Unraveled by Maggie Sefton Read Free Book Online

she should have felt a pulse. Nothing. Turner was dead.
    As she knelt beside the body, Kelly looked at the gun more closely. It was a pistol, not a revolver. And it looked different from the other pistols Kelly was used to seeing at Curt’s and Jayleen’s houses and had fired herself on their properties at target practice. There were a lot of guns in Colorado. But this gun didn’t look like any she’d ever seen. It looked older than the other guns.
    Kelly dug into her jeans pocket and pulled out her smartphone, touched the camera option, and snapped two photos of the gun. One close-up and one showing Turner’s hand beside it.
    “Is he still alive?” Jennifer asked, peeking around the corner.
    Kelly stood up. “No, he’s gone. It looks like he did shoot himself, Jen.”
    Jennifer walked away from the doorway. “I don’t understand. I talked with him yesterday. He was fine. He was fine.”
    Kelly was about to join her frightened friend, then turned and studied the body on the floor again, then the cabin’s open room. There was little furniture and nothing else looked disturbed. Only the chair where Turner had obviously been sitting was sideways on the floor.
    She pulled out her phone again and snapped another photo, then shoved the smartphone back into her pocket as she returned to the porch.
    “Had he ever acted or sounded depressed to you?” Kelly asked.
    “Never. He was one of the most driven real estate guys I’ve ever met. I cannot imagine what would make him shoot himself.” Jennifer paced the porch. “We’ve gotta call the police, Kelly. We’d better call them now.” She pulled her phone from her jacket pocket. “Does nine-one-one work up here?”
    “It should. It worked years ago when you and I walked in and found Vickie Claymore dead.” Kelly said wryly.
    Jennifer looked up, her brown eyes huge. “Oh, my gawd! I can’t believe we’ve walked in on another corpse. Kelly . . . we can’t come into the canyon together anymore. Not alone, anyway.”
    “Jen . . .”
    Jennifer’s hand flew up. “No. I’m making a vow. No more driving into canyons alone with Kelly Flynn. There’s something about the two of us together in canyons that is bringing bad juju or whatever Jayleen calls it.”
    Kelly didn’t reply, because the police department answered, and Jennifer began to explain that they’d arrived and found the dead body of her real estate client lying on the floor, obviously shot in the head. Kelly stood by the railing again and searched for another hawk while Jennifer related all the details to the county police. That meant Lieutenant Peterson would be investigating. She wondered what he’d say when he learned that she and Jennifer had stumbled onto another death scene. Again.
    A slight movement at the corner of her eye caused Kelly to turn ever so slightly to the right. Brush and heavy bush grew between the aspens there at the side of the clearing. She searched to see what had caught her eye. Then, she saw it. A brief glimpse. A man’s dark blue plaid shirt. Kelly stood absolutely still, so as not to draw attention to herself. Jennifer’s voice was loud enough to carry on the breeze, so whoever was listening could hear every word.
    Another slight movement and more of the plaid shirt came into view. Then a man’s face. A bearded face. Shaggy brown hair down to his shoulders. And something else. A shotgun lay in his arms. That got Kelly’s attention.
    The man suddenly looked straight at Kelly. She stared back at him, and he disappeared behind the bushes again as quickly as he’d appeared. Quick as a rabbit.
    Kelly glanced at Jennifer and decided not to share the bearded stranger sighting right now. Her friend had been spooked enough already. She’d wait until Lieutenant Peterson arrived.
    “The dispatcher said police should be here in twenty minutes,” Jennifer said, slipping the phone back into her jacket again.
    “That’s good. Why don’t we wait in the car, okay?” Kelly