The Bachelor Girl's Guide to Murder by Rachel McMillan Read Free Book Online Page A

get a sentence cut short by being affiliated with Mayor Tertius Montague.

CHAPTER FOUR

    A lady must choose her company wisely for a man who turns his earnest eye in her direction will want to survey where and with whom she chooses to spend her idle hours. If she is assumed to be aligned with those who do not meet with his careful discretion, it might deter him from pressing suit and a bachelor girlhood, through no fault of her own save clumsiness, may have been cost a potential husband.
    Dorothea Fairfax’s Handbook to Bachelor Girlhood
    W ho is the Corktown Murderer?” Jem read Gavin Crawley’s byline from the breakfast table.
    Merinda swallowed a large bite of toast and marmalade. “The Corktown Murderer?”
    â€œBoth the murdered girls were from Corktown—most of the Irish immigrants live there,” said Jem. “Fiona Byrne and Grace Kennedy. Sound decidedly Irish to me.”
    â€œAnd you look decidedly dreadful. Did you sleep at all last night?”
    Jem’s mouth dropped open, but she was spared from having to form a reply by Mrs. Malone’s voice coming from the doorway. “Constable Forth is here.”
    Jasper stepped into the kitchen wearing civilian clothes. His blue eyes were highlighted by purple rings of fatigue.
    â€œSpeaking of decidedly dreadful,” Merinda mumbled from the side of her mouth. “Coffee, Jasper?”
    Jasper smiled weakly and took the chair she offered him. She poured and plopped in two lumps of sugar and a dribble of cream. Just the way she liked it.
    â€œNow, Jasper,” Merinda said, “we are going to need you to arrest Ray DeLuca.”
    Jem suppressed surprise.
    Jasper tested the coffee. “That muckraker from the Hog ?”
    â€œYes.”
    â€œWhy?”
    â€œHe saw Jem en déshabille and she has been up half the night worrying that she will be his next headline in that silly Hog newspaper.” Merinda didn’t mention they had been rifling through his journal.
    â€œMerinda,” cried Jem, “that is not true.”
    â€œNonsense. I deduced. Look at you.”
    Jem slumped a little lower in her chair.
    â€œI can’t arrest anyone right now, unfortunately,” said Jasper, patting his street clothes. “We were found out, girls. Someone reported my letting you near the first body. And I am off the case. The Corktown case. Any case. Temporary demotion. I’m back on the traffic squad.”
    Merinda moaned. “That’s no use to me!”
    â€œAnd you both need to stop bounding about in pants. That band of moralizers is cracking the whip hard. I never should’ve taken you to the Elgin. Now look where it’s got me.” Jasper ruefully inspected his coffee cup.
    â€œWhat’s your new beat?” Jem asked gently.
    â€œKing and Yonge. Worst intersection in the city. And there’s threat of a trolley strike.”
    Jem and Merinda exchanged an empathetic glance.
    â€œI am terribly sorry, Jasper.” Jem placed her hand over his. “It’s a rotten business, and we never should have been there in the first place.”
    â€œThank you, Jemima.” He seemed to be waiting for Merinda to extend the same sympathies, but judging from her expression, she was miles away.
    They lingered a few moments longer, Jasper in no great hurry toreturn to the King and Yonge beat, until Jemima had to begin preparing for work. She tucked a pressed shirtwaist into her best black skirt and headed out for Spenser’s Department Store.

    Settled on the streetcar, Jem spent her short commute peeking into Ray’s journal again, looking up sheepishly now and then on the off-chance that its owner was nearby.
    D AY T WENTY-TWO . Tony won’t quit talking about Spenser. They tell me he deserved to be robbed. They have heard no end from their friends in the warehouse of how he mistreats his employees and will do anything to dock pay or keep from having to dole out the money his