All Murders Final! Read Online Free PDF Page B

of course, I’d headed right up there. I’d bowled CJ over, literally, as I hustled out of a building I wasn’t supposed to be in. The security guys had been hot on my heels as I exited, right into CJ’s arms. He’d even lied to the MAs—the masters-at-arms, or navy police—saying that I was waiting for him and that he was late. The memory made me smile.
    â€œI had dinner with your folks last night.”
    My folks? That wiped the smile off my face. I loved my parents, but since the fall they’d increased their pressure on me to move home. I’d spent Christmas with them, and much of the holiday had been them probing into why I was staying in Ellington. I loved it here, although the warm weather and the stunning coastal scenery of Pacific Grove tempted me.
    But I didn’t want to go back as a failure. If anything, Monterey was more expensive than this area, and there was little possibility of finding a place I could afford on my own. I’d checked the classifieds there after CJ and I first split. It had helped to make my decision to live here easier. Plus, my parents hated garage sales, because they thought if you didn’t want something, you should give it away. Which was fine and dandy if you had lots of money, but many people needed the money, and I liked to help them make it.
    â€œAre you there?” CJ asked.
    â€œYes. I’m just . . . surprised.” Surprised didn’t begin to describe my feelings. My mother had been dead set against us getting married so young. My father hadn’t been happy about the idea either, but at least he hadn’t vocalized those feelings and instead had bent over backward to welcome CJ to the family. Even after CJ and I were married for nineteen years, my mother had continued to be a bit reserved with him. At least she’d managed not to say “I told you so” to me over Christmas. I wondered if she’d said it to CJ. I was flummoxed that she’d invited him over for dinner, now that we were divorced. Maybe she was trying to get him to tell me to move back to California.
    â€œHow did it go?” I asked, not sure I actually wanted to know the answer.
    â€œNo blood was shed, if that’s what you’re worried about.”
    â€œI wasn’t too worried about bloodshed with my pacifist parents.” “Aging hippies” was a better way to describe them. Me marrying a military man went pretty much against everything I’d been raised to believe. But over time, as CJ won them over, they’d mellowed a bit. “But they are opinionated, to say the least, and the fact that you hurt their only daughter . . .”
    â€œThey asked where we stood.”
    â€œWhat did you tell them?” I wasn’t sure I wanted to know this, either.
    â€œThat they’d have to ask you.”
    Ask me? The last couple of times I’d reached out to him, he’d been all business. It sure felt like he’d reached a decision all on his own, even if I hadn’t. Not that I’d blame him if he was tired of waiting around for me to figure my life out. I heard a woman in the background call to CJ.
    â€œI’ve got to go,” he said.
    â€œWhen will you be back?” But CJ had already hung up.
    Thinking of CJ with another woman upset me more than I wanted to admit. I crawled back through the small door to the storage space to finish putting my purchases away. A box in back of the things I’d accumulated for the February Blues sale caught my attention. I dragged it out from under the eaves and realized this unopened box was one from when CJ and I split up. So much for not thinking about CJ. I pulled off the packing tape and found a box full of CJ’s sports stuff. A baseball bat, a basketball, and an old pair of cleats, apparently nothing he valued or things he thought were lost. I took out the baseball bat, hefting it in my hand. I went to my bedroom and stuck it under my bed as I