Ghost On Duty (Destiny Bay Cozy Mysteries Book 2) by J. D. Winters Read Free Book Online

were out by the fountain?”
    I stared at him in the moonlight. I didn’t want to. But he did take the parrot. Good deeds deserve rewards. And anyway, I knew what the note said. I didn’t need it to remind me. Maybe they could analyze the handwriting or something. I pulled it out of my pocket and handed it to him. He stared at it. The moon was high by now and he could read it without a light. He looked at me.  
    “Who wrote this?”
    I shrugged. “Your guess is probably better than mine,” I said. “I haven’t got a clue. A young kid put it in my hand and by the time I realized what it was, he was gone. I don’t know who he was. I don’t know who wrote the note. I’m giving it to you and all I ask it that you tell me when you find out who wrote it. Tell me who, tell me why. Okay?”
    He nodded. “Okay.” Then looked at me sideways, hesitating as though he wasn’t sure if he should go on.  
    I looked at him and sighed. I knew he was holding something back. “Information is a two way street,” I said softly.
    Suddenly, he grinned. “Okay,” he said, waving the note at me. “I think I know who wrote this. I got a note from her too.”
    “You did? What did it say?”
    “The same sort of thing you got. Only I caught her leaving it on my car, so I got a chance to question her. And then I did some digging. And we may be about to arrest her.”
    I threw out my hands, astonished. “Okay, okay. No need for the major build up. Tell me who already!”
    “Her name’s Peggy Sanders. She’s the one who shook up the coffee bar the other day when she recommended you shoot Ned between the eyes.”
    I gaped at him. “But wait. That means she went right over to the house after we saw her at Jill’s. Because he was definitely dead by the time I got there.”
    He shrugged. “We’re checking out her alibi. But here’s the relevant background. She’s actually been to prison before. She did eight years for attempted murder.”
    “No! Who was she trying to kill?”
    “Ned.”
    That was a stunner. “Holy kittens.”
    “Yeah, she was his housekeeper and she poisoned him.”
    I shook my head, marveling. “No lead between the eyes stuff for her, huh?”
    “Nope.”
    Suddenly I thought of Peg’s sister, Sue Hatcher, who’d introduced herself to me at the meeting. She didn’t look like a woman whose sister had been in prison for attempted murder. It just showed, you never could tell. Crazy Peg, doing time.  
    “But she still holds a grudge.” I grinned at him. “So I guess I’m off the hook, right?” That was a relief. “And now your captain can forget that I exist.”
    “Don’t hold your breath on that one.”
    “Why? What do you mean?”
    But he was already moving on. Reaching out, he touched my cheek for just a second, then smiled at me as he stuffed the paper I’d given him into his pocket. “Okay Mele….thanks.”
    “Sure.” I nodded back. It was nice to think we might be friends again. Unfortunately, it gave me a surge of good feeling that led to a mistake. “And hey, if you want, I’ll take that parrot off your hands. I’ve always wanted to spend some time with a parrot. Maybe this could be it.”
    “Seriously?”
    He looked as though he couldn’t believe that I would voluntarily take over that hellish job. I knew I was probably going to regret this.
    “Seriously.”
    “You got it,” he said. “Here’s my address.” He pulled out his cop card and wrote on it, then handed it to me. My heart did a little twirly dance and I was suddenly out of breath. Was I finally going to find out what his first name was? Not knowing had gone on so long it was too embarrassing to ask at this point. But his card! That should have it. Yeah!
    “Hey, thanks for doing this,” he said, then hesitated. “But…uh…call first, okay?”
    “Sure.” But that admonition put a pall on the whole thing. All the excitement just drained away. Why did he want me to call first? Was there someone there I was going to