Read Online SLEEPING DOGS (Animal Instincts Book 6) by Chloe Kendrick - Free Book Online Page B

was hoping to ask you a few questions about your wife’s death.” I thought that an upfront approach would work best. Mr. Frias was likely busy and wouldn’t relish the chance to walk through memory lane with me. So I came to the point with my first sentence.
    “Are you the police?” he said. I could see him scrutinize my appearance, but my look was anything but official. My hair was buzzed, my jeans were worn, and I had an older jacket on. I was more likely to fit in here than at the police station.
    “No, actually I’m looking into my sister’s disappearance, and I think your wife’s murder might be related to it.” I explained the situation. Everyone who had lived in Toledo for over 10 years had heard of the Susan Fitzpatrick case. I rarely introduced myself as such, because I’d grown to hate the questions and looks, but now I was trying to get information out of a man who had no reason to tell me anything. By trying to give us something in common, the loss of a loved one and the media circus that followed, I hoped to get him to talk about the murder.
    He nodded. “I remember that case like it was yesterday. Normally, I’d throw your ass out of here, but I understand. You’re a kindred spirit as it were. Come on in.” He stood back and motioned for me to enter. I walked in and waited for him in what could loosely be called a living room. The area had thread-bare carpeting and two wooden chairs.
    “I don’t entertain much,” he said as he took one of the chairs. The dog came over and sniffed me while I tried to get comfortable in the other chair. He licked my hand a few times, but quickly lost interest and went over to his owner.
    “I understand. I don’t either.” I thought back to my own home though, which had matching furniture and plush carpet. I had kept up the appearance of normality in my own life, even though I’d tried to maintain a low profile. In many respects, being overtly normal is the best way to be invisible. We see so many split-levels with two cars and a few toys out in front of the house that we neglect to pay any attention to the people who live there.
    “So what do you want to know? Why would you think that these two things are related?”
    I gave him a brief outline that my sister had begun to look for tickets out of Toledo the day following the murder, and I felt that it was likely that she’d seen the murder take place. He listened carefully, but he didn’t speak. He just nodded and continued to pet the dog. He didn’t seem to be overly upset about his wife’s death, but it was hard to gauge what a normal reaction was for grief after more than a dozen years had passed. If he’d been more upset, I think I would have been more suspicious. He’d apparently moved on, even if the move had been down the socio-economic scale.
    “So I am looking into the murder in hopes of finding out what she might have seen and how that might be related to the murder.” I paused and waited for him to respond.
    Finally, he spoke. “I’d love to be able to help you. I know that Belinda would have liked that as well. She was big on helping people. But I just don’t know anything about it. She went to work like it was any other day, and she never came home.”
    “The family found the body? It wasn’t time for her to come home?” I’d actually made up a list of questions for the husband while I’d been walking the dog. I wanted to be prepared in case he was hostile, and I only had a few minutes to ask questions.
    “Yeah. I only went and picked her up at the end of the day. Quitting time for her on that day was usually 6pm, but that night, she’d called and asked if I could pick her up an hour later. She said she was running behind, something about a mess from the first house she cleaned that day.”
    I checked my notes. “The Wagners? That was her first house, I think.”
    He shrugged. “I didn’t bother with the names. I only knew the addresses. They were the family who lived next to