Read Online Scene of the Crime: Return to Bachelor Moon by Carla Cassidy - Free Book Online Page B

problems for a man who’d done absolutely nothing wrong. “His name is Thomas Brady.”
    “And what exactly does he have to do with the bed-and-breakfast or Sam and Daniella?”
    “Actually not much. It’s more that he has something to do with me.”
    Gabriel’s eyes darkened. “What do you mean?”
    “Why don’t I get you some lemonade, and then I’ll explain.” As he nodded his assent, she jumped out of her chair and hurried inside. She poured him a tall glass of the cold liquid and told herself that she was doing the right thing by mentioning Thomas. The last thing she wanted was to be responsible for not giving them information that might prove valuable.
    When she returned to the porch, she handed him the drink and then returned to her chair, aware of him watching her intently as the purple shadows of twilight began to fall.
    “Thomas Brady is a local carpenter who has made it clear that he wants to have a romantic relationship with me. We went out a couple of times, but for me the relationship has never been anything but a friendship. But Thomas has been persistent, and he believes we belong together.”
    In the deepening shadows Gabriel’s features looked sharper, a little bit dangerous. “So what could your relationship with Thomas have to do with the Connellys’ disappearance?”
    Marlena paused to take a sip of her lemonade. She set the glass on the wicker table between them and released a sigh. “Sam and Daniella don’t like Thomas, and they’ve made their feelings toward him fairly clear. They don’t think he’s good enough for me. They don’t want to see us together as a couple. They’ve always been cool to Thomas when he’s come here to visit with me.”
    She frowned and looked out to where John and Cory were loading up their gardening tools into a wheelbarrow. “Thomas stopped by yesterday, and we visited for a little while. He was more at ease than he’d ever been, with Sam and Daniella not around.” She shrugged. “He suggested it would be safer for me if I moved in with him. I just thought you should maybe check him out. He was supposedly out of town working on a deck in New Orleans when the family disappeared.”
    “I will check him out,” Gabriel replied. He took a drink of his lemonade and leaned back in the chair, looking nothing if not exhausted.
    “Bad day?” she asked sympathetically.
    “Bad case,” he replied. He looked out to where John and Cory headed to the gardening shed. They stopped suddenly, and John grabbed a hoe and began to smack the ground.
    “What’s he doing?” Gabriel asked.
    “Must have stumbled across another snake. We have a nest of rattlesnakes and way too many cottonmouths on the grounds, and John is our official snake killer. Cory would rather try to catch them. He loves snakes and reptiles, but John has a healthy fear of them and always cuts off their heads.”
    They both watched as John picked up on the hoe what was obviously now a dead snake and tossed it into the wheelbarrow.
    “I hate snakes,” Gabriel admitted. “I’d rather face a perp with a gun than stumble on a snake.”
    She released a small laugh. “I’d rather not face either of those situations.”
    “Your brother seems like a good kid.”
    “He’s a pretty normal kid. And by that I mean one day I want to kiss him to death and the next day I want to wring his neck,” she admitted and was rewarded with a brief smile from Gabriel. “What about you? What kind of a kid were you when you were around Cory’s age?”
    “Tough. I was basically living on the streets, working at a fast-food joint to get by.”
    “Where were your parents?” she asked.
    His features took on a dark and dangerous mask. “My mother took off for parts unknown when I was seven, leaving me in the custody of the meanest bastard in the state of Mississippi—my father. I lived in constant fear of him from the time my mother left until I left home at sixteen.”
    He paused and took another sip of his