Sinnerman by Cheryl Bradshaw Read Free Book Online Page B

is it? I’m dying over here.”
    “I’m not sure,” I said. “It looks like a bottle of some kind.”
    I spread my fingers apart and reached down the crevices of the box until they touched the bottom. Clear liquid sloshed around in the container while it rose to the top. Maddie curled her body over the box and pressed her fingers into the sides so it was unable to move while I lifted it. When it was halfway out, the mayor’s wife couldn’t take the anticipation any longer. With eyes that sparkled like a child full of wonder on Christmas Day, she leaned over to get a closer look and then clamped her hands over her mouth and let out a scream that echoed through every orifice of the restaurant, and in an instant the loud, boisterous atmosphere evaporated until all that remained was silence.
     

CHAPTER 12
     
    “What in the hell is that?” Maddie said.
    The chief and Nick launched out of their respective chairs and hovered over me like a couple of eagles protecting their nest. By the time I had the bottle all the way out of the box, no less than six pairs of eyeballs were riveted on the liquid substance within the glass and what floated around inside of it: a severed finger.
    “What is this, some kind of sick joke?” Nick said.
    The chief held his hand out to me and folded his fingers back toward himself.
    “Lemme see that,” he said.
    I handed it over and then tipped the box on its side and peered in again. A slip of pink paper was taped flat to the bottom and on it, a message:
     
    HAPPY BIRTHDAY SLOANE MONROE
    I HOPE YOU LIKE IT
    YOURS ALWAYS, SINNERMAN
     
    “There’s a note,” I said.
    “Don’t touch it,” the chief said. He flung his arms to the side like he was an umpire who’d just declared the player that slid into home plate safe. “No one touch a thing.”
    The chief reached over and confiscated the box from me, and with great care he lowered the jar back into the depths of its cardboard home.
    “Madison,” the chief said.
    “I’m way ahead of you,” Maddie said. “We can take this to my lab right now.”
    She stood up and walked over to me and gave me a hug.
    “I’m sorry to leave you like this on your birthday sweetie.”
    “With all that’s happened, this trumps my big day,” I said. “Keep me posted on what you find out.”
    She leaned in until she was a couple inches away from my ear.
    “You’ll be the first to know,” she whispered.
    Moll returned with tray full of entrees and a perplexed look on her face.
    “Where in the world is everyone going?” she said.
    “I’m sorry,” I said, “but it looks like we’re going to need these to go.”
     

CHAPTER 13
     
    Nick wore a hole in my living room carpet while he paced from one side of the room to the other, part in a debate with himself and another part using his hands to converse with the air in front of him. I rested on the couch and tried to make the most of my entree to go.
    “This has gotten out of hand,” he said, after a few minutes. “That psycho has made it personal, and I don’t like it.”
    The reality was it had been personal for a long time now, and we both knew it. Sinnerman had just upped the ante, and for whatever reason, all bets were on me.
    “If they can lift a print and find out who this guy is, it will all have been worth it,” I said.
    I already knew full well the box and its contents would be clean. Sinnerman was too smart for that. But at the moment, my main goal was to pacify Nick by whatever means necessary.
    “How can you sit there and eat right now after what just happened?” He shook his head. “You know what? I think you wanted this.”
    “That’s ridiculous,” I said.
    “Do you even care that this guy could be watching your every move? Honestly, Sloane. I’ve had it with all this. I’m done. From now on, you’re going to listen to me, and that starts right now. I want you to promise me you won’t have anything else to do with this case.”
    Inside my head, something snapped.