California Schemin' by Kate George Read Free Book Online Page B

I was a murder suspect for a
really long time in the autumn, but he’d made it up to me, and we
had become friends.
    “Yes, but isn’t that a good thing?” He was
smiling. “And as you aren’t suspected of any crimes, I can ask you
to coffee.”
    “You came up here to ask me to coffee? You
could have just called.”
    He shook his head.
    “I was contacted by Officer Fogel of the
Placer County Sheriff’s department and thought I’d drop in on you.
Can I sit down for a minute?”
    I nodded, and he pulled Meg’s office chair
across the floor to my desk. He sat across from me and stretched
his legs out. He was as good looking as ever. Tall, blue eyed, dark
haired and fit, he made the green and tan uniform look good. He
scrutinized me over his fingertips
    “Didn’t you go to California to get away from
trouble?”
    “Why does everyone keep saying that? I didn’t
get into trouble. I did a good thing, pulling a woman from the
river. I didn’t know she’d been shot. Had I known that, I would
have run in the other direction and never looked back.”
    “No, you wouldn’t. If there was any chance
she was still alive, you would have tried to save her. You wouldn’t
be able to help yourself.”
    “Nope. I’m getting smarter. I would have let
her float down river until someone else discovered her.”
    “How you can lie like that without even
twitching an eyelid is beyond me. I admire that quality in a cop,
but you? Scares me.”
    “I am not lying! If I had known that trying
to rescue that woman was going to make me a target, I would never
have pulled her out of the water. Never. Anyway, if you were there
you would have done the same thing.”
    “Maybe.”
    “Don’t maybe me. You would have pulled her
out even if you knew she was dead. Talk about lying.”
    Miles threw his head back and laughed. He
pulled his legs back and sat up, leaning into me, his arms on my
desk.
    “But what are we going to do about you now?
There seems to be some chance that this guy is going to come
looking for you. How are we going to keep you safe out there in the
woods by yourself?”
    “I’ve got my dogs. Nobody in their right mind
is going to tangle with four dogs.” I pushed my keyboard back and
leaned my elbows on my desk.
    “There are ways to get around dogs, and you
know it, but as there hasn’t been any indication that anyone
followed you home from California, I’m going to content myself with
checking in on you. Daily. Okay?”
    “Sure, if you don’t have anything better to
do with your time. No criminals on the loose at the moment? No dead
bodies up at the Inn?”
    “Nope. Nothing to do but keep my eye on
wayward newspaper reporters. Come on, let’s go downstairs and get
some wicked good coffee.”
    “You do know I have a habit of dumping coffee
on people, don’t you?”
    “I had heard a rumor along those lines. I’ll
risk it.”
    ”How long are you intending to be in the
office today?” Miles asked as we were clomping down the stairs.
Well, I was clomping; he was descending the stairs with his usual
measured pace.
    “Just a little while longer. I promised Meg
I’d come by for lunch. Why?”
    “No reason.”
    I pushed through the lower door, stepped out
onto the sidewalk and froze. Miles ran right into me and grabbed my
arm to keep me from falling flat on my face.
    “What’s up?”
    “I’ll tell you inside. Come on.” I led him
into the coffee shop and slid into a booth near the front where we
could see out the window.
    “Did you see that woman out there?”
    “I’m a cop. Of course I saw her. Why?”
    “She sat next to me on the plane from DC.
Claimed to be an alien shape shifter. Sure enough, she went from a
short, heavy woman with bright pink hair to a tall, thin woman with
cotton candy colored hair. I think even her eye color changed.”
    “All at once or in stages? Not that it really
matters.”
    “Stages.”
    “So you’d make the connection. I’m less
concerned about her shape shifting than