Frozen Stiff by Annelise Ryan Read Free Book Online Page A

didn’t just misplace it? Maybe you stuck it somewhere else and don’t remember doing it.”
    “I thought of that,” he says. “Even though I can’t imagine why I would have taken it out of the boat, I spent a good part of today looking in every logical place as well as a few illogical ones. I can’t find it anywhere.”
    “You need to tell Richmond.”
    Hurley’s jaw clenches, the muscles in his cheeks twitching. “I can’t, Mattie. Not yet anyway. Don’t you see? Someone took my knife from my boat—a unique and distinctive knife, no less—and used it to kill someone I was once close to. I think I’m being set up.”
    I shiver, though I’m not sure if it’s because of the cold or his words. “By whom? And why?”
    “I don’t know. That’s why I need your help. That’s why I want you to share any evidence you find with me.” He rakes a hand through his hair as he speaks, and as I watch it fall back into place I remember the short, black hair we found in Callie’s wound. I consider telling him about it but something makes me hold back. I’m not ready to share everything with him, at least not yet.
    “You’re putting me in a very difficult position, Hurley.”
    “I know that. Believe me, if I could think of a better way to handle this, I’d do it. But I can’t. I’m up the proverbial creek with no paddle and I’m taking on water. Please, Mattie, I need you.”
    This final plea both heats my loins and melts my heart. As I look into the blue depths of his eyes, I realize I’m helpless to refuse him even though it may mean the premature death of my new career. My gut is screaming at me that it would be a huge mistake to agree to what he’s asking of me, yet my heart is whispering, Go for it .
    And go for it I do, though I decide to keep back a little something for myself, just in case. “I’ll help you for now,” I tell him, “but only if we can get back inside. It’s freezing out here.”
    “Of course,” he says, flashing me a relieved smile.
    With a hand at the small of my back, he steers me back inside. I can feel the heat of his touch radiating through my sweater, and it makes me shiver again.
    “I’m sorry, Mattie. I shouldn’t have kept you outside so long without a coat.”
    “I’m fine,” I tell him. “I got a little chill but I’ll shake it off in a minute.”
    “Dinner will be ready soon,” he says as we enter the kitchen. “That should warm you up, but you can use this in the meantime.” He grabs a heavy flannel shirt off a hook by the door and drapes it over my shoulders. I thank him and pull it close, catching a whiff of a scent from it that is distinctly Hurley, something spicy, masculine, and a little bit dangerous. It sends my hormones into overdrive and suddenly I’m not the least bit cold anymore.
    “I’d like to wash up before we eat. Where’s your bathroom?”
    Hurley directs me to a room at the top of the stairs and leaves me to find my way while he checks the lasagna in the oven.
    The bathroom, which is done in blue and white tile with a hexagon tile floor, is small but sparkling clean, a surprising find in a bachelor pad. At first I fear it is too clean, but I finally find what I want when I snoop inside the medicine cabinet. There on the bottom shelf is a hairbrush. I remove the folded paper from my pocket and take the earrings out of it, dumping them loose into my other pocket. Then I carefully remove several hairs from the brush, place them on the paper, and fold it back up. After slipping it back into the pocket it came from, I flush the toilet, wash my hands, and head back to the kitchen.
    I settle into the same chair I had before, just as Hurley sets a bubbling, delicious-smelling pan of lasagna on the table. A basket full of garlic bread is beside my plate and the heady aromas make me feel like I’ve died and gone to heaven. I’m practically drooling as Hurley cuts a generous square of lasagna from the pan and sets it on my plate. But just as I