Where There's a Will, There's a Murder: A Delightfully Twisty and Totally Addictive Small-Town Cozy Murder Mystery by Fern Cooper

Author:Fern Cooper [Cooper, Fern]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: anonymous
Published: 2024-11-25T00:00:00+00:00

15

I'll Fix It

After just a second, he recovers and turns to me with a face that reads as totally flabbergasted. “What did you say?”

I set my mouth and repeat myself. “Did Felix have anything to do with Mr. Windsor’s murder?”

“No, Jessica! How could you even ask that?” He sounds genuinely shocked, and I feel a pang of guilt that I might have made him feel badly.

I shake my head and say, “Well, it’s hard to trust you when you’re not exactly being forthcoming. Don’t you know how that comes across? I’m giving you every opportunity to tell me what happened with Felix and Archibald, and you’re just…not.” I look down at the ground, suddenly feeling insignificant.

Maybe I miscalculated how much I mean to Jackson. Maybe I miscalculated how well I know Jackson, too.

“My uncle didn’t do anything,” he says gravely, squaring his shoulders like we’re about to enter the ring and start fighting.

I grab his upper arms and plead, “So tell me what happened!”

“Fine.” He rips his arms away from me and pets his dogs, a self-soothing behavior that only serves to highlight my guilt at thinking this about him and his family. The only family he has. I know how I’d feel if someone talked badly about Mr. Pendleton.

“Like I said, I didn’t tell him to shut up. I told him if he didn’t tell anyone, I could fix it for him. And I just meant that he needed to keep his cool. He’d been arguing with Mr. Windsor because his business partner had advised him to pull funding out of Foxberry Press, funding we really needed.”

“I heard that they fought,” I say quietly, feeling like this story was going in a direction that I wasn’t sure would actually alleviate my suspicions about Felix’s guilt.

“Yeah, well, you heard right,” he spits out bitterly. “He was fighting with Mr. Windsor and digging a hole for himself. I knew we’d never get that funding back the way he was hollerin’ at him all the time. So, I told him to stop talking and I’d fix it.” I stand quietly, afraid to respond too quickly and choosing to just process instead. At my silence, he hisses, “I wasn’t talking about covering up a murder, for God’s sake.”

“So, Felix was worried about this funding?” I ask, looking at my nailbeds as I pick at them.

Jackson lifts my chin with a finger, and I feel my skin light up where he touches me. “Jessica, I’m telling you to drop this line of thinking.”

“Or what?” I ask, lifting an eyebrow.

“Or nothing, Jessica! This isn’t a TV show. You drop it, or I might have to rethink how close I think we are. That’s all. It’s not a threat. I’m saying I can’t be friends with someone who thinks my uncle committed a murder, it’s sick. He’s an old man, an old man who’s been quite kind to you.” He points a finger at my accusingly, and I step back, feeling the anger emanating off him.

When he notices my body language, he steps back himself and seems to relax.

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