do you think this burglary has anything to do with what happened before?”

“I wouldn’t know, ma’am. I’m not a detective.”

The sneering emphasis he placed on detective let her know exactly who he was talking about. “Then what are we doing here?” she asked.

“Doing my job, ma’am. We’re a small town, our duties overlap from time to time.” His lips tilted upward. “I’m helping out. I don’t want to bother the detectives if it’s not related to your burglary.”

More likely so you’ll get the credit for discovering an important clue if it is.

“You said you’re missing some pots from that fancy artist, right?” he continued.

Wondering if Neville could read her face as well as Randy, she nodded warily. “Yes. There weren’t any fragments of his pottery. Someone stole them.”

He reached into his shirt pocket for a notebook. He uncapped a pen. “So you say. Why would they do that? And break the other stuff. Why not take everything? Or break everything?”

She fixed her gaze on his eyes. They flitted to his notebook and lingered there before meeting hers again. “Isn’t that the police’s job, Officer Neville? I’ve already told this to Detective Kovak and Detective Detweiler.” This was getting too creepy. She should have risked calling one of them.

“Please answer the question ma’am. Sometimes repeating information jogs the memory. What was so special about that pottery?”

She forced herself to clear her mind. No anger. Calm. Cooperative. “I don’t know. It’s high quality. One of a kind. Hard to get while he’s running an exclusive. People collect his pots. Maybe you should check eBay.”

He waggled his pen between his thumb and forefinger but didn’t make any notes. “That might be a good idea. You do a lot of eBay shopping?”

“You actually think I took my own merchandise and am selling it on eBay? That’s ridiculous.”

He leaned forward and the coffee on his breath had gone sour. She stiffened, but refused to draw away as he spoke. “I didn’t say that, ma’am. But you could collect the insurance from the burglary and sell the stuff again. Seems like a sweet scam.”

Fury flooded her and she knew she must be crimson. Would he think she was lying? She inhaled slowly, counted to ten and exhaled even more slowly. “I don’t like what you’re implying, Officer.”

“I’m not implying anything ma’am. Just tossing ideas out there. Like, why did you go to your shop late at night? And what did you and Detective Detweiler do after I left? Seems the two of you would have had plenty of time to make those fancy pots disappear. Can’t be bad having a police detective for a boyfriend, if you know what I mean.”

“Are you calling Randy—Detective Detweiler—a thief? That’s even more ridiculous than selling my pottery on eBay.”

“Don’t know, ma’am. It seems he hung around an awful long time after I left.

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