Real Murder (Lovers in Crime Mystery Book 2) by Lauren Carr Read Free Book Online Page B

they brought that cruiser up from the bottom of the lake. His gun wasn’t in his holster. Someone killed him, Cam.”
    “Maybe when his car went into the lake, he took out his gun to shoot out the window, but drowned before he could do that?” She wrapped her arms around his shoulders and leaned her head against his.
    “I’m not buying it.” He turned to look at her. Their noses collided.
    “His murder isn’t your fault,” she said. “It’s the fault of whoever killed him.”
    “I should have asked him about the case he was working on,” Joshua said. “I was so focused on my own life, my  family, my moving, and my career, that I blew him off, Cam. If I hadn’t, then maybe—”
    “Maybe,” she said. “Maybe not.”
    Even Irving was sitting up on the edge of his seat.
    Joshua sighed. “Hunter stopped by.”
    “You predicted that he would,” she said. “Did he have any enlightening information?”
    “Seems the Gardner family had a black sheep.”
    She rested her head on his shoulder. “What kind of black sheep?”
    “A prostitute.”
    “Interesting,” she said. “Was she murdered?”
    “Hunter doesn’t know,” Joshua said. “Seems no one in the family will talk to him about it. He’s only heard rumors. One  of those rumors was that this black sheep was really Mike’s mother.”
    “You mean like a secret adoption?”
    “It’s not unheard of,” Joshua said. “I’m sure Tad would know about it if there were any truth to it.” He wrapped his arms around her. “Do you still want that milk and those cookies?” He waited for her to reply.
    She didn’t.
    She had fallen asleep.

Chapter Five
    Cameron couldn’t believe it when she woke up to   discover that Joshua hadn’t set the alarm. When she saw the sun shining into their bedroom from the veranda, she screamed and threw the covers over Irving in her dash for the shower. Seeing the bruise across her forehead and the scrape on her cheek, she tossed aside the idea of heavy makeup and opted only for mascara before running down the stairs and outside and jumping off the porch to find her car missing.
    Then she remembered that it was still at the station. Joshua had driven her home from the hospital the day before.
    Guess that means I get to drive the Vette!
    As much as he claimed he loved her, Joshua had yet to let her drive his black classic 1964 Corvette. He didn’t even drive it in the winter months. Grabbing the keys from his desk drawer, she went to the garage tucked into the back corner of the property and opened the door.
    When she threw back the tarp that covered up Joshua’s baby, an evil giggle escaped from her lips. It was with a sense of exhilaration that she opened the driver’s door and slipped in behind the steering wheel. To her surprise, she found an envelope addressed to “My Love” taped to it. It was written in Joshua’s brisk and precise handwriting. Her exhilaration was replaced with guilt.
    He isn’t even here. How does he know?
    She opened the envelope and took out the card. The   message was brief:
    Go back to bed, darling. I’ll be home for lunch.
    Love, Josh
    She tossed the note aside onto the passenger seat.
    You’re not the boss of me, Joshua Thornton!
    She turned the key in the ignition. Nothing happened. Silence.
    Ha ha ha. Think you can stop me by disconnecting the   distributor cap, huh? I’ll show you.
    She got out of the car and with a sense of triumph threw open the rear compartment to find the distributor cap   attached. Instead, there was an empty hole in the area   reserved for the battery. No, Joshua didn’t put a stop to her with something that could be easily fixed by hooking up the caps. He had removed the whole car battery.
    Cameron was still cursing him when her cell phone   vibrated on her utility belt. Seeing his name in the caller ID, she answered, “You …” and then she sputtered out three nasty names at once.
    “I see you discovered that I brought my car battery to