Murder in the Maple: Wicked Wick Mysteries, Book 2 by Melrose McFadden & Elizabeth Thomas & Leslie Thwaits

Author:Melrose McFadden & Elizabeth Thomas & Leslie Thwaits [McFadden, Melrose]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2022-01-31T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER 14

Paloma picked her way through established footprints in the slushy snow. The wind had picked up and now whipped her hair around her face in a blinding black sheet, so she stopped behind a tree to tie it up and stuff her ponytail down the back of her jacket. Josef had said Adam was working on a building outside, then waved in this general direction without giving any more to go on. So Paloma followed Adam’s boot prints from outbuilding to outbuilding looking for him.

The first building she passed on this side of the factory was the original little sugar shack. It was the small wooden structure closest to the driveway where, back in the old factory days, people could walk up and buy small bottles of maple syrup or small packages of maple marzipan candies and taste-test new batches and new creations.

When she pulled the shiny new brass doorknob, the door swung open easily, revealing a set of empty wooden shelves, some dried leaves, and not much else. Paloma closed the door and made her way down the trail to the next building. She heard the faint buzz of a power drill off in the distance, so set off toward the sound.

She passed two more outbuildings, both a bit bigger than the old sugar shack. Those would make great guest cabins. All they probably needed was a little plumbing. She noted that the two old buildings both had shiny new brass doorknobs.

She followed the buzz another fifty yards and found Adam testing out the next outbuilding’s newly-installed door hardware. He opened and closed the door, tested the lock, then started gathering his tools to move on to the next. Paloma noted as she approached how he moved with a quiet efficiency. There was no talking, no second-guessing, no pulling out his phone to scroll social media in between tasks. Just the stoic tenacity of a man on a mission.

“Hey! Adam!” she called, breaking into a jog to catch up with him before he moved to the next building.

He turned around as he pulled his coat tighter around himself against the wind. “Hey, Paloma. What’s up?”

“I just wanted to catch you up on some things. What we talked about before?”

He nodded. His cheeks were flushed red from the cold. He had a long green scarf wrapped around his neck, which Paloma recognized immediately as being one of Agnes’s creations from Yarn of a Tail. It was a small, quiet thing, but it made Paloma smile in spite of the reason for her visit. Adam motioned for her to follow him, and they made their way through the snow to the next building.

“I just got back from talking to Cole,” she said. “He really is busy dealing with some town pyromaniac problem, but he has actually done some digging on your case as well.”

They arrived at the next outbuilding, and Adam yanked the door open with a grunt. The hinges squeaked, and the intruding cold wind rustled some old leaves and debris on the floor.

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.