Beauty to Die For and Other Mystery Shorts Read Online Free PDF

Rachel?”
    “No. No one. Everyone loved Rachel.” She turned to leave, but he stopped her.
    “How did he get in?”
    She whirled back around. “What?”
    “Billy Robb,” Joshua said. “Rachel had fired him. I guess she forgot to get the key to the salon back.”
    “He never had it,” Susan said. “Rachel was kind, but she wasn’t stupid.”
    “But if he had threatened her when she fired him, then why did she let him in late at night when she was here alone.”
    Susan’s eyes narrowed to slits.
    “She had to have let him in,” he said. “There was no sign of forced entry.”
    “Maybe he was waiting outside and forced her back inside to kill her,” Susan said. “He did blow his own brains out.”
    “Maybe.” Recalling the semen found in Rachel Burke and at the scene, Joshua asked, “Was Rachel in a relationship?”
    While her face was blank, her eyes were wide in a show of innocence. “Why are you asking about that?”
    “You’d be surprised how many times when a woman is killed, it’s connected to a boyfriend or lover.”
    She glanced around before answering in a low voice. “Well, Rachel wasn’t a virgin, but she certainly wasn’t fooling around with a married man, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    He said, “I didn’t ask if she was having an affair with a married man, I asked if she was in a relationship.”
    Her expression changed to one of guilt.
    “Since you brought it up, could she have been having an affair with a married man?”
    This question resulted in loud laughter. “No.” She glanced around. “No,” she said more firmly.
    The more firmly she said it, the more Joshua didn’t believe her.
    Joshua met Cameron in a run-down shopping center halfway between Pittsburgh and the West Virginia state line. When he pulled his SUV into the parking lot, she got out of her cruiser and went around to his driver’s side.
    Joshua rolled down his window. After she kissed him hello, she announced. “I think I found a witness.”
    “You think?” The assurance he had felt upon reading her text to him dissipated.
    She showed the business card that Victor had slipped into her pocket to him. “I called this phone number and the old woman who answered seemed rather cagey about Rachel Burke, until I told her that Victor told me to call. Then, she invited me to come to her home.” She pointed at a narrow country road that maneuvered up a steep hill above the shopping center. “Her house is about halfway up the side of that hill. I don’t think the driveway is big enough for both of our SUVs.”
    “I guess that means I’m driving,” Joshua said. “Jump in and let’s get this show on the road.”
    They found the small two-story house to be literally built into the side of the hill.
    A plump woman with silver hair peered out the living room window at them after they knocked on the door. She looked them both up and down before opening the door a crack. The chain lock remained in place while she studied them up closer with one blue-gray eyeball. “Are you Cameron?”
    “Yes, we—”
    “Who’s that man?” She gazed at Joshua with fear in her eyes.
    “He’s my husband,” Cameron answered. “We’re investigating this case together.”
    “You said nothing about bringing a man here with you,” the elderly woman said.
    “I’ll wait in the car,” Joshua whispered to Cameron.
    “No,” she hissed before turning to the woman. “He’s here because we’re both investigating Rachel Burke’s murder. We’re doing this for Billy Robb’s mother. She’s dying and she wants to clear her son’s name so that she can die in peace. That’s why we’re here. We don’t want to hurt anyone. We only want to bring out the truth. Victor indicated that you might know something.”
    The woman was silent. “Billy Robb’s mother?”
    “Gina Robb,” Joshua said.
    “I didn’t know she was still alive,” the old woman said. “I guess—I never thought …” After hesitating, she closed the