Shades of Murder (The Mac Faraday Mysteries) by Lauren Carr Read Free Book Online Page B

mouth-to-mouth to revive me.” She was still laughing when she hung up the phone.
    Joshua stared at the phone in his hand. She reminded him of someone. Both her laugh and the warm feeling in his heart when he heard it. It was an eerily familiar feeling that made him wonder if he knew her from someplace.
    When he hung up, he thought of how pretty she looked sitting behind the desk. Oh, how sweet it would be to give her mouth-to-mouth rescusitation. Turning the key to start the engine in his car, he almost hoped she would be unconscious from hunger when he met her.
    It wasn’t until Joshua was waiting for their burgers and fries in the drive thru that the thought crossed his mind, Suppose the caller wasn’t the pretty woman? Suppose she turns out to be some lunatic even uglier than the fat smoker?
    Checking the time on the dashboard of his SUV, Joshua saw that he would have to wait another fifteen minutes to find out if his assumption was right.
    When you assume, you make an ass of you and me.
    The food smelled too good for a hungry man to resist. While watching for the street signs on the busy freeway, Joshua resisted the urge to reach inside the bag to chow down on the waffle fries.
    He worked his way through the streets on the outskirts of Pittsburgh, where the landscape changed from high rises and office complexes to rural farmland waiting to be developed.
    The broken down barn popped into view at the dead end of a subdivision road, which abruptly changed from paved to dirt without warning. Joshua didn’t notice the end of the road until his SUV dropped off the end of the pavement with a jolt that sent the food flying off the seat. It was only due to his quick reflexes that he caught the bag in mid-air with one hand.
    A white SUV was parked in the field. The pretty woman in the tan jacket was waiting on the tailgate. He saw that her lower half, clad in black slacks, was as pretty as the top.
    Thank you, God! She looks even better outside the police station.
    When Joshua pulled up to park behind her car, he saw that her attention was divided between him and something next toher on the tailgate. At first, he thought it was a doll or stuffed animal that she was stroking.
    Then, when he pulled his SUV up closer, it rolled over to let her scratch his tummy. It was a live animal with long black fur ... and a white stripe ... down the length of its back. Is that a skunk she’s petting?
    “Did you bring my bribe?” she called out when he climbed out of his car. She jumped down from the tailgate.
    “Is that what this is?” He handed the bag to her before reaching back into the car for the shakes.
    The animal paced back and forth on the tailgate.
    As if she might be unaware of what she had been petting, Joshua asked her in a low voice, “Is that a skunk?”
    “No.” She dug into the bag for the milk. “That’s Irving. He’s a Maine Coon. He only looks like a skunk.”
    “That’s a cat?” Carrying the shakes, Joshua went up to the tailgate for a closer look.
    Irving was much larger than a skunk. With his long silky black and white coat, which had the identical markings of a skunk, and white tufts that shot out of his black ears, he could be easily mistaken for the odious forest creature.
    Seeing food coming his way, Irving rose up on his hind legs to inspect the milkshakes. His mistress took a blue plastic dish from the back of the SUV and placed it on the ground. With a meow, he forgot about the shakes and jumped down to await the milk that was to serve as his lunch.
    Joshua noticed a leash, cat harness, pet bed, and assorted cat toys in the back of the SUV. “Do you take him to work with you?”
    “When you’re the department’s top homicide detective, they make some allowances.” She stroked the cat before standing up to dive into the bag for her lunch. “You didn’t notice him curled up in his bed under my desk, did you?” She laughed while dividing the food between them. “You should see the reaction we