Murder in Abstract by Brenda Gayle

Author:Brenda Gayle [Gayle, Brenda]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-03-28T16:00:00+00:00

Stanley Dowden lived north of Kingston’s downtown core. It was a longer walk than Charley might normally have taken, but she was so steamed by Dan and his ludicrous dinner invitation that she felt the physical exertion would benefit her and anyone she encountered that day. Unfortunately, she hadn’t counted on the amount of slush in the streets from the melting snow. Why hadn’t the city put sidewalks in residential areas like they had downtown? She’d take it up with Dan once she started speaking to him again.

She’d called Dowden’s home from a pay phone in the lobby of City Hall. His wife, Barbara, had answered and encouraged Charley to come and stay for lunch. She was anxious to clear her husband’s name. Although he hadn’t been charged, she didn’t feel the newspapers had done enough to assert his innocence after they’d declared him guilty on their front pages. Charley wasn’t sure how much she could help with that, but she was determined to get to the bottom of what had happened that morning. If she could, she’d make sure the story got into the Trib, even if it were only on the women’s page.

On the street, at the address Barbara Dowden had given her, a man was scrubbing at the side of a white delivery truck.

“Mr. Dowden?” Charley guessed.

“Mrs. Hall.” The man placed the brush he was holding in a bucket of steaming water. After attempting to dry his wet hand on his trousers, he extended it in a greeting.

Charley forced herself to ignore the cold clammy flesh so that she could return his firm handshake. That was one point in his favour. She hated it when men offered limp greetings to women. They probably thought they were being respectful of the “weaker” sex, but she found it insulting and always made certain she let them know their error with a firm grip.

Dowden was younger than she’d expected—not yet thirty, she was sure. He had a pleasant, open face that showed no indication of the ordeal he’d undergone the past few days.

“Is that the truck?” Charley asked. He’d managed to remove most of the black painted letters; only the erroneous LRY remained on one of the side panels. She stepped closer and ran her hand over the back door of the truck. “Was there any damage? Bullet holes, I mean?” She wheeled around when she heard his sharp intake of breath. “Oh, I’m so sorry. That was callous of me.”

“It’s okay.” He uncovered his head exposing a mass of brown hair that stuck out at all angles and rolled the grey woollen toque vigorously between his hands. “That’s a fair question. The police went over it pretty thoroughly and didn’t find anything.” He picked up the bucket. “Let’s go inside. Barbara is anxious to meet you. She’s a huge fan.”

The door swung open as soon as they stepped onto the front porch and two small bodies hurled toward them. Dowden lowered his bucket to pick up one. Charley managed to grab the second one before it reached the steps.

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.