Family Case of Murder Read Online Free PDF

were under plastic, but she still worried about rodents. “I should get a cat,” she murmured.
    “What are you going to do with this place?” he asked.
    “I have no idea. Storage for now.”
    “This would make an awesome loft,” he said.
    “Yes, but who in this town could afford to rent this place?”
    “Um, you,” he said. “Why don’t you live here? This place is seriously amazing, Red.”
    She bit her lip, smiling as she peeked around the corner of the clothes and watched him take in the panorama. “You want it?” she asked.
    He stopped short and looked at her. “What?”
    “You love it so much, you can live here. I won’t even charge you rent.”
    “Don’t joke about stuff like that,” he said. He sat on the floor and pulled out his tacos, looking decidedly grumpy.
    “Who says I’m joking? The place is going to waste. Maybe with you here the mice would stay away.”
    “I’m not going to take an apartment from you like some sort of kept man.”
    She glanced at him again before bending over to laugh out loud. “Did you really just call yourself a kept man?”
    “You know what I mean. You’re not paying my way for stuff.”
    “Are you seriously upset about this?” she asked. She wiped her eyes, but she was still bent over, staring at him.
    “You’re a millionaire. I’m a cop. How can that not be an issue?”
    “How can that be an issue? Before I became a millionaire I felt rich if I bought the fancy ketchup. I’m not a millionaire, at least not by any classic standards.”
    “Just the one where you have a million dollars in the bank,” he said.
    “I don’t have that much anymore. I bought this place, and I’ve been paying for the renovations until the grant comes through.”
    “Oh, so you’re rich and a landowner.”
    “A landowner? What are you talking about, Simon Kenton? Did we travel back to the nineteenth century? Since when does owning property define one’s worth?”
    “Since Adam and Eve staked out the apple tree in the Garden of Eden.” He bit into a taco, furiously tearing off a huge mouthful. It was amazing that he could eat while scowling so deeply.
    “Great, I’m so glad to know you’ve added another layer of issues between us. As if there weren’t enough already,” she said.
    “What does it matter when you avoid me like the plague anyway?” he asked, swallowing a mouthful of taco. “I thought things were getting back on track over Christmas, and then you spend New Year’s in Chicago and I’m suddenly persona non grata again when you return. What happened up there anyway, Red? Did you make a decision and forget to tell me? Because you two looked awfully cozy at that restaurant the other night.”
    “You looked awfully cozy yourself with your ex-girlfriend.” She hadn’t meant to say it, but he made her so angry it just popped out. And when he smiled, she knew she’d been had. So far she had avoided making any sort of jealous display over Cindy. All that was down the drain now.
    “You don’t like seeing me with another woman?” he asked.
    She turned, smoothing her index finger over an Alexander McQueen original. “You know I don’t,” she said, her voice fading almost to a whisper by the time it reached him in the cavernous space.
    “Then do something about it,” he said. “Or did you already? Is that what this weekend is about?”
    She took a moment, trying to find the best way to phrase it. “This weekend is about fulfilling a promise I made to my grandfather and fulfilling a command given by my mother and finally, once and for all, letting go of the past and moving on. And in the process of doing all that, I’m going to need a friend. Beyond that, I don’t know. I just really don’t. I have no idea what I’m going to be like after this is all over, but I know I’m actually looking forward to moving on.”
    He studied her, his taco forgotten once again. “All right, then. Just be honest with me, that’s all I ask.”
    Lacy’s gut