Retiring With The Dead: A Culinary Cozy Mystery With A Delicious Recipe (Return To Milburn Book 6) by Nancy McGovern

Author:Nancy McGovern [McGovern, Nancy]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cozy mystery, cosy mysteries, cosy mystery women sleuth, cosy mystery, cozy mysteries
Publisher: McGovern Books
Published: 2019-11-22T05:00:00+00:00

*****

Chapter 13

The Deal

Rowan refused to make eye contact with Nora as he left the building with his mother. The sheriff came out of his office and watched them go. Turning to Nora, he motioned to her to come inside.

“We need to talk. Alone,” he said.

“At your service,” Nora said. “What can I do for you?”

The sheriff led her inside his office, a small room mostly filled with filing cabinets and a mini-fridge. Leaning down, he opened up a can of soda and handed it to her. He took one out for himself, too, and took a long swig. Wiping his mouth with his hand, he sat down in his chair and leaned back with a sigh.

“So,” he said. “Word around town is that you talked to Lillian yesterday, then went to The Purple Fox and asked about Eddie Shaw.”

Nora tried to look coy. “Me?”

“Don’t play games with me, Nora.” The sheriff leaned forward. “I talked to the bartender yesterday and he said you were just full of questions about Eddie’s job at the chemical factory.”

Nora shrugged. “What can I say? I was curious.”

“Sure. I also went and talked to Joey, the coroner, you know.” Sheriff Ellerton tipped his hat forward so it nearly covered his eyes. “Well?”

“Well?” Nora challenged him. “Well, what?”

“You know about the poison,” Sheriff Ellerton said.

“Did Joey say that?”

“Joey didn’t admit to anything. Why would he? He could lose his job. But I can tell. I can sniff it out when someone’s lying. What do you know?”

Nora shrugged and avoided giving a direct answer. “I’m just trying to get Harvey out as fast as possible, Sheriff. You know that.”

“He’ll be out on bail tomorrow morning,” the sheriff said. “If. If you cooperate.”

“What do you mean?” Nora stilled.

“I mean that you do what I tell you to do. Especially when it comes to this investigation,” Sheriff Ellerton explained.

“I’m still not sure what you mean.” Nora shrugged.

“Come on, Nora. We’ve been through this before. Last time, I even asked you for help, remember? I needed it then. But now…” Sheriff Ellerton paused and considered his words. “I’m going to be blunt with you. Rowan Bailey accused me of favoring Harvey and you just because we’ve…well…we’ve been friends for some time now.”

“Why, Sheriff. I’m touched. I never knew you considered me a friend.” Nora smiled.

“A friendly nuisance is what I consider you,” Sheriff Ellerton said. “Bu, look, I take accusations that threaten my job very seriously. Let’s say, in a totally hypothetical scenario, that you’ve been talking to the coroner and somehow getting information out of him. Let’s say that I use that compromised information to prosecute the killer. The whole case could go south if a jury found out what you’d done. The lawyers would have a field day. The killer would go scott-free if there was any indication that the chain of custody of evidence had been breached. A lawyer’s job is to jump on loopholes, and this is a big one. Ok? This is serious stuff.”

“Right.” Nora nodded.

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.