Read Online Nun But The Brave (A Giulia Driscoll Mystery Book 3) by Alice Loweecey - Free Book Online

on a not-so-comfortable work surface.
    Conclusion #1: Marjorie the Cat Lady is a source of information, not a suspect.
    Conclusion #2: Ex-boyfriend Louis Larabee was too helpful.
    Conclusion #3: Would Larabee say anything to keep from going back to jail?
    Conclusion #4: Any woman who dates Larabee should have up-to-date self-defense skills. His façade cracked much too fast.
    Conclusion #5: Milo Chapers has issues. No. Has multiple issues. Possibly debts or a gambling problem.
    Question #1: Had Chapers slept with Joanne? Had Joanne turned him down?
    Question #2: Had Joanne been pregnant when she disappeared? With whose baby?
    Giulia reread the last sentence. She hit Enter and typed a subhead.
    If Joanne was pregnant by:
    1. Larabee: Did he try to convince her to have an abortion? Did she run away to keep the baby? Did she regret not using protection in a risky relationship?
    2. Chapers: What were Sunset’s rules about employee fraternization, especially with a higher-up? Did he envision losing his job? Ditto all the above Larabee questions re: Abortion, running, lack of protection.
    3. Marstan: What if his puppy-eyed unrequited love act was cover for an unexpected pregnancy, an escalating argument, and a rash action in a moment of anger?
    She finished the lemonade. What a sordid mind she’d acquired as a PI. Back in the convent, she’d been much too trusting.
    The pregnancy angle might be a leap. Still, it wasn’t a question she should ask Diane. Not knowing everything about her twin sister already had her on edge.
    She turned on the TV to let the ideas percolate.
    “…story will chill the souls of every Scooper parent.”
    Giulia groaned at Ken Kanning’s eager face on her screen. She pressed the on-screen channel guide as Kanning’s sincere voice chewed the scenery.
    “Two beautiful young girls found dead! One in the park and the other by a dumpster! Sensitive Scoopers beware: What follows is a graphic description of young lives cut short much too soon.”
    Giulia gave the screen back to The Scoop . It filled with side by side shots. On the left, the town park on a summer day: children played, people jogged and walked their dogs, the sun shone. On the right, an asphalt parking lot: cigarette butts in potholes, crumpled fast food wrappers, a stained dumpster; no sun shone when this film had been taken.
    “We can’t show you the abused bodies of these poor girls,” Kanning’s voice said. “Their filthy clothes barely cover their blotched, puffy skin. Their faces are swollen almost past recognition. A rash on the skin of the younger girl looks like someone smeared her with maroon paint.”
    As he spoke, the camera closed in on the dumpster. A rat gnawed something next to it. On the left side, the active townspeople moved past the screen to the sounds of conversation and children laughing.
    Kanning’s face leaped out at Giulia. “These young women had their whole lives before them and squandered it all on drugs. Their ravaged bodies were found three days apart. Were they connected? Did they stop to take one more hit of the filth they were addicted to? Were they trying to reach their homes?”
    The screen cut away from Kanning’s expensive dental work to a stock photo of families mourning at a grave. His voice ranted against government bureaucracy, against the sluggishness of the police investigation, against the evils of pushers who cut their drugs with unknown substances.
    “The bodies of both young women showed signs of a long and arduous walk. Both appear to have been sexually violated a short time before their tragic deaths. Did they escape from a pimp? Were they being held against their will by a man? By many men?” His rant escalated, this time against drugs and the lengths addicts will go to for the next hit.
    Giulia plucked three juicy bits out of today’s Scoop hash. The girls took drugs, the drugs weren’t the usual suspects, and they hadn’t only run away from home; they’d returned from