The Azalea Assault by Alyse Carlson Read Free Book Online Page A

warmed over.”
    “Yeah.”
    Eloquent as always, but Petunia explained. “We have three different big lunches today, and I will need to work all day long because there is also a supper, so Nick spent the whole night at Spoons, cooking.”
    “Sorry to hear that. Well, I think if you want to just tell the police where you’ll be… maybe you can request they come talk to you after all your stuff is done.”
    “You didn’t tell me what this is. Why do they need to talk to us at all?” Petunia’s raw anxiety caused Cam to twitch.
    “Oh, right. That photographer was found dead this morning.”
    “He OD?” Nick asked, suddenly alert. Petunia elbowed him.
    Nick had said he didn’t know who the photographer was. Cam narrowed her eyes. “If he did, he proceeded to fall onto a pair of pruning shears when he passed out.”
    “Murder!” Petunia went wide-eyed and covered her mouth. Fortunately, she’d mastered the muffled squeal. “Some husband get ticked he was goosing every woman in the room?”
    Her snarky tone surprised Cam. She would have thought “murder victim” qualified someone for Petunia’s pity list.
    “He didn’t goose
me
,” Cam pointed out, one eyebrow up, one down, in a mock leer.
    “He goosed you?” Nick scowled at Petunia.
    “He’s dead. It doesn’t matter.” Petunia patted her large husband calmly. Cam could have sworn he began to purr. She almost laughed.
    “Mighta mattered if I’d heard it last night. I mighta volunteered to kill him myself.”
    “Shush, Nick.” Cam eyed him seriously. “You say that with the police near and you’ll have trouble.”
    Petunia, though, was gazing at him fondly, happy to have a man who wanted to defend her honor. Cam knew she’d had far worse men in her life before Nick. Petunia rubbed his shoulder and smiled, then looked back at Cam. “We’ll check in. Then I’m going to call you tonight to see how this goes. Sort of exciting, isn’t it?”
    “A murder? It’s pretty horrible.”
    “Well, yes, of course. Horrible. But exciting.”
    “And it couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy,” Nick added, echoing Rob.
    He gave Cam a fond pinch on the arm as he went out the front door, leaving Petunia to check in with Officer Moreno. Seemed like maybe Nick knew Jean-Jacques after all.
    R ob had left by the time Cam returned to the remaining photography staff and the couple household workers who were still hovering. She figured he’d gone to file a story with the paper and stake his claim to the investigation. It was then Cam realized that not only did they not have a photographer to complete the shoot they’d been planning, but they also had a potential PR crisis on their hands: this story, if not properly managed, could really hurt the Roanoke Garden Society. She didn’t want to ask Rob not to coverit, but at the same time she hoped he wouldn’t print anything inflammatory.
    She then chastised herself. Rob might be a sports reporter, but he was committed to the truth. Unfortunately, the truth looked pretty bad right now. She would have to talk to him later about how to include information about the RGS.
    “Camellia Harris?”
    Cam turned with a raised eyebrow at hearing her full name. “Hi, Jake.” The people around her, mostly members of the RGS, likewise turned, noting her friendship with the police officer whose name badge read “Joaquin Moreno.”
    “Thought that was you. Come on over here. It’s just procedure. Nothing to worry about.” He led her to two facing chairs in a quiet corner of the drawing room.
    “Yeah, thanks. My only real worry is I worked hard to set up this big photo shoot and now it looks like it won’t happen.”
    “Well, your worry is understandable. Seems to me, the sooner a killer is nailed and put away, the sooner you can get back to it.”
    “That’s true.”
    Cam squinted at Jake. She’d never thought of him as smooth before—good-looking, sure; he had that soulful Latin lover thing going on. But