Murder, Wrapped Up by K J Emrick

Author:K J Emrick [Emrick, K J]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: South Coast Publishing
Published: 2015-12-14T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Seven

Here’s the fun fact about being your own boss that everyone misses. You have to do the work yourself.

So. Accused of murder, haunted by my husband’s ghost and, oh yes, on the outs with my boyfriend, I had to spend the next few hours at the Pine Lake Inn doing my work, unless I want Rosie to fire me.

Not that I think Rosie would really fire me. She’s my best friend in the world and she’d overlook me being away from the front desk of the Inn for a few hours. She’s done it plenty of times before, I’m sorry to say, but I suppose that’s what friends are for. Just like I overlook how she can be as clumsy and awkward as a teenage girl at her first prom.

It’s been a little worse for her lately, but I decided to chalk that up to the Christmas holidays. Everybody gets a little giddy when they know there’s presents coming.

Wondering what James got me for a gift almost took my mind off everything else going wrong.

Got another gift on the way. My Kevin’s coming home for the holidays. A little sooner than expected, but I won’t complain. It’d be nice to see his sister again, too, but that’s not to be. Maybe next year. Which is the same thing I said last year. And the year before that.

After leaving Alfonse’s place I came straight here, to think about Christmas and other stuff that didn’t have anything to do with murder. I was almost back in the holiday spirit after the long walk.

Then I stepped through the front door.

I spent the next thirty minutes trying not to stare at that wall like my husband’s ghost would pop out of it at any minute. I wonder if Ebenezer Scrooge ever had days like this.

The Christmas tree lights twinkled, and the dining room hummed with voices form the last of the lunch crowd. The mood was festive. I kept reminding myself it was the season of peace and miracles.

I said a silent prayer that a little more of that peace would find its way here to Lakeshore. A couple of miracles wouldn’t hurt, either.

Me and Alfonse had talked at length about the secrets he’d been keeping, and about how surprised I was that he’d managed to hide them so well in a town like ours. Still, the truth was I had more than a few secrets of my own. Ones I didn’t want to share. I doubted that anyone, even my very best friend Rosie, would be in the mood to share a Christmas cracker with me if they found out I was seeing ghosts. Including my dead husband.

Right.

Just like I’d expected, the Inn was starting to empty out now that Christmas was just three days away. People wanted to be home at this time of year to be with family and friends and loved ones. That was part of the meaning of Christmas, after all. There was also that little baby born in a manger a couple thousand years back, but I’m betting he went home on his birthday too.

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.