The Route 66 Misfits: A Small Town Mystery Series (Cozy Mysteries on the Open Road Book 1) by CeeCee James

Author:CeeCee James [James, CeeCee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2025-03-16T00:00:00+00:00

14

The, slender woman, draped in colorful scarves and dressed in her spiffy bohemian skirt, waved at us. Five chunky necklaces adorned her neck, each one bigger and more colorful than the last. She tipped her hat back and grabbed her drink as we approached.

“I have a booth over there,” she said, pointing. “What would you like to drink?”

I ordered a small glass of soda, and Jane did as well.

“You don’t drink?” Angela asked.

I pulled my red jacket crisply around me. “Not this early.” Well, Miss Pet Sitter interviewer certainly didn’t. I raised my eyebrows, sternly.

“Me either,” Jane said.

Angela dipped her chin but said nothing. Her beaded necklaces clinked as we walked over to the table.

“So, how is it you know my brother?” she asked.

I liked that. No punches pulled. Straight to the point.

“We were acquaintances,” Jane said, steely.

Nice, I thought. Saved me from having to answer.

“Really?” she asked. She took a long sip of a drink that appeared to be a Long Island Iced Tea. Her eyes had a glassy appearance that made me wonder how many of these she’d already had. My spine stiffened. Were we in for trouble?

“We were wondering how your brother came to have her purse,” I asked pointedly. If she could be straightforward, so could I.

Angela’s gaze swept over to me, and she tapped the side of her glass with one long nail. Beaded condensation on its surface joined together and ran to the table.

“I had thought it was because they’ve been sleeping together and he was trying to be a gentleman and return it,” she said, effectively lobbing that hot potato back to me in this weird game that we were in.

I didn’t have a chance to respond because Jane hurriedly explained, “Oh no! It was actually stolen from me.”

“Then perhaps he found it,” Angela said. “Thieves tend to toss those once they’ve confiscated the valuables.”

My stomach dropped at her explanation. It was a good one. Plausible. Could that actually have been what happened? Was this all for nothing?

Jane sat back in her chair with a worried expression. She must have thought the same thing from what I could read all over her face.

“I’m very sorry to hear about your brother,” I said, stating what I should have said from the beginning. I had been taken so off-guard by our confrontation that my true thoughts had slipped for a moment. But I was back on track now. “How are you coping? Are there plans for a memorial?”

She took a long drink before setting the glass down. “How do you think I’m doing?” She stared at me with hard eyes.

Yikes! Lobbed back at me again. But I could take it. “I’m assuming that all of this is like a very bad nightmare you can’t escape. What with the investigation, along with the terrible loss. I am very sorry.”

Her expression softened a bit then, and she glanced back at her glass as she nodded. “It is very strange. Especially since he was doing so well. He

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