Read Online GUNNED by Elaine Macko - Free Book Online

he’s going to eventually turn up here. Maybe if we tell her everything,” she turned to me again. “Maybe, Ms. Harris, you can just tell your husband what we tell you and that will be it.”
    I knew for a fact it didn’t work that way. Whatever I told John, he would most certainly have to check out for himself right after he told Annie and me to stay out of his investigation. But I wasn’t about to tell Shelley Jamison that.
    “Of course. I’d be happy to relay whatever information you have to my husband,” I said with a warm smile. “And please, call me Alex.”

 
     
     
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
     
     
    Annie and I followed the Jamisons into their modest home and settled in the living room on a worn, but very comfortable sofa covered in a floral slip cover.
    “Coffee? Tea?” Shelley asked.
    “I would love a tea,” I said. It was getting late and Annie and I still had not had any lunch.
    Annie smiled up at Mrs. Jamison. “Yes, tea for me also.”
    I asked to use the restroom and then joined Annie on the sofa while the Jamisons retreated to the kitchen. Annie turned to me.
    “Is it true that you can just give the police information and they take your word?” she asked in a low voice, tinged with awe.
    I shook my head. “No. I’m not telling John anything. He wouldn’t believe me anyway. The police will definitely show up here at some point, I just hope it’s not while we’re enjoying our tea. But sometimes you have to tell little white lies to get your foot in the door, so to speak.” At least that was the little white lie I told myself to justify telling little white lies to others.
    “You’re very good at this,” Annie said. “I feel like we’re making some progress, and that these people definitely have some information that might help us.”
    Shelley and Jeff Jamison came back into the room and placed our two tea mugs on the table along with a plate of coffee cake. Jeff went back to the kitchen and returned with mugs for Shelley and himself.
    “Help yourself. I just made it this morning. By the way, I’m Shelley, and my husband is Jeff.”
    I took a bite of cake, trying not to inhale it, as I was so hungry. Breakfast with Shirley seemed a long time ago. I put my plate down and looked at Shelley. “You seem to have some information about Mr. Spiegel. Why don’t you start at the beginning?”
    Shirley and Jeff sat down in two wing chairs across from the sofa. Shirley looked down and clasped her hands together.
    “It started a long time ago. When we first got married, I had several miscarriages. We thought about giving up. I mean, we were happy together and I have nieces and nephews, so who cares, but then this young woman came into the insurance agency where I worked as an office manager. I still do the same work but for a different company, and Jeff’s a truck driver for a recycle waste company. Anyway, this young woman had several strikes against her and she couldn’t find an insurance company that would cover her car. We couldn’t either, but she was pregnant and didn’t want the baby, so she and I started talking and one thing led to another. I discussed it with Jeff and he thought it was a good idea for us to try and adopt the baby. The young woman didn’t have any family, well, except for some drug addicted mother and a dead beat ex-boyfriend. The baby’s father. She seemed happy for us to take the baby. So that’s why we were at the hospital then. Not because I was delivering Christine, but to be there for the birth mother.”
    “Well, then you’re certain Christine is the baby you adopted,” I said, wondering why they seemed so nervous.
    “There’s more,” Shelley continued. “On the same day Christine was born five other baby girls were born. They all had similar coloring, but a couple of them had the same dark hair and dark eyes. You saw Christine. She has dimples. But when we first held our daughter, we didn’t see any dimples. She was in the hospital for several days