Flea Market Fatal by Brianna Bates Read Free Book Online

several of them were duplicates but couldn't be sure.
    "You live right up the road," Missy said. "Did you see anything unusual yesterday?"
    Carly frowned. "I was busy at my place. We had a lot of traffic for our garage sale, so there were tons of cars in and out and going by. If there was anything unusual, I probably would have missed it."
    Missy tried to remain upbeat. "No strange people stopped by your place?"
    Carly gave her a knowing look. "The Garrettys stopped by."
    Missy tried not to laugh. "Other than the Garrettys?"
    Carly shook her head no. "Between me and you, my money is on Cooper Meritt being the killer."
    Missy did a double-take. What did the forty-year-old divorced father of two have to do with Albert Switzer?
    "Why do you say that?"
    "Didn't you know?" Carly said, without expanding on the topic.
    "Know what?"
    Carly stopped what she was doing. "He was fired from the factory last week, apparently after Switzer complained about him."
    Missy needed to keep herself in the loop more. "Why?"
    "I'm not sure exactly. I heard Cooper was cheating on his time sheets."
    Missy wasn't surprised to hear that. Though he'd been a few years ahead of her in school, Cooper Merritt had been notorious for finding a way to cheat on every single test. He spent more time trying to get the questions and answers before exams than he would have spent just studying for the tests. Missy made a mental note to give him a call, though she'd have to come up with a reason why. She couldn't just pop in to interrogate him.
    "Anybody else you can think of that would want to hurt Switzer?"
    Carly thought about it. "If they hadn't gotten divorced, I would have said his wife. She is one mean bitch."
    Missy nodded. She'd been thinking the same thing. But there was no reason for Loretta to kill her ex-husband. The divorce had finalized. Unless there were still issues with alimony or division of property? Missy made another mental note.
    "Thanks, Carly."
    ***
    Florence arrived two hours late to the crop. Her assistant wheeled in six oversized bags of supplies and tools and set her up at the end of our table, while Florence studied her smart phone and fired off texts and emails with her thumbs. Without looking up from her phone, Florence issued an order.
    "Hailey, please move the Cricut to the left side of my active work area. Remember I prefer it over there?"
    Hailey smiled pleasantly enough but deep down Missy wondered how she really felt. Carefully she repositioned Florence's tools of the scrapbooking trade while her boss finished up crafting her latest message or memo or whatever on her phone. Florence was very important and wanted everybody to know it. As a big shot attorney in the city, she barely had time to scrapbook. That was why she was always late and that was why her assistant had to set up for her. Her time was too precious for that.
    "Good to see you, Florence," Bev said. About an hour ago she had migrated to Missy's table and set up next to her. She was still laying out her first page, trying to decide which of the thousand pictures of her firstborn grandson to use.
    Florence gave her a thousand-watt smile. She could always do that--turn on the personality when she needed to.
    Missy could usually take or leave Florence, but today she was happy to have the woman in attendance. Florence was plugged in to everything and being an attorney in the city, Missy figured she might have some color around the Switzer divorce.
    She let Florence get settled in and waited to make sure the smart phone was actually away before making her move down the table.
    "Missy, how are you?" Florence asked, flashing that politician's smile.
    "Good, Florence. Nice to see you. What are you working on today?"
    "Old law school materials." Florence motioned for her assistant, Hailey, to open one of the bags on the floor. Hailey unzipped it and pulled out a folder bursting at the seams. Florence took it from her and opened it for Missy to see. There were law journals and