Read Online Maddie's Gift of Mystery (A Rockcrest Cove Cozy Mystery Book 5) by Emily Page - Free Book Online

sitting in the room at her desk, her head deep in a book when they entered. Startled, she jumped from her seat and stood, panicked, as she stared at the two women.
    “Oh, I’m so sorry.” Eleanor started. “I didn’t realize anyone was in here.”
    Recognizing Eleanor, the girl relaxed a little. “Oh, Ms. Hawkins” she said, placing a hand on her chest as if to slow down her heartbeat.
    “April. What are you doing here?”
    “This is my room,” she answered. “Didn’t you know? I’m Emily’s roommate.”
    “No, I didn’t,” Eleanor responded. “Emily never told me she had a roommate.”
    “We just started sharing a few weeks ago. It was getting kind of expensive for her to have a single room by herself, and to be quite honest, it was cutting into my budget too.”
    “I totally understand,” Eleanor responded. “Listen, we just stopped by to get a few things Emily needs for court tomorrow.”
    April’s face grew solemn. “How is she doing?” she asked. “I don’t believe she had anything to do with that.”
    “Thank you for saying that,” Eleanor said. “I’m sure she appreciates all of those things.”
    April seemed to have gotten misty-eyed for a second, but she quickly rebounded. “All right. What is it that she needs? Maybe I can help you find it.”
    “That would be appreciated.” Eleanor smiled. “She wants a pair of earrings, the kind with the silver stones embedded in them.”
    “Yes. I know the ones,” April said and went over to Emily’s closet and pulled out
    her jewelry box. After a few seconds of looking through the jewelry in the box, she seemed a little perplexed. “That’s odd.”
    “What’s odd?”
    “I know Emily keeps all of her jewelry in here, but those earrings aren’t here. Are you sure she didn’t take them?”
    “No. She made sure to ask me to bring them with me to court tomorrow.”
    “Well they’re not here now,” April said, pushing pieces of jewelry around the small box.
    “Perhaps she put them someplace else in the room,” Maddie suggested. “Let’s just take a look around. Which part of the room is Emily’s?”
    April sat up on the bed and looked around. “Well, that’s her bed and her desk over there,” she said pointing to the opposite side of the room.
    Maddie walked over and began searching the desk for the earrings while Eleanor moved to the dresser to look there. After a few minutes of searching the desktop, Maddie started opening drawers looking for the missing earrings but found nothing. “Find anything?” she asked Eleanor.
    “Nothing yet,” Eleanor said, looking under a pile of clothing.
    Having checked the side drawers of the desk, Maddie finally pulled open the center drawer to search there, and what she found caught her attention. Reaching in, she pulled out a small locket on a gold chain and let it dangle from her hand. “That’s interesting,” she said out loud.
    “What is?”
    “This locket. Is it Emily’s?”
    “Yes, that’s hers. She wears it all the time.” April commented.
    “Hmm,” Maddie said, studying the piece of jewelry. “How many does she have?”
    “Only the one that I know of,” April answered. “Why?”
    Maddie didn’t answer her. She turned her attention back to the locket. “Eleanor,” she said quietly, “didn’t Willis say that the victim had Emily’s locket in his hand?”
    “That’s right.”
    “So that means they have Emily’s locket in the evidence locker at the police department.”
    “They should have.”
    “But if this is Emily’s locket, then whose locket are they holding in evidence?”
    “I don’t know, but I think we need to talk to Willis to find out.”

Chapter 7
    A n hour later , Chief Willis arrived with a team of detectives in tow. For the first time, he appeared to be a little irritated by the urgent call. “What’s this all about?” he asked as he swept into the tiny dorm room.
    “Chief, did your people search Emily’s dorm room when they did their