A Job of Inn Dependence (A Hotel Inspector Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Katherine Hayton

A Job of Inn Dependence (A Hotel Inspector Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Katherine Hayton

Author:Katherine Hayton [Hayton, Katherine]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-12-02T18:30:00+00:00


The house at the provided address was enormous and old. Paint peeled off the old wooden slats and exposed decades of other coats beneath it. A tangle of bicycles and a line-up of old junker cars that didn’t look like they’d start indicated at least twenty people lived there. As Diana caught sight of six trash cans overflowing down the side of the driveway, she amended that. Based on the number of empty bottles, it seemed more likely fifty or a hundred resided within its walls.

“Who you looking for?” a young man called out from an upstairs window as they approached. “You the cops?”

“No, we’re not,” Harry called up, craning his neck back, “and we’re searching for Joe Wilson. Is he around?”

“Joe!” The man’s head disappeared, and he shouted out the name a few more times. A minute later, his face appeared at another window. “He’s on his way down. I think this time, he’s even bothered to put on his clothes.”

“What do you mean?” Diana called back up to him. “Doesn’t he usually get dressed?”

“He came home yesterday, naked except for his undershorts.” The man burst into hysterical laughter. “We had girls visiting, and they took one look, screamed, and ran away.”

Running away seemed to be what Joe Wilson was intent on doing too. Diana caught a flash of a figure down the driveway and gave chase before she could stop to think. “Hey,” she called out, “you’re not in trouble. We just want to talk to you.”

She lost him when he vaulted over a high fence into a neighboring property. Although Diana gave it her best try, she needed to either grow another foot or find something to stand on. An old beer crate was tangled in the weeds but when she pulled it out, the wood disintegrated in her hands, infested with lice. With a cry, she dropped it and stepped back, shaking.

When she recovered enough to look around, she realized Harry had disappeared somewhere. Great. Diana walked back out to the sidewalk and turned in a circle, hands on her hips. No sign of him anywhere.

She was on the verge of heading back to the car when a familiar voice called out to her. Harry stood at the corner of the street with a young man in an armlock.

“I found him one street over,” he yelled out, sounding pleased with himself. “Do you want to do the questioning, or should I?”

“Why don’t you start.” Diana strode over to them, peering at Joe with interest. “I might take issue with the fact I got splinters trying to get over the fence.”

Joe grinned until Diana wanted to slap the expression of his face. There was a strange odor rising from him, herbal and heady.

“Mary-Jane,” Harry said at her raised eyebrows. “It’s not even gone ten o’clock in the morning and the kid’s stoned.”

“Drugs?” Diana took a step back as though close contact might somehow infect her. “Shouldn’t we report him to the police?”

The smile dropped off Joe’s face and he struggled in earnest, unable to break Harry’s hold.



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