Armed With Steele by Kyra Jacobs Read Free Book Online Page B

fingernails into my palms. Refused to let myself get weepy in front of my guest. “When I headed back to the car, something shiny caught my eye. It was lying in the grass, just off the beaten path.” I produced the trinket from my jeans pocket. “It was this.”
    “May I?” he asked, and I handed it over to him. He studied it for a moment, then turned it over. His eyes widened. “ Maxwell Office Solutions ?”
    “That’s where Grace works.”
    He stared at the logo another moment, then shifted his gaze to me. “So…this was Miss Sullivan’s.”
    “Nope.”
    His eyes flickered back to the trinket. “You’re positive?”
    “Yep.”
    Officer Steele stared at the trinket for another moment, then handed it back to me. “Alright, Sherlock, you’ve brought me this far. I’m assuming you have a theory behind all of this?”
    I grinned.
    “Well, let’s hear it,” he said, crossing his arms.
    “I think Grace was run off the road by a coworker who’s got something to hide. Something Grace must have figured out. They chased after her car, dug through her purse, and took that top sheet off her notepad.”
    “All because you found a broken key chain on the side of the road.” Officer Steele let out a long exhale. “That’s quite a leap, Miss Hartley.”
    “Jessica. Just…call me Jessica.”
    “Alright, Jessica, but I still think that you’re—”
    “Oh! I nearly forgot—there’s one more thing!”
    His shoulders slumped slightly. “More?”
    I gently pounded a fist to my forehead. “I can’t believe I almost forgot to mention the text message I got from Grace just before she left work that afternoon.”
    His left eyebrow shot up as the right one slid down. “You didn’t mention anything about a text when I spoke to you on Friday.”
    “It didn’t seem relevant at the time.” I reached into my other front jeans pocket and produced my cell phone. “I’d texted her earlier, asked how her day had gone. She wrote back, Good, except for odd run-in with MF a few mins ago. Will fill you in at home .”
    “Run-in?” He scribbled down a note to himself. “And do you know who this ‘MF’ is?” he asked, head still down, blue eyes glowing from beneath his long, black lashes.
    Focus, Jessica. “How am I supposed to know? She never made it home!”
    “Maybe I should have phrased that differently.” He raised his head. “Did she ever speak of another coworker with those initials?”
    “Oh. I don’t know. She’s mentioned lots of coworkers.” Unfortunately, I’d been in a bad habit of tuning her out lately when she came home and started rambling about work. Guilt washed over me anew.
    “Try to think back.”
    “I…I think her boss’s initials are MF.”
    “Oh?”
    “Yeah, but she always got along great with him. I doubt she’d have any kind of run-in with Michael.” I sighed. “Too bad we don’t know what was written on that stolen sheet of paper.”
    Officer Steele sat up a little taller and a grin crept across his face. “You got a blank piece of paper?” he asked, reaching for the day planner. “And a number two pencil?”
    The light bulb in my head flickered on. “Of course! Hang on a minute.”
    I gathered both items and hurried back to the living room. This time, I traded my cautious seating selection for an open seat beside him on the couch. Then I handed him the paper and pencil, my knees bouncing at double-time in anticipation.
    He set the blank paper over her notepad, then angled the pencil at near horizontal and started rubbing it back and forth across the page. Grace’s words began to appear, their impressions outlined on the new sheet:
     
    Monday - ask MF what MF was doing in my office.
     
    We both stared down at the sheet, perplexed. “Any of this make sense to you?”
    I shook my head. “No, not really. I’d assume the first MF is her boss—his name is Michael Frankston, by the way. But I have no clue on the other.”
    Officer Steele sat beside me, scowling down