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Authors: Karen E. Olson
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how did I know he didn’t kill her?
My hesitation must have told him I had doubts.
“Trust me, Kavanaugh. I loved her; I wouldn’t hurt her. She left me .” I could tell he was confused by that.
For a second, I flashed back to Paul, asking me, Why ? He really had no clue. Asking me to quit my job at the Ink Spot, follow his career by giving up mine. I shook off the memory.
Jeff was still talking. “I want to do a little look-see into this myself, and if I don’t have the cops breathing down my neck, I’ll be able to do it a lot easier.”
I couldn’t resist. “If you find out anything, can you let me know?”
Jeff cocked his head to one side and studied me for a second. “Why?”
“Maybe I just want to find out what happened to Elise Lyon, and I’ve got a hunch there’s a connection.”
“A hunch? Who are you, Nancy Drew?”
Okay, maybe I deserved that. But it didn’t deter me. “Elise showed up at my shop and told me her name was Kelly Masters.”
I couldn’t read his expression.
“So maybe there is something there after all,” he said thoughtfully. “Sure, Kavanaugh, I’ll play Starsky and Hutch with you, as long as you promise not to blab my name prematurely to that brother of yours. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” I shifted my messenger bag to my other shoulder, crossing my fingers behind it so he wouldn’t see, and asked, “So who would want her dead?”
He laughed, opened the door to his shop, put one foot inside. “The best question would be, who wouldn’t want her dead?”
“What do you mean?”
“Let me worry about that right now.”
“So Kelly had a lot of enemies?”
“Let’s just say she would never be voted Miss Conge niality.”
Again, the link between Kelly Masters and Elise Lyon seemed really remote.
He started to go inside, but I grabbed the door before it shut, causing him to stop in the doorway. “What is it, Kavanaugh?”
“Kelly’s brother. What’s his story?”
“I don’t know where you met him, Kavanaugh, but my advice? Just stay away from him.” He paused, and when he spoke again, his tone was soft, like he actually had a heart. “Matthew’s bad news. You don’t want to mess with him.”
Matthew?
Chapter 13
So now I had two Matthews, or rather, a Matt and a Matthew.
Jeff Coleman’s words floated around in my head, interrupted every second or so by the fact that Kelly Masters’s brother, Matthew, was the guy watching me.
Matthew.
The object of Elise Lyon’s devotion?
Maybe.
Or was it Chip Manning’s driver Matt?
I had a hard time connecting Elise—from a well-to-do family in Philadelphia, about to marry one of the richest heirs in the world—with someone like Kelly’s brother.
Where would she meet him? Did she hop a plane to Vegas, meet him in a casino or a bar here, decide she couldn’t marry Chip but had to marry Matthew instead?
Something inside me wouldn’t let me believe that. It just didn’t fit.
Then there was Matt, the driver. That made the most sense. She would obviously have known him through Chip. Maybe Matt drove her around, too. Maybe he started her engine a few times. Maybe that was enough for her to realize Chip was never in the driver’s seat.
My car analogies were getting out of hand.
Now I knew how Tim felt when he was working a case and didn’t have all the answers.
It sucked.
Tim. He wouldn’t be happy with me once he found out about my trip to Murder Ink to see Jeff Coleman. I thought about my promise to Jeff that I wouldn’t tell Tim. It let me off the hook, but only temporarily. Even though no one knew I’d come here tonight—except for Scottie the Star Trek fan—Tim would find out Jeff was Kelly Masters’s ex-husband and since Jeff was a tattooist and I was a tattooist, Tim was smart enough to figure that we might know each other and ask me about him.
It shouldn’t be a difficult decision. Jeff Coleman was my sworn enemy; we hated each other. This was the first almost-civil conversation I’d
My hesitation must have told him I had doubts.
“Trust me, Kavanaugh. I loved her; I wouldn’t hurt her. She left me .” I could tell he was confused by that.
For a second, I flashed back to Paul, asking me, Why ? He really had no clue. Asking me to quit my job at the Ink Spot, follow his career by giving up mine. I shook off the memory.
Jeff was still talking. “I want to do a little look-see into this myself, and if I don’t have the cops breathing down my neck, I’ll be able to do it a lot easier.”
I couldn’t resist. “If you find out anything, can you let me know?”
Jeff cocked his head to one side and studied me for a second. “Why?”
“Maybe I just want to find out what happened to Elise Lyon, and I’ve got a hunch there’s a connection.”
“A hunch? Who are you, Nancy Drew?”
Okay, maybe I deserved that. But it didn’t deter me. “Elise showed up at my shop and told me her name was Kelly Masters.”
I couldn’t read his expression.
“So maybe there is something there after all,” he said thoughtfully. “Sure, Kavanaugh, I’ll play Starsky and Hutch with you, as long as you promise not to blab my name prematurely to that brother of yours. Agreed?”
“Agreed.” I shifted my messenger bag to my other shoulder, crossing my fingers behind it so he wouldn’t see, and asked, “So who would want her dead?”
He laughed, opened the door to his shop, put one foot inside. “The best question would be, who wouldn’t want her dead?”
“What do you mean?”
“Let me worry about that right now.”
“So Kelly had a lot of enemies?”
“Let’s just say she would never be voted Miss Conge niality.”
Again, the link between Kelly Masters and Elise Lyon seemed really remote.
He started to go inside, but I grabbed the door before it shut, causing him to stop in the doorway. “What is it, Kavanaugh?”
“Kelly’s brother. What’s his story?”
“I don’t know where you met him, Kavanaugh, but my advice? Just stay away from him.” He paused, and when he spoke again, his tone was soft, like he actually had a heart. “Matthew’s bad news. You don’t want to mess with him.”
Matthew?
Chapter 13
So now I had two Matthews, or rather, a Matt and a Matthew.
Jeff Coleman’s words floated around in my head, interrupted every second or so by the fact that Kelly Masters’s brother, Matthew, was the guy watching me.
Matthew.
The object of Elise Lyon’s devotion?
Maybe.
Or was it Chip Manning’s driver Matt?
I had a hard time connecting Elise—from a well-to-do family in Philadelphia, about to marry one of the richest heirs in the world—with someone like Kelly’s brother.
Where would she meet him? Did she hop a plane to Vegas, meet him in a casino or a bar here, decide she couldn’t marry Chip but had to marry Matthew instead?
Something inside me wouldn’t let me believe that. It just didn’t fit.
Then there was Matt, the driver. That made the most sense. She would obviously have known him through Chip. Maybe Matt drove her around, too. Maybe he started her engine a few times. Maybe that was enough for her to realize Chip was never in the driver’s seat.
My car analogies were getting out of hand.
Now I knew how Tim felt when he was working a case and didn’t have all the answers.
It sucked.
Tim. He wouldn’t be happy with me once he found out about my trip to Murder Ink to see Jeff Coleman. I thought about my promise to Jeff that I wouldn’t tell Tim. It let me off the hook, but only temporarily. Even though no one knew I’d come here tonight—except for Scottie the Star Trek fan—Tim would find out Jeff was Kelly Masters’s ex-husband and since Jeff was a tattooist and I was a tattooist, Tim was smart enough to figure that we might know each other and ask me about him.
It shouldn’t be a difficult decision. Jeff Coleman was my sworn enemy; we hated each other. This was the first almost-civil conversation I’d
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