Nun But The Brave (A Giulia Driscoll Mystery Book 3) by Alice Loweecey Read Free Book Online Page A

voice memo later. But first, setting the potentially hostile interviewee at his ease.
    “This is what’s called a Tiny House, isn’t it?”
    “Yeah. You interested in the movement?”
    “The movement?”
    “Smaller footprint. More in tune with nature instead of subduing it. Off the grid.” He gestured with his thumb at the Penelec meter on the side of the house. “I’m stuck with city power while I live here, but it won’t last forever.”
    Sidney might once have fallen in with this movement, but not now that she and Olivier had Jessamine. Giulia couldn’t picture two adults and a baby in this minimalist house.
    “What about storing clothes and all these vegetables canned for the winter?” She wondered if he was a reader and did a quick calculation of the house’s square footage. She and Frank would have to build furniture out of their book collection to fit them all in.
    “I dug out a space underneath. It’s small, like the house. Has enough room for canned-good shelves and storage bins.” He moved onto the grass invading the next row of beans.
    Giulia seized the point of connection. “My grandmother’s house had a fruit cellar. If I could add to my own house, one of those would be first on the list.”
    “Yeah, my canning skills are limited, but I supplement them with the right girlfriends.” He tossed more inedible growth into the compost bin. “So the whole Facebook thing. Josie and I dated for a while but split up. I’m not going into details. It’s my business, not yours. The problem was all her friends who hated hunting decided to hate me too.”
    He spoke slower than Marjorie and Diane and she kept up with ease, even one-handed. “I’ve seen pictures of Joanne on hunting trips.”
    “Trips? Are you kidding? Josie worked two jobs, and I’ve been at my current place less than a year. A bunch of us like to get together for a weekend out in the woods around here. Josie and I would render the kill and we’d all share the meat.”
    Giulia’s stomach shuddered at the mental movie of gutting, skinning, and carving up a deer. “So the hunters weren’t the ones making veiled threats on Facebook.”
    “Not a chance. When you share death with people you get real tight. Josie’s shallow college friends are the ones who had it in for me.” He stood and stretched, giving Giulia a better view of his tatted muscles. “I didn’t know Josie was missing until her sister posted on Josie’s Facebook page.”
    “What did you think happened to her?”
    A shrug.
    “Dunno, but if I had to guess, she got carjacked or mugged and the mugger hid her body. Josie was in okay shape, but she never took self-defense seriously.”
    Giulia cast a lure. “Joanne was somewhat overweight in the pictures I’ve seen.”
    “You’re looking at old pictures. Josie dropped some flab last spring. Made her a better hunter.” He took a step forward. “Are those—” He appeared to rethink his choice of words. “What are those friends of Josie’s on Facebook accusing me of?”
    Giulia stopped typing and brought up the Facebook conversation. As he read, Larabee’s tanned face darkened and his jaw clenched.
    “Stupid bint couldn’t even manage the classic limerick rhyme. If I knew where she lived, I’d do a hell of a lot more than post bad poetry on the Net.”
    Giulia put a few microns more distance between them. He saw and backed off.
    “Okay. Coming clean because it’s no secret anyway. I’ve got a record. Hung out with a bad crowd in high school. Drugs, you know? I stole money from my mother and cold-cocked my father when he tried to stop me. He called the cops and my gang threw me under the bus. I ended up with six months in juvie plus three years’ probation. Try finding a job after that. I joined the Marines, but they were too much like juvie for my stomach. No freedom and too many higher-ups ordering me around. Now I work second shift at one of those big shipping warehouses. When you have muscles, people