It's Not Always Murder by Kate Sweeney

Author:Kate Sweeney [Sweeney, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Intaglio Publications
Published: 2012-12-18T19:51:29+00:00

Chapter 11

The day of the Halloween dinner dragged on. Maybe it was the weather. I sat at my desk and looked outside. The day was overcast and cold with the Chicago wind whipping the leaves around. It just felt lonely. I shivered and pulled my sweater around me. My mind wandered to that damned butcher knife; it really had me worried. Not that the “pumpkin incident,” which we now called it, wasn’t worrisome enough.

I looked over at Costello, who had just hung up the phone. “Anything?”

“Yes. I talked to a representative at Marty’s security company. They had a call from Marty to change his code, but there was no activity on his alarm system ever, they said. They were glad he changed it because to them someone somehow must have gotten his code number. That’s the only way they could have gotten in without setting off the alarm.” Costello stretched her neck tiredly.

“That makes sense,” I said.

I immediately thought of the woman Marty dated for that month or so. It was very plausible for her to get access to his keys. I looked over at Hannah, who leafed through a Vanity Fair magazine while absently feeding Chance another canine bon-bon.

“Excuse me, Ms. Chanel?” I called out. Costello, concentrating on her computer, laughed without looking up.

With a wisp of a smile, Hannah looked up over her reading glasses. “You may call me Coco. Is this important? I’m in the middle of winter fashion.”

“So sorry to interrupt,” I said, “but could you peruse the copious notes and see what Marty had said about the woman he dated?”

Costello looked up then. “What are you thinkin’?”

“Well, if the security people think someone got his code, then maybe it was this woman.”

Hannah leafed through her notebook. “Here it is. He dated her for a month or so…She was funny, odd sense of humor. Here…They went out for dinner and drinks, went back to the shop. Marty had to pick up a file. They were in the backroom of his shop. Then they went back to his place. She planned to spend the night, and I’m sure sex would have ensued, but they both had too much to drink…blah, blah. She left soon after.”

“It’s possible,” I said with a shrug. “But why? Why would this woman want to do this?”

“And is it the same person who’s doing it to Toni’s and Roxanne’s businesses?” Costello asked. “I’ve been working on this all day, and I have yet to come up with a single connection except the location of their businesses.”

I sat forward. “What a dope,” I said. “Costello, would you give Toni a call and find out who owns the property for all of them? You know, if they own or rent. If they own, who’d they buy from, and if they rent, who’s the company?”

Costello had already started dialing while I was talking. “I’ll bet my log cabin who the company is.” I winked at Hannah, who grinned.

“I won’t take any part of that bet. I see that gleam in your eye.

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.