Read Online Wilmington, NC 03 - Murder On The Ghost Walk by Ellen Elizabeth Hunter - Free Book Online Page A

waiter, I caught Detective Yost staring at me, the kind of look a man gives a woman when no one's watching. Naked. Raw. Embarrassment flickered across his face for an instant, then disappeared. How long had he been standing there? And how much had he heard?
    Jon turned to him and they shook hands. While the two men sized each other up, I regained my composure.
    "Good evening, Miss Wilkes."
    "Good evening, Detective Yost." Now it was my turn to study him, but I did so openly.
    Again, he was dressed beautifully in a summer-weight, light charcoal pinstripe suit over a blue shirt with a red and blue rep tie. He held a drink that looked like scotch.
    I glanced down to check my own outfit and reassured myself I was appropriately dressed in black silk slacks and a white silk shirt. "You must be off duty, Detective ."
    "Off duty but never off the job, Miss Wilkes," he replied with a cocky grin.
    I smiled. "Glad to see you have a sense of humor."
    He smiled back. "I was going to call you later but when I saw you and Mr. Campbell out here, I decided to give you folks the good news. Forensics is finished with the house. You can go back to work whenever you want."
    "That is good news. I'd invite you to join us out here but there's scarcely enough room for our two chairs."
    "I'm fine where I am," he said and leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb.
    Nick Yost was a very self-contained man. Or was that part of the facade? Again I wondered how much he had heard .
    I looked from Yost to Jon. Two really attractive men had come into my life. But the charge I felt, like a current of high-voltage electricity, flowed from Nick Yost. He was one sexy guy.

1 1

    I loved coming home to my cozy cottage on Summer Rest Road . Before Mama got ill, she'd promised me I could live in the small blue cottage she owned next door when I returned home after college.
    I'd spent most of the money I'd inherited from Daddy on school and on start-up expenses for my business. Now I was living on the last of it. I'd had practically nothing to spend on furnishings for my first home, but paint is cheap.
    It took a week to paint the bungalow's four rooms. Selecting pastel hues that replicated the colors of the seascape outside my windows -- the pale blues of the Waterway and the sky, the golden pallet of the sun-washed marshes -- I transformed the inside of my house into a place of warmth and hominess.
    A trip t o Mama's ancestral home in Savannah yielded treasures fit for a fine antiques shop. From the treasure trove in the attic, Aunt Ruby had generously donated loveseats and arm chairs, chests of drawers and bibelots. She had been so dear, enthusiastically helping me to furnish my little home. My favorite find was a rice bed, its head and foot boards and four posters in mint condition.
    A wide, combination living-dining room dominated the front of my house. I'd chosen cool blue for its walls, icy white trim, and sisal for the hardwood floor. That was when I'd first connected with Tommy, and I'd had him upholster two mismatched loveseats in heavy white cotton twill.
    I kicked off my sandals, undressed and took a long warm shower, then slipped into thin cotton pajamas.
    I was padding over to my bedtable to check my phone messages when a frantic knocking on my door drew me out into the living room. Surely, that's not Mama, I thought. It was much too dangerous for her to be wandering around outside at night.
    Peeping through the sidelight, I saw Nellie, Mama's live-in nurse . "Just a sec," I called, dashing into the bedroom to pull on a light cotton robe.
    I opened the door quickly. "Is something wrong with Mama, Nellie?"
    Nellie is plump with a shiny face, naturally optimistic and cheerful. But tonight she was agitated, twisting her hands. "It's not an emergency, Ashley, but we need to talk."
    "Sure, come on in. Can I get you something to drink?" I guided the overwrought woman to the loveseat under the window. The moment I'd been dreading had arrived.
    When Nellie replied