It's Beginning To Look A Lot Like Homicide (Yule Notch Book 1) by Leighann Dobbs

Author:Leighann Dobbs [Dobbs, Leighann]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-11-15T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER 13

“Doesn’t look like a bad infestation.” Dan Putney’s voice, a strange mix of gravelly undertones and nasal New England twang, echoed from inside the kitchen cabinet where the upper half of his body was. As he conducted his inspection, Prancer was at his heels, sniffing around the kitchen corners with a serious, investigative air.

Dan emerged from the cabinet, dusted himself off, and looked around my kitchen with a satisfied nod. He was a tall, thin man with a weathered face and kind smile. “Probably just a wayward mouse that came in from the cold. Happens all the time.” He shrugged. “No droppings or nests. I’ll lay some humane traps outside, and you should be right as rain.”

“Thanks.”

Prancer, having finished his inspection, lay down and looked up at us, ears perked.

Handing over two tiny pieces of a torn check, he winked. “Found this too. Might be important.”

I squinted at the fragments. The color was light green and I could only see a few letters and the number one. Was it $1,000? No, $10,000? More? What was it doing under there? I glanced in. “Where’s the rest of it?”

Dan shrugged and bent to scratch Prancer behind his ears. “That’s all that was in there. Why would anyone rip up a check?”

Good question. Had someone tried to pay off Aunt Ivy? I remembered Agnes, Doris, and Betty saying that Benjamin Thornton had kept pestering her to let him buy her land, and she kept refusing. Was the check from him? Or was it from the killer? Maybe he was the killer. Would any of the other suspects give Aunt Ivy a check?

“Your aunt kept a clean kitchen. No bugs, either.”

“Thanks. What do I owe you?”

We settled up, and I saw him to the door, Prancer standing by my side, his head cocked as if bidding Dan goodbye.

Once he was gone, I dashed upstairs, the pieces of check in hand, Prancer trailing behind me. I compared the pen strokes with my earlier finds, but I only had two little scraps of check with numbers and only a few letters on them, and it was impossible to tell if the same person who had written the notes had written the check.

The gravelly crunch of car tires outside caught my ear. A Lincoln pulled into the driveway. Eliot got out, clutching a set of big rolled-up plans. Guess he didn’t feel like using the path through the woods today. Prancer’s tail wagged at the prospect of company as we trotted downstairs to let Eliot in.

Opening the door, I welcomed Eliot with a forced smile and guided him through the living room, keeping an eye on his face as we passed the bottom of the stairs, where Aunt Ivy had met her untimely end. Nothing. Not even a twitch.

“Thank you for coming, Eliot.”

“Er… you’re welcome. I’d like to get this settled.”

“Of course. Would you like a pastry?” I still had a few left from the ones Nick had brought over.

“No, thanks.” He unrolled the plans with shaky hands, pointing out property lines.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.