Death by Lotto Read Online Free PDF

Petty for you. It would only be for a few days until an investigator checks things out for you.”
    “Whom shall I hire? I hope they’re not too expensive.”
    “I’ll call a detective who’s a friend of mine. He’ll know of someone local who is reputable.” I started to rise. “I just got back home. Haven’t even checked on my bees yet, so you ladies must excuse me. I’ll be in touch later.”
    “Oh, we have been an imposition,” declared Ethel. She wrung her hands in concern.
    Lady Elsmere laughed. “Don’t worry, Ethel. Josiah loves to be in the middle of intrigue. She would’ve been angry if we hadn’t confided in her.”
    I scrunched my nose at June. “See y’all later.”
    Not wanting to face Giles again, I went out through the breakfast room. I climbed in the golf cart, but not before I had to help Baby climb in. “Hey, who is disabled here, dog!” I leaned against the cart for a few minutes, breathing hard.
    Baby gave me a look of satisfaction. I really don’t think he needed help getting in. He just wanted attention.
    Well, he wasn’t the only one.

3
    “From what you’ve told me, there’s not much the police can do. She’s not really sure that someone was in her house.”
    “She has a strong feeling that things have been moved,” I said to Detective Goetz.
    “Police don’t move on feelings. They have to have proof. As for the car incident, I called Mrs. Bradley’s mechanic and he said that the brake line could have possibly been cut by a rock.”
    “She doesn’t have a history of being histrionic. I think Mrs. Bradley is correct in her assessment that something is not right.”
    Goetz took a bite of his mac and cheese casserole with broccoli that Eunice cooked for lunch from my recipe. He had sounded happy to hear from me when I called, and didn’t hesitate to come to lunch at the Butterfly. I knew Goetz loved to eat and expected that I would fix something that he liked.
    He picked at his mac with a fork. “I see you use breadcrumbs and something else . . .”
    “I put eggs in mine along with heavy cream instead of milk.”
    “That’s why this is so velvety. Very good comfort food on this cold day. Great choice. Why did you come back so soon after . . . ?” He left unspoken the horrible murder/suicide of Doreen DeWitt and Lacey Bridges, which had taken place right in front of me in a church. It had been a terrible experience for everyone involved that day, and I had run to New York hoping to dispel those memories with new ones of living in the city that never sleeps. Goetz took a big bite of the casserole.
    “I didn’t want to spend the holidays alone in New York.”
    That explanation seemed to satisfy him. “I’m going to my daughter’s home for Thanksgiving. My boy’s family is joining us there.” Goetz took another huge bite. “My daughter is a wonderful cook and she decorates the house up real nice.”
    “Will your ex-wife being joining?”
    “I still don’t want anything to do with her, so she alternates holidays with me. You know, one year I spend Thanksgiving with the kids, then Christmas the next. Then we switch again. That way, we get to spend time with our kids and never have to deal with each other. The kids seem okay with it. Anything to avoid fighting. Getting back to Mrs. Bradley – I didn’t say she was wrong. I just said that she didn’t have enough for the police to go on.”
    “What do you think of the advice to hire a private investigator?”
    “I think that’s the way to go. Can she afford one?”
    “Not an expensive one.”
    Goetz pulled out his notebook from his shirt pocket. With a stubby pencil, he wrote down a name along with a phone number. “Call this guy. Use my name. He owes me some favors. Tell him I’m calling one in.”
    I looked at the name. “Is he any good?”
    “Very, but eccentric.”
    “Who isn’t around here? Must be something in the water.” I looked at the name and then at Goetz. “You’ve got to be kidding.