Man Bags and Malice (A Haley Randolph Mystery) by Dorothy Howell

Author:Dorothy Howell [Howell, Dorothy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Dorothy Howell
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 10

I needed to solve Bianca’s murder and to do that I needed suspects. Actually, I already had a lot to choose from—almost every person who’d ever come into contact with her. That pool was way too big. I had to narrow it down—and when it came to turning on each other, causing problems, and holding grudges, where better to look than family?

Jewel had told me Bianca’s daughter-in-law Shannon used to work for Harper Brothers but some sort of blow up had caused her to quit. Jewel hadn’t hesitated to say it was because of Bianca. I figured that was a good place to start. Yeah, okay, the family was in mourning and I didn’t really want to walk into a big emotional scene—I’m not good with big emotional scenes—but I didn’t have a lot of time to waste.

I followed the 134 and 101 west toward the Valley, mentally reviewing everyone who’d been seen at the Patterson picnic that day, and which of them would make likely suspects.

Gail came to mind, mostly because she’d gone missing and had acted strangely when she’d finally showed up. But she had a long history with Bianca, which meant she’d already had plenty of opportunities to murder her. So why do it in the middle of an event? Why that particular event, on that particular day?

I had no evidence against Gail or any hard reason to suspect her, but I kept her on my mental suspect list mostly because she’d given me a weird feeling about the whole thing.

Gail’s boyfriend Dillon had been at the picnic, according to Jewel, there for a quickie in the parking lot. Honestly, I didn’t think too highly of a guy who’d show up at his girlfriend’s job for that reason, but who was I to judge? For all I knew, it might have been Gail’s idea. Anyway, there seemed little reason to put Dillon on my suspect list but I did so simply because he was there that day and, of course, I was desperate.

The two crashers seen at the picnic were on my mental maybe-you-did-it list. One was probably Dillon. The other was an unknown who might, or might not, be under investigation by the FBI. I’d have to do some serious digging to find out more about him.

And, of course, there was Ben.

I really didn’t want Ben to be guilty.

My GPS instructed me to head north on Reseda Boulevard, then took me onto Vanowen Street and finally to the house where Shannon lived. It was in a residential neighborhood of modest, single-family homes that were pretty much average in every way. I parked at the curb, went up the sidewalk, and rang the bell.

Shannon Grady answered the door right away. She was petite, dressed in yoga pants and a T-shirt, and had pulled her dark blonde hair back in a ponytail. I figured her for early thirties. She looked like the house and the neighborhood, slightly worn, lacking in attention, and a little rough around the edges.

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.