Read Online Engaged in Death (A Wedding Planner Mystery) by Stephanie Blackmoore - Free Book Online Page B

relief.
    “Oh, ladies?” Truman barked.
    “Yes?” My voice was a squeak.
    He wasn’t finished with me just yet.
    “You two be careful. You might think about installing an alarm system. We’ll be in touch.”
    “That’s it?” I’d wanted them gone all morning, and now I didn’t want them to leave.
    “What about the body?” Rachel’s eyes darted in the direction of the front yard.
    “Gone.” The chief glanced at his watch. He was done with us. “Impounded his truck too. You’ll need to cut down the crime tape and you might want to hose off the grass, but that’s it.”
    Faith touched my arm lightly. “You hear anything, give us a call.”
    They handed us their cards and waltzed out of the breakfast room.
    “What’s that smell?” Faith asked the chief.
    “Cat piss,” he whispered back, but not quiet enough for me to miss.
    Rachel flopped back with relief as soon as the front door shut. We hadn’t even bothered to show Truman and Faith out. We were safe, for now.
    “I thought they might arrest us.” Rachel flashed me a shaky smile.
    “Me too. But for what? I certainly wasn’t marauding around last night, confronting trespassers. And I was so exhausted, I wouldn’t have noticed a murder going on right under my window. Which is apparently what happened.” A shiver trilled up my back. Someone had been killed just below me. Had the murderer even realized Rachel and I were inside? We’d parked the Mini around the back of the house and turned off all the lights, so it wouldn’t have been obvious.
    “Who wanted Shane Hartley dead?” I wondered.
    “Like I said, he was a jerk, so I bet there are a lot of people in this town who wanted to off him.” Rachel’s hand flew to her mouth.
    “No worries, Rach. I’m sorry he’s dead too. No one deserves to be murdered, especially that way. But that doesn’t change the fact he was a complete Neanderthal for the whole five minutes we talked to him.”
    I glanced at my cell phone, its red light flashing malevolently like a dragon’s eye. Work beckoned, but I turned it over, dismissing it for the moment. Whatever was happening at the firm could wait.
    “Let’s go take care of the front yard.” The thought of Shane Hartley’s blood drying on the grass made me ill.
    It took us a while to find the right key to the shed, extricate an old hose from a tangle of rusty tools and yard implements, and find a spigot on the side of the house. We worked in silence, jittery and pensive. The hose barely stretched around the porch, and water sprayed out in arcs from hundreds of pinprick holes in the rotten canvas. Mini rainbows shimmered in the mist from the hose, and I chose to focus on them instead of my grim task.
    Rachel turned away as the weak spray hit the bloody grass. Out of the corner of my eye, it ran red, then pink and finally absorbed into the ground, leaving a sodden puddle. We gathered the yellow crime tape and had just finished scrunching it into a slick plastic ball when a gray sedan pulled into the pocked driveway, pausing in front of the sagging porte cochere. Two women climbed out of the car.
    “Smart choice. I wouldn’t park under that thing either.” My voice was calm and welcoming in an attempt to mask the tension of the day.
    Rachel grabbed the crime tape and tried to throw it over the side of the porch, but the slippery yellow plastic unspooled and fell in a pile at her feet.
    “Are we here at a bad time?” The shorter, plumper woman stared at the tape, transfixed. She nearly dropped the large foil-covered bowl she carried. Her eyes trailed over to the wet patch of grass, as if she expected to see a body neatly outlined in chalk, or even Shane Hartley’s cooling corpse.
    “No, we’re fine.” I threw the yellow plastic inside, where the waiting calico pounced on it before I shut the door. I dried my hands on my pajama bottoms. I hadn’t had a chance to change. I glanced at Rachel, happy to see she was covered up, albeit in a slinky but