Murder at Chipmunk Lake by Mary Hughes

Author:Mary Hughes
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: vampires, vampire, mystery, paranormal romance, paranormal mystery, julian, nixie, mary hughes, meiers corners
Publisher: 7th Octave Publishing

Chapter Ten

“Weird.” I sipped lemonade, trying to act cool. A vampire lived near the cabin complex—or at it?

I chilled. The three thugs across the bridge? No, Julian would have smelled them. Besides, vamps are extraordinarily good-looking. They start out like a young person in perfect health and only get more appealing from there. Part of their predator bag of tricks. So not the trolls.

“Is that all?” I tapped two fingers on the side of my neck like she had.

“Isn’t that enough?” Bessy sharply signaled a refill. The barkeep nodded and returned to the tap.

“Yeah. Enough.” I backed off. Very few people were clued into vampires, much less the factions and infighting—some vamps were pro-human and some treated us like blood cattle. So most folk were scared, deep down, root-reaction primitive scared, like mice and creepy deadly snakes.

I edged the conversation back toward the sane side of the street. “What about you? Who’s your money on for the killer?”

It worked. She snorted. “If he still lived here? My *asktard* ex.” She used the Not-Safe-For-Work word. “Or the bizatch he was cheating with. I like to think he found her cheating on him and hacked her to pieces.”

“You sound a tiny bit bitter.”

The bartender set a fresh beer in front of her. “Couldn’t help overhearing. Bessy has a right to be angry. He cheated on her—but the hypocrite tried to completely control her life. He’d even call here, checking up on her.”

“True dat.” Bessy sipped beer. “I suspected he hacked my email and listened in on phone calls. But the last straw was that detective he put on my cute heinie, like some sort of stalker. I divorced his ash.”

She had her own creepy stalker. “Wow. Sorry.” I finished my lemonade and set it down with a shake of my head.

“Another?” The barkeep held up the pitcher.

“I probably should get going.”

She nodded. “While I still have it out…” She pointed her chin at the full glass next to Bessy. “Is Suelle in the bathroom again?”

“Yeah,” Bessy said. “Twelve-week pukes.”

“Sorry to hear that.”

I seconded it. Pregnancy wasn’t easy. Some parts were harder than others. As if agreeing, when I eased off the stool Snagrat played trampoline on my bladder. “Where is that bathroom?”

The barkeep nodded toward the end of the bar as she put the pitcher in a minifridge. “In back.”

“Great. Thanks.”

I felt pretty good, considering. While I hadn’t found a metal bar, I had a couple leads for the killer other than Julian. Although both a vampire and a bear were more likely to use claws than knives, it was just possible those cuts on Caldwell were super-sharp claw tips. Relief made me stupid. “One more thing. You have any metal rods you’d be willing to lend me?”

“What for?” The bartender looked up sharply.

“Um, nothing important.” I suddenly realized how strange a request that was. Bessy had almost made me forget this wasn’t Meiers Corners, where people just expected weird things to pop out of my mouth. To cover I put a five on the bar.

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