Under Suspicion by Bonnie Vanak

Author:Bonnie Vanak
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Harlequin
Published: 2021-10-12T17:36:14+00:00

Chapter 11

Sara wasn’t certain meeting another Colton cousin was a terrific idea, but she couldn’t resist the temptation. Especially when the invitation came from January Stafford, the daughter of Alfred Colton, who’d been murdered by a serial killer.

January had been so sweet when she’d phoned Sara and expressed interest in meeting her. Sadly, they had something in common more than being Coltons—both their fathers had died at the hands of killers. At least January had closure, unlike Sara.

Her new husband, the father of their twins, was Detective Sean Stafford, who happened to be Harry’s ex-partner.

Sara smelled something fishy when January mentioned something about Colton heirlooms and how perhaps Sara could be a help in recalling anything her mother said about Axel’s lifestyle.

She drove straight from work to the Stafford home, releasing a sigh of relief. Harry’s car wasn’t here. Dusk had started to drape the sky with vivid colors of lavender and rose, streaking the clouds that scuttled past. A hint of snow lingered in the air.

The house had a wide front porch with twin Christmas trees flanking the double doors. Gold light from a brass overhead fixture highlighted the homey touches on the porch—a basket of pine cones, white rocking chairs and a table sporting a Santa Claus on skis. Garland adorned the porch railing, along with strings of Christmas lights.

Impressed they had time to decorate with the whirlwind of having twins, Sara rang the doorbell, knowing it was one of the high-tech security ones and they could answer from their smartphones. But instead of a voice speaking from the doorbell’s microphone, a good-looking man with a rag over one shoulder opened the door.

Sara stuck out her hand. “You must be Sean. I recognize you from the other night in the alley when Harry was shot.”

He shook her palm. “Come on in. January just finished feeding the twins.”

“And you got burping duty.”

Sean frowned, looked down at the towel where Sara pointed. He beamed. “Yeah, Leo’s a little piggy.”

He led her into a spacious formal living room with elegant furniture, a brick fireplace and a large portrait of Sean and a pretty blonde woman hanging over the mantel. Garland threaded with lights adorned the mantel. A fir tree sat in one corner, fully decorated with lights, red and green ornaments and tinsel. Several colorful packages with Christmas wrapping sat beneath the tree. The tree and decorations softened the formal look of the room.

“Have a seat. I’ll be right back.”

“Nice house.”

“Thanks. It’s all so...shiny still.” He glanced around the room. “January sold her town house and her mom bought us the house and new furniture as a wedding gift, seeing we needed more space with the twins. She also helped to decorate, insisting the twins needed to experience their first Christmas with a real tree and all the trimmings. Bought a bunch of gifts and wrapped them as well.”

He shook his head. “Good thing she did because we barely have time to eat, let alone get a tree and decorate it. It’s not as if they’ll remember, because they’re so small.

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.