Read Online Murder on the Rocks by Allyson K. Abbott - Free Book Online Page A

me out of the kitchen. “The autopsy on Ginny isn’t done yet, but the description
     of the knife you gave me matches what the ME described.”
    “You think my knife killed her?”
    “It seems a likely possibility.”
    “Does this mean you’re rethinking your earlier theory that someone is trying to frame
     me?”
    He stared at me for several long seconds, looking so deep into my eyes I felt he could
     see into my very soul. I stared right back at him, afraid to so much as blink. Eventually
     he sighed and broke off the contest.
    “We haven’t found any blood evidence on you, in the bar, or in your apartment. And
     whoever did this would have been covered in blood.”
    I shuddered at the thought.
    “Granted, you could have ditched the clothes you were wearing and showered before
     calling us this morning, but the techs used Luminol on your shower drain and in your
     apartment and found no evidence of anything. Still, you have to admit, the evidence
     so far is a bit damning.”
    “I didn’t kill her.”
    “I’m keeping an open mind.”
    I sighed. “I guess that’s the best I can ask for at this point.”
    “Let’s stick with the plan we have and see what develops. If we find the knife that
     was used as the murder weapon, we might have to rethink things. But for now let’s
     just go for it and see what turns up.”
    “Does that mean you’re not going to arrest me, Detective Albright?”
    “Not yet. And given that we’re supposed to be friends and I’ve seen you practically
     naked, I think you should start calling me Duncan.”
    “Yeah, about that,” I said, blushing. “I might have overreacted a little bit earlier.”
    “You’re not going to do it again, are you?”
    “What? Overreact or take my clothes off?”
    “Both,” Albright said with a crooked little grin.
    “I’ll try not to do either.”
    “Hmm, too bad,” Albright said. Then, with a wink, he left.

Chapter 7
    W ith Duncan Albright out of my hair, I turned my attention back to getting the bar
     prepped. Making money was more important than ever now because at the rate things
     were going, I’d need it to pay a lawyer. Or post bail.
    Up first was washing and chopping fruit for the drinks, and then doing the same with
     the lettuce and tomatoes we used for sandwich orders. But without my knives, it was
     going to be a difficult task. I went back out to the main bar area and searched until
     I found the paring knife I used to create lemon twists. Fortunately it was still there,
     though not in the spot where I usually kept it. Apparently the crime scene guys had
     examined it and decided it wasn’t worth taking. I considered asking if it was okay
     to use it, and then decided the hell with it. The crime scene techs all looked busy
     and uninterested in what I was doing, and Duncan was nowhere to be seen. So I took
     it and went back to the kitchen. It wasn’t easy trying to slice tomatoes and lettuce
     with the thing, but I managed, though the tomato slices ended up looking rather flat
     and dejected.
    I turned on the oven so it could preheat for the pizzas I serve, a very popular item
     on my menu since I make them fresh and to order. I also turned on the deep fat fryer
     I use for my waffle fries and cheese curds, and added fresh oil. The food and kitchen
     prep used up half an hour or so, and after checking to make sure my occasionally cranky
     ice machine was producing, I inventoried the bottled beers in the cooler and headed
     down to the cellar to get what I needed to restock.
    The basement was my least favorite area in the building. It was dank, gloomy, and
     filled with stuff that created way too many dark corners, creepy cobwebs, and odd
     shadows. I kept vowing to go down there and clean out all the junk, but most of it
     was my father’s stuff. He was a bit of a pack rat and there were boxes stacked to
     the ceiling in places. He also liked to dabble in woodworking in his spare time, and
     did so at a large built-in