Kilt Dead by Kaitlyn Dunnett Read Free Book Online Page B

in shock. He wasn’t feeling too steady himself. It was almost impossible to imagine Moosetookalook without Mrs. Norris. He went to Liss’s side and gently steered
her from the room, closing the door behind them.

    Liss didn’t seem to know what to do next. Dan wasn’t
sure either, but he knew who would. He reached for the
phone on the sales counter. It took him two tries to manage 911. Liss wasn’t the only one with the shakes.
    A short conversation with a dispatcher yielded almost
immediate results. After all, the police station was just
across the town square. Jeff Thibodeau, a big, balding man
who’d been on the Moosetookalook Police Force for as long
as Dan could remember, came on foot. They could see him
through the window as he loped toward them, ignoring
the “keep off the grass” signs on the green.
    “Stay put,” he ordered, and went into the stockroom.
    “She invited me over for apple pie,” Liss whispered in
a broken voice.
    Dan reached over and squeezed her hand. “She made
good pies.”
    “She made great pies.”
    Thibodeau returned, looking as shaken as Dan felt.
“Do either of you know what happened in there?”
    Liss shook her head. Dan hazarded a guess. “She
tripped on something? Fell. Hit her head”
    “I dunno, Dan. I can’t see anything that would’ve
caused her to do that”
    Liss’s eyes widened. “Surely you can’t think … she
wasn’t-“
    “Pushed?” Thibodeau didn’t look happy about it, but
he clearly had suspicions. “Seems like you’d have to hit
your head awful hard to die from it.”
    “A freak accident-“
    “Better let the experts decide. I’m damned if I know
what happened. But the back door’s unlocked and she had
no business being in there. Did she?”

    “No,” Liss whispered. “We were closed. The Games. I
just got back”
    In her agitation, she’d kept hold of Dan’s hand. Now
she tightened her grip. It was a measure of how upset she
was, Dan thought. Liss MacCrimmon had never been the
type to cling.
    He was keenly aware of the irony. He’d wanted to get
close to Liss for years, but this was a helluva way to do it.
Murder? He couldn’t seem to take in the possibility.
Mrs. Norris was a pain sometimes, but she was harmless.
What kind of monster would kill an old lady?
    “Whatever happened here,” Jeff said, “it’s an unattended death. I’ve got to call in the M.E. and I think I’d
better send for LaVerdiere, too” He reached for the portable
radio attached to his belt.
    “State cop?”
    Jeff grimaced. “Yeah. Craig LaVerdiere. He’s the one
assigned to this area so this’ll be his case. It shouldn’t
take him long to get here. He just lives over to Wade’s
Corners.”
    “Okay if I take Liss up to Margaret’s apartment?” Dan
asked.
    “Yeah, sure. You need to stick around anyhow. LaVerdiere’s going to want to talk to both of you”
    Dan lost no time putting some distance between them
and the body.
    Once upstairs, Liss started to pull herself together. “I
should make coffee”
    “Probably a good idea. Looks like it’s going to be a
long night.” Anything he drank right now would likely
burn like acid, but Dan figured it would help Liss to be
busy. He followed her into the kitchen and settled onto
one of the high stools at the center island.
    “Thanks for stepping in. I would have pulled myself
together eventually. I had some idea of running across the square to the police station. But I’m glad you showed up.
I just couldn’t seem to wrap my mind around … I still
can’t.”

    “I was on my way here anyway,” Dan said.
    The hand measuring coffee into the pot stilled for a
moment, then completed the task. She didn’t turn around.
“Why?”
    “Figured you’d be beat after a day at the games. I was
going to suggest sharing a pizza, so you wouldn’t have to
cook” He shrugged. “Seemed like a good idea at the time.”
    She started the coffee perking and rinsed her hands