Diamonds, Teak, and Murder: A Crystal Coast Case (Crystal Coast Cases Book 1) by A. M. Ialacci

Author:A. M. Ialacci [Ialacci, A. M.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2019-08-01T04:00:00+00:00

“Holly! Do you want to go out to lunch today?” They didn’t really socialize outside of work, but Allie wanted to see how serious Holly and Ty had been, and figured that she might be able to find out something useful.

“Uh, okay! Where did you want to go?” Holly asked.

“How about Panera?”

“Okay, I’ll meet you there about 12:30?”

“Sounds great!”

Allie asked Peg to keep an eye on Ryan while she was out and let Ryan know she’d be gone for about an hour or so. “Okay,” he said and gave her a quick smile before turning back to his game. Apparently, hanging out with Peg’s doggies earlier had averted anything catastrophic, because he was back to his old routines.

“If you get hungry, you can make yourself a sandwich, or there’s some easy mac in the cupboard,” she said. He didn’t respond, but she knew he had heard her. She wanted to arrive at Panera before Holly, so she grabbed her keys and headed to the truck.

Holly arrived shortly after she had, and Allie waved when she saw her. She noted Holly’s wary expression. Allie could tell she was still wondering why she had called her but was careful to cover her true emotions like any good southerner. “Hey, Allie!” she said as she approached the table.

“I’ve already ordered,” Allie said. “You go ahead.”

“All right!” Holly said and went back to the line.

Allie watched her in line and thought about what she knew of Holly. She was local, from Marshallberg, and in her early twenties. She hadn’t gone to more than community college, but that wasn’t unusual for this area. She had probably gotten an associate’s in secretarial work. Working in the boatyard office had to be one of her first full-time jobs. She wasn’t very bright, but she could perform menial and repetitive tasks like answering phones and filing, which were the bulk of her job. She was attractive, and Allie saw now that Holly seemed to fit Ty’s type. She wondered how she should approach Holly with her questions.

As they both finally settled at the table with their plates, Holly got right to the point. “What’s up?” she asked.

“Thanks for coming out,” Allie said, pausing to munch on her crusty bread. “I really needed a break from the tension at work. This thing with Ty is wearing me out.”

Holly took a moment. “Ty wasn’t as bad as everyone made him out to be. He didn’t treat people very well, but everyone kind of knew that about him, so you expected it.”

“How well did you know him?” Allie asked, hoping it came off more nonchalant than it sounded.

“Well, no one really knows this, but we were kind of a thing for a few weeks,” Holly said. “Ty said to keep it on the down-low because, well, because people gossip, and he just didn’t want to hear it from anyone.”

“Wow, really?” Allie said acting surprised. “When was this?”

“We had just decided to end it about a month ago,” Holly said.

“Who ended it?” Allie asked.

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