Secrets Among the Cedars (Intertwined Book 2) by Sherri Wilson Johnson Read Free Book Online

very practical charcoal gray Honda.
    Phil would've guessed her to be a fancy car kind of lady. So she was sensible and not frivolous. This was a good thing. He climbed into the passenger's seat.
    "Please excuse the mess." She threw a plastic bag to the back seat.
    "You should see my SUV."
    "So where are we headed?" She cranked the car and the twang of country music came through the speakers.
    Phil didn't like country music, but he didn't mind it so much while in the company of this country girl. "How about the sandwich shop again?"
    "Sounds perfect." Kathryn eased out onto E Street.
    "So you're still coming up with zero?"
    She growled. "Yes! And it's driving me crazy." She squeezed the steering wheel until her knuckles turned white.
    "What have you found out since I saw you yesterday?"
    "Without divulging too much information, the man who runs the grocery store is a little bit threatened by my presence here."
    "How so?" He turned sideways in his seat to get a better look at this serious-minded woman whose looks and allure distracted him from the matter at hand.
    "I asked him if he knew anything about the murder or the weapon when I was at the store yesterday, and he told me I should mind my business. He said there were secrets here that were better left buried."
    "What? So he does know something."
    She nodded.
    "Do you want my help?"
    She sighed and halted the car at a stop sign. "I didn't think I was going to need any extra help, but now I think I do. My investigators came up empty and so did the detectives. I think it's time for a local to step in. But I have to know I can trust you."
    Finally. She was letting her guard down. "You can trust me."
    "Of course you say that, but I have to know for sure. Do you mind if I run a background check on you when I get back to my condo?" She raised her eyebrows in obvious hopefulness.
    "Nope, I don't mind at all."
    "How much do you charge?"
    "I'm not charging you anything. You've got me so curious about this, I want to do it for free."
    "No, I'm going to pay you."
    "I'm not going to charge you. I want to help you put this guy away."
    "I want to put him away too." They got out of the car and climbed the stairs to the restaurant. “Well, I want to put the killer away.”
    “Is there a difference?”
    She nodded. “I’m not convinced that he is the killer.”
    “You’re not?”
    “Not entirely. It doesn’t make sense that a man with his power and connections would dirty his hands on the murders of four seemingly insignificant men.”
    Phil held open the door for her. "The porch again?"
    "Sure." They found a table with a clear view of the Gulf.
    “So you’ve got to find the weapon and pray there are fingerprints on it to prove whether your guy is the killer or not?”
    “That sums it up. He’ll go free if I can’t find the gun. He might still go free once I find it if his fingerprints aren’t on it and if there are no witnesses to come forward. For his sake, I hope that happens if he’s innocent. It makes me very angry that he won’t talk. I may not be sure he actually pulled the trigger, but I know he knows who did. You’d think he’d want to clear his name.”
    “Not if he ordered the hits.”
    “But would a man go down for something he didn’t do when he could pin it on the guy who did?”
    “In my experience, yes. If he ordered the hits and then turned the guy in, he’d be killed in prison. He’d take his chances with the prosecution not being able to prove their case over ratting someone out. Anyone who would accept the job of knocking off four men would have no qualms about taking out the boss man.”
    Kathryn cleared out the corners of her eyes and ran her fingers underneath her lower lid, smoothing out her eyeliner which had smudged in church. This case could possibly be unsolvable, and the stress was apparent in her eyes. “It’s very likely that four men died, and their murders won’t ever be avenged.”
    “I’m sorry.”
    They ordered when the waitress