Good, Clean Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

her eye twice while she tried to avoid his. Once, he was frowning. She
looked at her screen. Could he see her to-do list?
    The class dragged
on until the old clock in the hall rang nine. Jane stifled a yawn. The
instructor was still talking as Jane shut down her laptop. She opened her bag
and stuffed it inside with her notebook. Sarah jabbed her in the side with her
elbow. “Earth to Jane.”
    Jane looked up.
Sarah was pointing at Mr. Daniels. He was watching her, one eyebrow cocked.
    “I’m sorry, yes?”
    “I asked if you
had to head out early.”
    “No, not early.”
Jane looked around. Several of her classmates were smirking. One was laughing.
    Jane sighed. “I’m
sorry, I’ve missed the joke.”
    Isaac looked at
his watch. “We’ve got another hour of class.”
    Jane closed her
eyes. Hadn’t the clock just struck nine? Did she really have to sit here
for another hour?
    “I think this is a
good time for a break. All right everyone, make it back to your seat somehow in
ten minutes.”
    Jane laid her head
on her desk.
    Isaac Daniels
walked down the aisle and sat on the desk next to her. “You look tired. Are you
all right?”
    “It’s been a very
long day.” Jane didn’t have to fake the yawn after that sentence.
    Mr. Daniels wore
khakis and a golf shirt with a sports jacket over it, but he had the look of
someone wearing his dad’s clothes, like they made him uncomfortable. She let
her eyes linger on his hands—they were tan and rough. He wore a silver ring on
his right hand and it was scuffed and worn looking.
    “Do you want to
talk about it?”
    Jane recognized
his question from the ‘get permission to get involved’ section of the lecture.
She looked up from his hand. Did she want to give him permission to get
involved? His hazel eyes looked kind. His head was tilted to the side just a
bit and it looked like he was really concerned.
    Jane realized she
must look terrible to elicit that kind of concern from a teacher. She ran her
fingers through her hair, an instinctive reaction to the idea that she was a
wreck. Could she tell him what happened without crying? She took a deep breath.
    “Yeah,” she said.
“I can tell you about it, but it might take more than ten minutes.” She managed
a weak smile.
    The corners of his
mouth turned down with concern.
    “This morning at
work—I clean houses—I…” She glanced over the instructor’s shoulder and saw the
gaggle of girls staring at her. One of them winked. Jane sighed. “I found the
bodies of my clients. It may have been murder.”
    “No way.” Mr.
Daniels rocked back a little. He shook his head and tried to compose himself.
“Murder…that’s not what I expected to hear. Tired, yes. Hardworking, yes.
Something serious, maybe, since you actually have a life off this campus, but
murder? Wow.” Isaac leaned forward again. “What did you do?”
    “I called 911. I
mean, I found my boss dead, but it looked like a heart attack. Then I called
911. The ambulance came and the paramedics found his wife. They said it looked
suspicious because they were both dead.” She looked over his shoulder again and
frowned. Hannah Martin, another pastor’s kid, made a kissy face at her.
    “Do they have any
children?”
    She pulled her
eyes back to her teacher. “Yeah, but they are my age, in their twenties.”
    “That’s too early
to lose your parents.”
    “Yeah. I know.”
    “Have you
experienced that too?”
    Jane thought his
voice cracked.
    “No, not like
that. They just moved to Phoenix, but you know, when you are on your own you
grow up fast.”
    Isaac nodded.
“True that.” He took a deep breath and looked at his watch. “I think you have a
real opportunity to be Jesus to these guys. Do you have the time to invest in
the family a little bit?”
    “Maybe.” Jane
clicked through her schedule. Three houses on Monday plus class. Three houses
on Tuesday, two on Wednesday, plus class, one on Thursday, and two on Friday.
She had a little room in