Read Online Suede to Rest by Diane Vallere - Free Book Online Page B

hours, it would stay retracted. I looked at the curb where I’d parked my car when I first arrived in San Ladrón. It wasn’t there. I crossed the street and went to Charlie’s Automotive. The same Van Halen CD was playing in the background. My VW was jacked up, but no feet stuck out from under the car.
    â€œHello?” I called out. “Charlie? Are you here?”
    â€œKeep your pants on, I’ll be right out,” said a voice from behind a door that blended in with the wall. A few seconds later a toilet flushed, water ran, and the door opened.
    â€œI see you made good use of my present,” she said as she dried her hands on a wad of brown paper towels. “I like that about you. You don’t just sit around talking about doing something. You dig in and do it.”
    â€œI’ve been busy.” I glanced at my reflection, cringing when I saw the silver silk over my head and the grease stains on my face.
    â€œI noticed. What was up with the three-ring circus this morning?”
    â€œYou don’t know?”
    â€œI know for the first time in years people are saying ‘trouble’ and pointing at you instead of saying it about me. What gives? Did you turn up evidence in that unsolved murder?”
    A pulse of panic shot through my chest at the thought of my aunt, alone in the store the night it had been robbed and she’d been killed. “No. A man was found murdered behind the store.”
    â€œWho found him?”
    â€œI did.”
    â€œSeems the circus was in place before you answered the door.”
    She’d been watching the store. Why? Curiosity? Or was there more to it?
    â€œThere was a mix-up. Why did you say my aunt’s murder was unsolved? The robbers went to jail.”
    â€œThey say they didn’t do it. That doesn’t bother you?”
    â€œThat they lied? Criminals lie all the time. No, it doesn’t bother me.”
    â€œEven if it means the person responsible is still out there?”
    I looked down at the tools that were scattered on the floor of her shop. She was giving me an opportunity to talk about my aunt’s murder, just like Vaughn. The story had been kept silent in my family despite my desire to know the details. But what if? What if she and Vaughn were right, that the person responsible was still free?
    And what if the murder behind the store this morning had something to do with it?
    â€œYou’re here for your car, right?” Charlie said, pulling me from my thoughts. “I have good news and bad news. Bad news first. You need a new ignition switch. It’s not that easy to find an ignition switch for an eighty-three VW Bug. I ordered the part, but best-case scenario, I won’t have it until tomorrow, and I’m not a best-case scenario kind of person. You want to hear the good news?”
    â€œSure.”
    â€œI’m going to charge you enough that I can afford to buy you lunch.” She smiled. Her thick hair was pulled back into a low ponytail today and hung down well past her shoulder blades. When she smiled, she looked pretty, in an “I could beat you up if I wanted” kind of way. I wondered if that got her many dates.
    â€œTell you what. I’ll take a rain check on lunch if I can get a one-time use of your shower.”
    â€œI didn’t want to say anything, but you look like you just completed an oil-change marathon.” She sniffed the air. “I’m immune to the scent of 10W40, but I find it impressive that you haven’t added any other scents.”
    â€œLet’s just say my twenty-four-hour deodorant is working overtime. Where can I get a couple of personal items?”
    â€œDrugstore just past the intersection.”
    â€œHow about clothes?”
    â€œI think you’re asking the wrong questions.”
    â€œMeaning what?”
    â€œYou got a building full of fabric and you’re asking where to get clothes? I’d think you’d be