Sapped by Emily James

Author:Emily James [James, Emily]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: cozy mystery, cozy mysteries, amateur sleuth mystery, mystery series, women sleuths, series, culinary cozy mystery, romantic, humorous, fun, female protagonists, small towns, Emily James, Maple Syrup Mysteries
ISBN: 9780992037284
Publisher: Stronghold Books
Published: 2016-11-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eight

The three flights of stairs that I had to climb to reach my apartment—elevators made my heart ride up into my throat—felt like a single flight tonight. I had a solid lead on who might have killed Eva Walsh, and I’d found a package waiting for me from my Uncle Stan.

As soon as I had the door locked behind me, I turned on my laptop to start trying to find pictures to match the names on my list of Peter’s clients and then grabbed a pair of scissors.

The package was heavy and marked FRAGILE. I sliced away the packing tape. Inside nestled a glass bottle of rich brown maple syrup. A handwritten note was rubber-banded to the bottle.

From my own trees, to help ease your sweet tooth. I’m proud of you. Give me a call when you have a chance.

Love, Uncle Stan

I stroked my fingers down the side of the bottle. Despite my dad’s refusal to speak to Uncle Stan since my uncle quite his lucrative cardiology practice to purchase a maple syrup farm in Michigan, Uncle Stan and I spoke and emailed every week.

Or at least we usually did. I’d been less than communicative since I found out Peter was married. I’d sent Uncle Stan a quick email to tell him what happened, but then I’d avoided calling him. He understood me better than my own parents did, and I couldn’t bear the thought that he might be disappointed in me, too.

I’m proud of you, he’d written.

He might as well have written I know why you haven’t called. You don’t need to worry.

I’d give him a call tomorrow. Reading his note, it was clear I’d been silly not to call.

For now, I needed to match a name to a face and make myself something to eat. It was after eight o’clock, and my whole body felt shaky and weak. I grabbed an apple to hold me over and settled into my chair.

The first client whose name I checked fit Monica’s description. He’d been sentenced to five years for dealing drugs, but he could have easily been paroled before serving the full sentence.

I searched the other names to be safe, but none of them had shaved heads. While they might have changed their appearance, the more reasonable explanation seemed to be that the man who matched the description was the man Monica saw.

I tossed the apple core at my garbage, missed, and hopped up to put it in. The next problem I needed to tackle was how to give this information to my dad without revealing that I’d openly disobeyed him. If I had to, I’d face his wrath, but I’d rather avoid it. And I had to pass it along to my dad if it was going to do Peter any good. No way was I traipsing off to talk to an ex-con potential murderer on my own.

Dad had taken me off the case only last night, and he’d kept me busy all day today, as well as locking me out of Peter’s files.

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.