A Body to Spare (The Odelia Grey Mysteries) by Sue Ann Jaffarian Read Free Book Online Page A

The three of us knew each other well.
    “Are you leaving the firm?” Jolene asked me in a panic. “You know Steele will go ape-crazy if you do.”
    “No, he won’t,” I told her. “At least not as long as he has Jill here. But no, I’m not leaving the firm.”
    Jolene rubbed her tummy in relief. She’d had a baby a few months before, and even though she was back in her skinny clothes she hadn’t lost the habit of unconsciously rubbing her stomach. I guess it was like rubbing a buddha belly for good luck.
    “This is about my car,” I told her. “As I was just telling Jill here, that was my car on TV last night. Couldn’t you tell by the video of me on my butt on the ground?”
    “There was video of you?” Jill asked with disappointment. “They didn’t show it on my station.”
    “OMG,” said Jolene, slowly saying each letter with individual emphasis.
    “Come on, Jolene,” Jill said to her with a chuckle. “It’s not like Odelia’s never been involved with a corpse before.”
    “But in your car?” Jolene was clearly more horrified than either Jill or I. Jill was finding it amusing. I was finding it a huge pain in my behind. “Ewwww,” Jolene said with a curl of her lip. “Why would you hide something like that there?”
    “I didn’t. Someone else did,” I explained, “and we don’t know why. Both the police and the FBI are looking into it.”
    “OMG!” Jolene said again, her pale freckled face turning pastier, which made her red hair look like a lit match. “The FBI?” If she rubbed her belly any harder, the fabric of her skirt was going to catch fire and match her head. “Why are they involved?”
    I looked from Jolene to Jill. “What I tell you cannot leave this room. Do you both understand?”
    “I have to tell Sally,” Jill said.
    “Okay, you can tell Sally,” I told her.
    “If she gets to tell Sally, then I get to tell my husband,” sniffed Jolene. “And who’s going to tell Steele?” She looked at Jill. “Has he even called in yet?”
    “No, he hasn’t,” Jill answered. “It’s a first. He’s usually on the phone to me at least once a day when he’s on vacation, so he must really be in love.”
    “Or Michelle threatened to push him off the side of a mountain if he called,” Jolene said. The two of them broke into giggles.
    I stared at them with the wide eyes of someone about to jump the sanity track until they got the hint and shut up. “No one is to tell Steele if he calls. Got it?” I ordered. They both clamped their mouths shut and nodded. “Like I said, the feds and the Long Beach police are looking into why that body ended up in my trunk. Who knows, they might even come sniffing around here asking questions about me. If they do, be polite and tell them the truth. I have nothing to hide.”
    “Just a dead body in your trunk,” Jill pointed out. The two of them giggled again like they were a bit tipsy.
    I wrapped a knuckle on my desk. “Do you guys want to know about this or not?”
    Both of them sat up straight and zipped their lips. Jolene pantomimed toward the basket of scones. I tore off a couple paper towels. “Knock yourself out,” I told her as I handed her the towels.
    While they nibbled on cranberry scones, I told them about finding the body and being hauled into the police station. I told them about the questioning and about Zach Finch and how I didn’t have a clue who he was outside of being a teen kidnapped many years ago. I left out the part about Willie and Elaine being long shots. I didn’t know if either knew about them from my past experiences, but just in case I certainly wasn’t going to parade my underground criminal connections in front of Jolene and Jill. The less they knew, the safer they would be.
    “So what are you going to do now?” Jolene ventured, once she was sure I was finished with my story.
    “I’m sure the police, especially the feds, are going to play this close to the chest,” I said, “so my brother is