Murder on the Boardwalk by Vickie McKeehan

Author:Vickie McKeehan [McKeehan, Vickie]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2023-06-25T18:30:00+00:00

While Lucien gave Brent a hard time, Brogan started her busy Monday by checking her work emails. She sent a few replies, presided over a Zoom meeting with department heads back east, and signed off on several new contracts. Afterward, she brought her laptop to the kitchen and switched gears. She worked on their websleuth website, hoping to get the kinks worked out so it could go live by the end of the week. By nine a.m., she was about to hunt down contact information for their top suspects when Jade knocked on the French doors.

“You decent?” Jade cracked.

Happy to see that her friend was in a better mood than the night before, Brogan grinned and turned the lock. “Come on in. Coffee’s fresh.”

She took the time to peruse Jade’s outfit—a floral print dress in a wild mix of turquoise and sage green that swooped to mid-calf. She wore dangly beads around her neck, loop earrings, and strappy wedge sandals on her feet. She carried a straw tote bag that held her laptop. “You look absolutely amazing.”

“Thank you.” Jade’s face broke into a smile as she shifted toward the table, eyeing the pile of paperwork there. “That looks serious. Let me guess—the backbone of Brinell Steel is on her second pot of coffee.”

“My busy Monday morning go-juice helps. Want a cup?”

“No, thank you. That little espresso machine in the guest cottage makes the best coffee. I’ve already had three cups of that stuff. I indulged myself. Remind me to grab the kind of coffee you buy. It’s perfect for my mood.”

“It’s the darkest roast Murphy sells. You drank three cups already? No wonder you look as if you could bounce off the ceiling.”

“Do I? Well, I’ve been up since the crack of dawn. I feel energized, like someone lifted a ninety-pound weight off my shoulders. I should’ve broken up with Birk months ago.”

“Was it that bad?”

“It wasn’t horrible or intolerable. He didn’t beat me or anything like that. The happiest time we spent together was training Mia to become a rescue dog. Hiking together was always fun. Birk seemed happiest when we were outdoors. But when Mia didn’t make the cut, he lost purpose. We started arguing more. He started nitpicking at me more.”

“I didn’t realize.”

Jade lifted a shoulder. “No one did. We just don’t mesh anymore, Brogan. That’s the hard reality. You have to remember, I’ve known Birk for over two years.”

“I thought it was six months.”

“Nope. This wasn’t a simple fling. We met when I started working on his sister’s disappearance. For two months, I’d been bugging him about an interview for my blog. I usually like to get a perspective from the victim’s family members. So I kept bugging Birk. But he kept refusing to meet with me. Then, one day I got a phone call from him out of the blue, and we met for coffee. It turns out Beckett had twisted his arm to do it. So Birk had an attitude right from the start. We immediately bumped heads.

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.