Seaside Secrets by Cindy Bell Read Free Book Online Page B

that Dune House was still valued by some residents in the town. After Lester left, Suzie recalled the photographs in her purse.
    “ Boy do I have a strange story to tell you,” she said as she followed Mary into the house.
    “ What happened at the bank?” Mary asked eagerly.
    “ You wouldn’t believe it but Jason could not access the box. Uncle Harry left strict instructions that I was the only one allowed to open it,” Suzie explained.
    “ Wow,” Mary gasped. “What was in it?”
    “ The only things in the box were these photographs,” Suzie replied as she set the stack of photographs down on the large dining room table that they had yet to polish, “and this flash drive.” She took the flash drive out of the envelope and showed it to Mary and then put it in her pocket.  They didn’t have a computer set up yet so they would have to wait until they could look at it.
    “ Photographs?” Mary asked with surprise and began to sort through them. “How strange,” she murmured as she watched the scene play out in each photograph. “Why would your uncle want to keep these safe?”
    “ I don't know,” Suzie shook her head. “I was thinking I should show them to Jason and see if he knows the people in the photographs.”
    “ Suzie,” Mary said softly as she studied the photo of the man grabbing onto the woman's shoulder. “Look at his cufflink,” she said as she pointed to it.
    Suzie leaned close r to take a look. “It does look similar to the one we found,” Suzie said quietly as she studied the photograph.
    “ I found some knick-knacks in one of the kitchen drawers,” Mary said as she walked into the kitchen. She opened one of the drawers and pulled out a magnifying glass. “Do you still have the cufflink?” Mary asked as she handed Suzie the magnifying glass.
    “ Yes, I do,” Suzie replied and fished it out of her pocket. She laid it on the table so they could both take a closer look at it. Then Suzie leaned over the photo with the magnifying glass. As she held the magnifying glass over the photograph she could swear that she saw initials on the man's cufflink, but she couldn't quite make out the letters. She frowned as she glanced up at Mary.
    “ I think there is a lot more to my uncle's death than we are seeing,” she shook her head slowly. “At first I thought it was just my suspicious nature getting the better of me, but now I'm certain. Something happened to my uncle, and I don't think it was a death of natural causes.”
    “ What do you see in the photograph?” Mary asked curiously.
    “ I can't quite see it,” Suzie admitted. “But I think the man in this photo is wearing the same cufflinks.”
    “ If only there was a way that we could see the cufflinks up close,” Mary frowned as she scrutinized the photogragh through the magnifying glass as well. When she brushed her hand across the cherry wood table, she came back with a palm full of dust.
    “ I think we had better get to work on some of this cleaning,” Suzie suggested as she tucked the photographs back into the envelope. “It'll give me some time to sort things out.”
    “ Good idea,” Mary agreed. “I'll start with the windows so we can get some more light in here.”
    “ I'm going to work on the furniture,” Suzie nodded. As the two women set to work, Suzie's mind sorted through all that she had discovered over the past few days. One question bothered her, why was it that her uncle didn't leave these clues to his own son, who was a police officer after all. If he had stumbled across something potentially criminal or dangerous, why hadn't he turned to Jason?
    “ This is odd, Suzie,” Mary called out as she stood in the window that overlooked the beach below.
    “ What?” Suzie asked and walked over to her.
    “ See how filthy the windows are?” Mary pointed out. “All but this one patch here,” she pointed to a perfectly clean, smudge-free section of the glass.
    “ Huh,” Suzie said thoughtfully. Suddenly she