Left to Murder (An Adele Sharp Mystery—Book Five) by Blake Pierce

Author:Blake Pierce [Pierce, Blake]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: UNKNOWN
Published: 2020-11-23T18:30:00+00:00

CHAPTER SEVENTEEN

Artisan’s Supplies was in a much better state than the facade of the building. The sign had shown peeling letters, and the pink bricks looked like they’d been red once upon a time. Inside, though, whoever owned the store kept the place immaculate.

Adele spotted various accoutrements lining the wall. Large, wooden barrels neatly arranged against the back wall, with small hooks attached to bungee cords holding the containers in place in such a way that would allow one to remove the lower containers in the stack without toppling the entire display.

Adele even detected a faint hint of pumpkin spice on the air, and she glanced toward the counter, listening to the quiet whistle of woodwick candles placed in an arrangement around a cash register half-hidden behind a row of pamphlets and magazines boasting subjects one might expect to find in such a store.

“Can I help you?” the clerk behind the counter asked.

The clerk had a thin torso, but large, round cheeks. She was smiling genially, but her eyes kept glancing between Adele, Agent Carter, and Agent Renee with flicking motions that almost seemed to match the soft sputter of the candles.

“I hope so,” Adele said, displaying her credentials and then reaching the front of the counter. She absentmindedly poked at a dangling car-scent ornament—a foam tracing of red triangles in a plastic wrapper which boasted the ability to fill one’s car with the scent of strawberry wine.

The clerk winced, scanning Adele and flicking her eyes over her rosy cheeks toward the two other agents. “Is this about the girl again?”

Adele nodded once. “What can you tell us?”

The clerk simply shook her head. “As I told the officers who came in a few hours ago—I remember her purchasing some supplies, saw her move out into the parking lot, but that’s about it.”

Adele stared at the clerk for a second. The woman was glancing off to the side every couple of words, though she seemed to be trying to fix her gaze on Adele. A nervous tic? A dishonest one?

“Is that all you saw?” Adele asked.

The clerk shrugged, muttered to herself, then sighed and crossed her arms over her crisp white uniform in a defensive posture. Her silver earrings caught the light cast by the candles, and she cleared her throat and said, “Look—I’m not one to pry. I did notice she dropped one of the items she’d purchased. A glass decanter by the looks of things. But I had other customers to attend to.”

“She dropped it? As in someone assaulted her and she—”

“No, no certainly not!” the woman exclaimed. “I would have immediately called the police if I’d seen anything like that. No—rather, she seemed a bit overburdened with everything she purchased. Newer customers can be like that sometimes.” She shrugged. “Two trips instead of one can save a world of headache.” The clerk nodded sagely at her own advice.

Adele mirrored the gesture if only to further put the clerk at ease for what she asked next. Adele didn’t doubt the woman’s story.

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