Murder and Salutations (Book 3 in the Cardmaking Mysteries) Read Online Free PDF

said, “Guess
what? We’re going to stay at Lillian’s tonight.”
    Oggie protested with a yowl and bolted from
the room. I looked at Nash and asked, “Aren’t you going to follow
suit?”
    I was ignored once again, so I took
advantage of it and gathered up a few of my own things before
putting them in their carriers. By the time I was ready to go, Sara
Lynn had undoubtedly reconsidered her offer.
    “ You’re probably right,” she
said as we walked out of the house. “I don’t think your cats would
enjoy my place.”
    “ They appreciate your offer,
though,” I said. Lying to my sister was getting to be a habit
tonight. My two bandits could not have cared less for my sister’s
generosity.
    After I got the cats
situated in the backseat of my Gremlin, we were ready to go. When
we got to Sara Lynn’s house, I hit the dome light and saw that both
cats were sound asleep. Sometimes traveling in their carriers
agitated them. When I was lucky, though, the motion of the car,
coupled with the darkness, acted like a
rocking bassinet on a baby and knocked them out cold. They were
absolutely adorable, especially when they were sound asleep. I
locked the car and joined Sara Lynn at her
front door. It appeared that every light in her house was turned
on, lighting it up like a luminary at Christmas.
    “ Wow, I’d hate to see your
electric bill this month,” I said, then I looked at my sister.
“Sara Lynn, what’s wrong?”
    “ When I left here tonight,
every light in the house was turned off.”

Chapter 3

    That was hard to imagine, given the current
state of illumination. “Are you sure?”
    She didn’t even offer me a withering look—
something that spoke volumes. “I’m positive.”
    “ Could Bailey have come by
after you two talked tonight at Hurley’s?”
    “ No, he gave me his keys
yesterday when he left. That was part of our arrangement. He isn’t
supposed to enter the house again unless I’m here.”
    I couldn’t imagine Bailey defying her. My
sister might have been petite, but she had a tongue sharp enough to
wilt kudzu.
    She hesitated, her key hovering near the
lock. I put my hand on hers. “Listen, if you’re worried about it,
we can call Bradford. I’m sure he’ll come right over.”
    Sara Lynn paused a moment, then said, “No,
he’s got enough to worry about tonight without trotting over here.
I’m sure it’s all perfectly innocent.”
    She unlocked her front door and pushed it
in. I was right behind her, but I suddenly wished I’d brought my
softball bat along with us for protection. It was amazing how the
heft of that aluminum club could fill me with confidence. My sister
wasn’t empty-handed, though. As soon as the door was unlocked, she
dove into her handbag and pulled out a vial of pepper spray with
one hand and a stun gun with the other. Maybe I wouldn’t need my
bat after all.
    For some reason I’d been expecting the
living room to be trashed, as if the burglars had turned on every
light in the house while they ransacked it. Instead, it was as neat
as it had ever been, and I felt myself relax. Sara Lynn wasn’t
quite so trusting though. I followed my older sister from room to
room until we were both satisfied that nothing had been touched and
no one was lurking in a corner for us. It was pretty clear she was
still troubled by the lights, but since nothing else appeared to
have been disturbed, I was ready to write it off as one of her
senior moments of forgetfulness. She went through the house,
flipping switches off as she neatly packed an overnight bag, and we
were at the door ready to leave when she said, “I need to check one
more thing before we go.”
    “ Sara Lynn, we looked under
every bed and inside every closet. There’s nobody here.”
    “ Be patient, Jennifer, this
will just take a second.” She walked into the kitchen, so I
followed her, curious to see what place she felt we’d ignored in
our search. She stopped at her pantry—really nothing more than a
small