Killer Deadline by Lauren Carr

Author:Lauren Carr [Carr, Lauren]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Cozy Mystery, Cozy, mystery, whodunit, romance, Romance Suspense, romantic suspense, Amateur Sleuth, woman sleuth, woman detective, female protagonist, dogs
Publisher: Acorn Book Services
Published: 2020-04-22T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Nikki pulled her boxer dog in close and stroked the top of his head. “We’re taking Elmo around to visit the residents here at the nursing home. That was something we loved to do back in Nevada. What are you doing here?”

“I’m here visiting my father,” Debra said. “He’s a resident.”

“I thought your father had abandoned you and your mother when you were a little girl.” Nikki grit her teeth. Calling Debra out like that would surely make her defensive.

Debra stood up straight and squared her shoulders.

“I’m sorry,” Nikki apologized. “It’s none of my business.”

“You’re right,” Debra said. “My father did abandon my mother and me. He thought he’d go further in his career if he was single. I wanted nothing to do with him, until I’d become a single mother. I was on the verge of becoming homeless when, in desperation, I reached out to him. I blackmailed him into stepping up to bat. If he didn’t help me get on my feet, I was going to go public about him abandoning us. He paid for me to go to business school and put in a good word for me to get a job at WKPG-TV.”

“Sam Hill,” Nikki said in a soft voice.

Debra slowly nodded her head. “We kept our relationship a secret at WKPG. He didn’t want anyone to know about me and I was ashamed of being related to such a miserable human being.”

Nikki felt Ryan’s fingers dig into her elbow from where he stood behind her. It was a wordless warning not to accuse Debra of covering up for her father’s killer.

“Can we see him?” Nikki asked instead. “Would he like a visit from Elmo?”

Debra glanced over her shoulder into the room. “Sam was never into dogs, but you can give it a try.”

Nikki followed Debra into the room. The summer sun spilled in through the window that looked out on a courtyard where family members would take residents out for walks or to sit on benches and feed the birds.

Nikki had been telling Debra the truth about Elmo visiting nursing homes in Las Vegas. The boxer seemed to sense when someone needed his unconditional love. Once inside the room, he pulled ahead of Nikki to move alongside Debra.

She slid the overbed table containing the uneaten lunch away. Elmo planted his front paws on the bed. He licked the withered hand draped across the bony chest and slipped his broad snout underneath.

Nikki covered her mouth to muffle the gasp that wanted to escape her lips.

The Sam Hill she remembered from her childhood was an overtly handsome man. He exuded an air of sophistication as he immersed himself in the finer things in life. He performed Shakespeare in the local theater. Blue jeans were for commoners. His tailored suits fit his slender frame to perfection. Never would a strand of his silver hair stray out of place. He only drove Cadillacs and looked down his perfectly straight nose at those who spun around Pine Grove in pickup trucks.

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