A Mew to a Kill by Leighann Dobbs Read Free Book Online Page B

were just wondering,” Pepper paused to take a sip of tea and look at him innocently over the rim of her cup. “If the fire was started on purpose or not. It was probably just a terrible accident, right?”
    “Maybe. I couldn’t say either way because it’s an ongoing investigation.” He reached out and wrapped one of my unruly red curls around his finger. “I just wanted to come over and make sure that you ladies knew not to get in the way. If it wasn’t an accident, that means it was murder and a killer is on the loose.” He dropped the curl and his voice turned serious. “And that killer might not like you guys investigating.”
    “We wouldn’t want to anger a killer.” It was lame, but I couldn’t lie to Striker’s face and that was the only truthful thing I could think up to say.
    Striker smirked and stepped back. “Anyway, I have to get back to work but I will see you tonight?” He directed the question at me and I nodded, trying not to seem too enthusiastic.
    The shop door opened again and Jimmy came in. Pepper and I exchanged a disappointed look. It figured he would come in when Striker was here. Now we couldn’t grill him for information.
    “Hey, guys.” Jimmy’s face lit up with a smile. As we exchanged greetings, he sauntered over to the window and leaned down to scratch Pandora. She meowed and stretched lazily. Then he turned to Striker. “We’re pretty much done over there, but I’ll wait until you come in and take a look before I lock up.”
    “Looks like you got a lot of evidence over there,” I said, earning a sharp look from Striker.
    Jimmy shrugged. “A little bit. That last picture Paisley took might really—“
    Striker clapped his arm on Jimmy’s shoulder, cutting him off mid-sentence, but not before I saw Pepper’s eyes light up. Last picture? We’d have to look into that.  
    “We should get going.” Striker turned Jimmy toward the door. “The girls here don’t need any more information than they’ve already gathered. We wouldn’t want to tell them too much or they might go off investigating on their own and that wouldn’t be good, would it, Jimmy?”
    Jimmy’s eyes went wide and he looked from me to Pepper and then back to Striker. “Oh, no, of course not. I wouldn’t give them information they weren’t supposed to have.”
    “Good.” Striker opened the door and pushed Jimmy through. “Then I guess we better get over there.”  
    Striker turned, a dark look of warning in his eyes. He nodded at me, then at Pepper and then closed the door.
    “Maybe I should come up with a tea that makes Striker a little more loose with his information,” Pepper mused.
    “I don’t know about that,” I said. “If it has the opposite effect, we’ll never get anything out of him.” I didn’t want Pepper messing with Striker. Sure, it would be nice if he was a little more generous with clues, but I didn’t want to risk any bad side effects. I liked Striker the way he was.
    “Well, you should be able to easily get information out of him, Willa.” Pepper’s lips curled in a smile. “Maybe you need to work on your investigative technique.” She wiggled her brows and my cheeks started to burn. I felt silly—wasn't I too old to be blushing? Then again, at my age it was probably a hot flash.  
    “I don’t know about that. Striker’s tough. Jimmy’s an easier mark.”
    Pepper nodded. “What do you think he meant by that picture remark?”
    “I saw Gus put a camera in the evidence bag earlier. They must think there could be a picture of the killer on it. But it looked pretty burned. I don’t know if they would be able to get anything off it.”
    “Right. We can’t depend on that anyway because I doubt they would tell us if they did get a picture. We have to go with what we know. And right now, it sounds like George is our best suspect.”
    “According to Paisley, George would know that she kept incriminating pictures at her house.”
    “So he’d probably go