The Happy Housewife (Samantha Sherman Book 1) by Kate Cooch Read Free Book Online

with you?”
    “Yes. She doesn’t have a family. Her husband and child died a long time ago, so I told her she could stay with us. Would it be all right to take her now? She’d be at my place if you had any more questions.”
    “That sounds fine. I actually would feel better knowing she was with you until we can get all this sorted out.”
    Sam nodded, “She’ll stay for the next couple of days, until you’re done here and the place can be professionally cleaned. Would it be possible to grab at least a change of clothes for her?”
    “Well …” Don paused and looked down the hallway towards the first bedroom. Sam would have to go by the guest bedroom, which presumably still had a body in it, to get to Mrs. Thomas’s bedroom.
    Sensing his uncertainty, and knowing of his fatherly desire to protect her, Sam gently reminded him, “Mr. Vitriola, I’m sure you’re concerned about what I might see but don’t worry, I’ve seen plenty of dead bodies from my time in the Coast Guard. It really would be nice to have a change of clothes for her.”
    Don shrugged, “Right, of course you have. Do you miss flying?”
    Sam relaxed … victory! “On gorgeous days like yesterday, heck yes I miss it, but I’m really happy being at home with Lindsey.”
    “It’s always good to leave when you still like what you do and I’ll bet being at home with your daughter is wonderful. We miss having our kids around. Anyway, let me walk you back.”
    Don and Sam moved towards the hallway. As they approached the guest bedroom, the female police officer called out to Don, from her place by the writing desk, to ask a question. Sam stopped to wait for him at just about the guest bedroom door. By taking one step forward she could see into the room where Dan had been killed. She looked in and saw a person she assumed was part of the forensics team standing at the head of the bed working on the window above it with his back to her. The window was closed with the blue and white curtains pushed neatly to the sides.
    Dan lay stretched out before Sam on the bed dressed in a pajama bottom and white T-shirt. The sheets had obviously been pulled back by the forensics people. Dan was lying on his stomach, his face turned right towards the wall. She could see his profile clearly. Dried blood on his head had matted his hair so that it almost looked plastic, like a Ken doll. It was odd but except for his bloody head he could have been sleeping. His T-shirt was pulled up a couple of inches in the back but that was it in terms of anything else being out of place. He was probably still in the position he had been in when the intruder came into his room.
    Sam was amazed gazing at Dan’s body at how fake it looked. In fact, every time she had seen a dead body in the Coast Guard she was always surprised at how phony it seemed. She thought dead bodies in movies looked more “real.”
    Sam wondered then, was there any sign of a struggle in the room or had Dan been sleeping as she suspected? The walls were free of any blood and the bedding was in place. She glanced at the carpet and jerked her head back slightly. On the floor to the left side of the bed close to the door she had spotted a blood covered fire poker. Murder weapons were
not
something she was used to seeing in the Coast Guard and she immediately felt uncomfortable. She struggled against the shiver she felt welling up inside her.
Focus Sam
, she told herself.
    The poker had dark red blood spots on it. There were also spots of blood on the carpet around the poker. It must have been dropped after the intruder killed Dan by hitting him on the head.
    Sam took half a step more away from Don and could make out more of the room to her left. She caught a flash of Nathan’s shirt and froze. She did not think Nathan would take too kindly to her staring at the crime scene. He was talking to someone, maybe another forensics person? They were discussing a time of death, about midnight, she could hear them