Sudden Second Chance by Carol Ericson Read Free Book Online

could tell him, confess everything...well, almost everything. He already knew that she’d been adopted and hadn’t been able to locate her birth parents. If she explained to him her suspicions about being Heather Brice, maybe he could help her. Maybe he’d share the case files with her.
    She pivoted away from the window. If she told him that now, he’d suspect her of spinning a tale to get her hands on the information he had. She wouldn’t go down that road with him again.
    Sighing, she swept the remote control from the credenza and aimed it at the TV, turning it on.
    With the local TV news blaring in the background, she got ready for bed. Snug in a new pair of flannel pajamas she’d bought for the trip, she perched on the edge of the bed to watch the news. She hadn’t made the local news—not yet.
    She switched the channel to a sitcom rerun and flipped back the covers on her bed. Her heart slammed against her chest and she jerked back as she stared at the head of the Libby Love frog positioned on the white sheet, his miner’s hat at a jaunty angle.

Chapter Five
    Beth slammed the frog head on the reception counter, squishing the hat. “Where did it come from?”
    The hotel clerk’s eyes popped from their sockets. “Ma’am, I’m sorry. I have no idea how it got in your bed. Perhaps it had been washed with the sheets and the maid thought it belonged to you.”
    “This—” she shook the head at him until some white stuffing fell onto the countertop “—does not look like it’s been through an industrial washing machine. It looks brand-new, except for the fact that it’s been ripped from its body.”
    “Ma’am, I don’t know. I can talk to the maids in the morning.”
    “What’s going on?”
    Beth gulped and swiveled her head to the side. What was Duke doing down here? Might as well get it over with.
    “I found this—” she thrust the frog head toward him “—in my bed when I got back to my room.”
    He held out his hand and she dropped the head into his palm.
    “What the hell? Is this the frog you bought earlier that was stolen from your car?”
    “Stolen?” The clerk turned another shade of red. “I can assure you, we don’t know anything about any theft.”
    Beth released a long breath. “I don’t know if it’s the exact same toy I bought, but it’s the same kind. So if the thief who broke into my car didn’t put it in my room, it’s a helluva coincidence that someone else did.”
    The hotel clerk reached for the phone. “Should we call the sheriff’s department?”
    Duke tilted his head back and looked at the ceiling of the lobby. “Do you have security cameras?”
    “Just in the parking lot, sir. We can check that footage to see if anyone drove into the lot without coming through the lobby.”
    “That’s a good idea. It would’ve been within the past ninety minutes. Do you have a security guard on duty...” He glanced at the man’s name tag. “...Gregory?”
    “This is Timberline. No security guard.” Gregory lifted his hands. “Sheriff’s department?”
    “Will they come out for a stuffed frog head?” Beth crossed her arms over her flannel pj’s, recognizing the ridiculousness of that statement. At least she didn’t feel as if she were choking as she had from the moment she’d seen that frog in her bed. Duke had that effect on her—a calming, steadying presence.
    Too bad she had the opposite effect on him.
    He gave her a crooked smile. “You heard Gregory. This is Timberline. They’ll come out for a stuffed frog. It’s not just the head. It’s the fact that someone broke into your room and put it in your bed...and the smashed car window before that. You want to report and document all this.”
    Gregory picked up the phone. “I’ll call it in. We may learn more tomorrow when the housekeeping staff comes in. I’ll make sure we question all of them thoroughly. The night crew was here until about an hour ago, so they could’ve been here when the, uh, frog was