Murder in the River City by Allison Brennan Read Free Book Online

to see Shauna again.
    “Are you working with Detective Black?”
    “Yes, though he’s lead. I’m up to speed. In fact, that’s why I’m here. Off the record, so to speak.”
    “You’re here about Shauna, aren’t ya?”
    “She’s not helping right now.” He tried to be delicate in how he put it, but Dooley laughed.
    “She’s a sprite, that one. Always sticking her nose in everything. I’m glad you’re here. She thinks I’m molly coddlin’ her, but I’m just worried.”
    “Shauna always had a knack for finding trouble.”
    “Finding it? It finds her. But she had a bee in her bonnet about the Babe Ruth baseball being left behind. She went to the police station today to talk to the lead detective about the case. I told her to butt out, but you know Shauna.”
    Did he ever, Sam thought with a mixture of sadness and frustration. All these years wasted.
    But it was his own damn fault. If he’d only admitted to himself there was something between them, he wouldn’t have been so eager to disprove it by marrying Emma right out of college. But ten years ago, he’d been twenty-three and Shauna had barely been seventeen and off-limits, both because she was jailbait and his best friend’s little sister. And then there was that little problem a few years ago, with her getting engaged to a criminal. Sam had been so furious he’d made it his sole focus to put that slick weasel in jail. That didn’t go over well with Shauna, but what did he expect? Her to thank him for saving her from disaster?
    It also didn’t go over well with his wife, who thought he spent far too much time with the Murphy family. At least, that was one of her many excuses when he caught her cheating on him.
    Last he heard, Shauna was dating a rich doctor or lawyer or some such jerk. Why was he surprised? She was beautiful, sexy and smart as a whip.
    Too beautiful. Too sexy. And too damn curious.
    “What’s her schedule?” Sam had been relieved when he’d heard Shauna hadn’t been at the bar Sunday night. She’d always had sporadic hours to fit in with her college schedule, then working part-time for her father at Murphy & Sons Builders.
    “Shauna doesn’t work here anymore, ‘cept now and then,” Dooley said with even more sorrow.
    “Why not?” he asked before considering it was none of his business.
    Dooley shook his head. “Frank had a heart attack, after you went to L.A.—”
    “Mike told me, but he said Frank was fine.”
    “His doc made him cut back his hours. Shauna’s running the company, and it’s not easy with the economy and construction drying up. She got them working on some remodels, but mostly it’s industrial projects, retrofits and stuff like that. Seem to be doing well, but since they had to lay-off most of their employees…” He shrugged. 
    “I never thought Shauna would give up working here,” Sam said. “She loves this place.”
    Dooley nodded. “She still pops in now and again, but not as much as I’d like.”
    As Sam opened his mouth to ask more questions about Shauna and what she’d been doing for the past two years, he sensed an increase of energy in the room, even before he saw her. Like a fingernail trailing down his spine, warm shivers flushed his body and he drained half his Harp to cool himself. He turned on his stool and there she was.
    He’d had a glimpse of her in the police station; now he couldn’t hide.
    Shauna was still the most beautiful woman in town. Her snow white, lightly freckled skin glowed in the heat, her curly red hair hung in a careless bun, loosened even more from the heat. Though she was American through and through, she had a slight Irish lilt from spending so much time with her grandfather. Her energy was boundless—she never could be still.
    The moment Shauna spotted him, her large green eyes darkened, her mouth dropped open and she looked perplexed. He grinned and tipped an imaginary hat in her direction.
    Then her mouth snapped closed, her eyes narrowed and she