On Borrowed Time: A Witch Cozy Mystery (Dark Lake Chronicles Book 4) by Raven Snow

Author:Raven Snow [Snow, Raven]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-04-08T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nine

Agnes lived in a split-level house that had seen better days. The yard was overgrown and the roof of the carport was sagging a bit. “This is me,” she said, pointing them into the driveway.

Lady pulled in and cut the engine. She was fishing for an invite inside. This was probably the least subtle way to go about that short of asking.

“Do you mind if I run in and use the bathroom?” Otsuya asked.

Lady had been wrong, apparently. There were less subtle ways. Otsuya had found one.

“Um.” Agnes already had her door partially open. She looked from the door to her house. There was only one other car in the driveway. It was a beige clunker of a car. The police cruiser from Lady’s vision was nowhere to be seen. “I guess that’s fine. Sure.” She went to the door, fishing her keys from her pocket as she went.

Lady got out of the car as well, following behind Otsuya and Agnes. “Thanks,” said Otsuya.

“Sorry about the mess.” Agnes unlocked the door and opened it wide for them.

The inside of the house wasn’t a mess exactly. There was a lot of clutter. Some clothes were strewn on the floor. There were some empty Chinese food containers on the coffee table. It was hardly the messiest house Lady had ever seen. It wouldn’t have been up to Ms. Poole’s standards, but Lady had definitely lived in worse. “It’s fine,” Lady assured her.

Agnes pointed down a dimly lit hallway up the stairs. “The bathroom is the second door on the right. The door doesn’t lock, but if you turn the fan on no one will come in.”

“Thanks,” Otsuya hurried in that direction, though Lady wasn’t even sure she needed to or could use the restroom. Otsuya’s biology was a mystery to her.

“Is someone else home?” Lady asked, hooking her thumbs into the pockets of her shorts.

“Hmm?”

“You said no one would go into the bathroom if the fan was on. Is someone else here?”

“Oh, um—” Agnes didn’t get a chance to answer. Someone walked from the kitchen. So, yes, someone was home. “Ben!”

The young man leaving the kitchen had a carton of milk in one hand and a box of cereal in the other. He was only wearing a pair of boxer shorts, a fact that made Lady instinctively lower her eyes to the ground.

“Who’s this?” asked the young man. Ben, presumably. He sounded tired. His speech was a little slurred.

“I started at the library today,” snapped Agnes. She wasn’t yelling, but there was anger in her voice all the same. “Remember? I started there today?”

“Oh,” said Ben. “But what are they doing here?”

Lady chanced a look up. Ben was making no move to cover himself. He didn’t seem embarrassed to be caught in his boxer shorts. He was a very skinny boy, she noted. His ribs were visible beneath his pale skin. There were some poorly done tattoos along his chest and arms. They looked like generic tribal symbols. Aside from that, there was a definite resemblance to Agnes.

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.