Tick,Tock,Trouble (A Seagrove Cozy Mystery Book 5) by Leona Fox Read Free Book Online Page B

car,’ is something you might say to a dog. Not to another adult. Normally, I’d rather walk than get in a car with a person who spoke to me like that. However, I’m even more reluctant to run into Hamilton Cartwright again so I will accept your offer of a ride home.”
     
    Zack nodded but didn’t say anything. Sadie had the sneaking suspicion that he was trying not to laugh.
     
    “Stop that,” she said, elbowing him in the ribs.
     
    “What? I’m not doing anything,” he said, indignant.
     
    “You are laughing on the inside,” she said. “I can tell.”
     
    “Wow. Tough crowd,” Zack said. “I didn’t know there were rules about what I’m allowed to do in my head.”
     
    He was trying to sound cranky, but Sadie wasn’t fooled. He liked that she could see through him.
     
    “What am I going to do with you?” she asked. “You are absolutely incorrigible.”
     
    “I’m no worse than you are, Sadie Barnett, and don’t you forget it,” he said, but the grin on his face took all the sting out of it.
     
    Zack drove around the block twice before parking in front of Sadie’s shop. He walked through the entire downstairs with Betty watching, amused, then down the creaking old wooden stairs into the basement and out into the alley before taking the stairs to the second floor. He opened every door in Sadie’s apartment and spent twenty minutes on the balcony overlooking the street before pronouncing the area a Hamilton-free zone.
     
    “It’s nearly closing,” he said to Betty and Sadie as he was about to leave.
     
    “Can’t you go ahead and lock up?”
     
    “It’s two hours until closing,” Betty said, but on seeing his face backtracked, “but we could lock up and put a note on the door. That would work, wouldn’t it?” She looked at Sadie, who nodded in agreement.
     
    “I’ll be back around nine,” Zack said, his hand on the doorknob.
     
    “What for?” Sadie asked, confused. She would have remembered if they’d had a date, wouldn’t she?
     
    “Because I’m spending the night keeping watch.” He looked at her and shook his head.
     
    “You don’t think I’m going to let Hamilton Cartwright find you alone, do you? Because I’m not.” He left, the door slamming behind him.
     
    “He’s getting a little high-handed,” Sadie said. “I’m not sure what to do about that.”
     
    “I think it’s just because he’s worried about you,” Betty said.
     
    “He’s usually perfectly agreeable. I think it’s just this case has landed particularly close to you and Hamilton has come unglued. What in the world did he think he was going to accomplish by chasing you around the park today?”
     
    “He wants that pocket watch, and bad,” Sadie said.
     
    “But you should have seen Franklin Woo at the stationhouse today. He took Carol Brown hostage and was trying to get into the evidence room to get that watch. I don’t understand it.”
     
    “Maybe there’s a curse on it,” Betty said. “Or a charm. Like everyone who owns it becomes a millionaire. We should research it. Come on.”
     
    She pulled on the door to make sure it was locked and headed into the office. Sadie followed.
     
    They powered up the two computers in the office and started researching pocket watches. It took about thirty minutes of reading about men dying of heart attacks and other more gruesome stories before Sadie found what she was looking for.
     
    “Look at this,” she said, “not just one, but a set of charmed watches. Each one is charmed, but bring them all together and they will enable you to control time. Wow, I wonder what that really means?”
     
    “Shoot me over the link,” Betty said. “I want to read about it.”
     
    Sadie sent her the link and then grabbed a pen and her notepad and started taking notes. Twelve watches. Twelve enhancements. When used together, on the last night of the year, they allow you to travel through time.
     
    “Pretty nifty,” Betty said. “Do you think