Recipe for Disaster (A Seasoned Sleuth Cozy Mystery Book 5) by Gretchen Allen

Author:Gretchen Allen [Allen, Gretchen]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Summer Prescott Books
Published: 2023-08-22T16:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER NINE

“Harold, I need you to call me back as soon as you can,” Loretta said into her phone. In the end, she’d decided the best option was to call the police chief immediately, then fill Kelly in later. “There’s a man named Jed Paulson driving around the neighborhood in a small white pickup, asking people what they know about Declan Mercer. He seemed to know the victim in the car and claimed to be her brother. I think he left for now, but I thought you ought to know.”

She hung up her phone after adding a few more details and began pacing the house. She wanted to give Harold time to call her right back. A couple minutes later, she decided that wasn’t likely to happen, so she did what she’d wanted to do in the first place.

“Loretta? What’s going on?” Kelly asked when she answered the call.

“Georgia knocked on my door a little while ago,” Loretta said quickly. “She was upset about some man stopping her on the road and making some comments about Lisa and Declan. She came to my house because she was a little overwhelmed by everything going on around here at the moment.”

“That’s fair,” Kelly said. “What happened afterward? Did she go home? Is she still there with you?”

“No, I walked her home,” Loretta said. “We stood around for a little while talking about her flower garden, then when I was on my way home, the man came back by.”

“The same man who spooked Georgia?”

“Yup. It’s gotta be,” Loretta said. “He said his name was Jed Paulson, and he claimed to be the victim’s brother. He called Declan a snake and said he was shocked that he hadn’t tried to hit on me.”

“But he did hit on you,” Kelly said.

“Yeah, but I didn’t share that information with him,” Loretta said. “I wanted him to tell me more about Declan.”

“Did he say anything else?”

“He said he fawned over Lisa and acted like she was the only woman in the world, then took all her money,” Loretta said.

“Do you think he was trying to say that Declan killed her?”

“I’m not really sure. He believes it’s Declan’s fault, but maybe not his doing, if that makes sense.”

“I get it,” Kelly confirmed. “Did anything else happen?”

Loretta thought for a moment. “He asked me if I knew Declan Mercer, or whatever he was calling himself now.”

“That sounds a lot like someone with more than one identity. That’s not great news.”

“Not at all. It seems like Declan is a con artist at the very least,” Loretta said.

“At least he didn’t seem to think the man was dangerous,” Kelly said.

“Maybe not physically, but he acted a little weird about who Lisa was to him. Makes me wonder if the guy is some sort of con man himself.”

“You need to talk to Harold about this,” Kelly said.

“I left him a message,” Loretta said. “But he hasn’t called me back.”

“Maybe you should go up to the police station and find him yourself,” Kelly suggested.

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