Murder Takes to the Hills Read Online Free PDF Page B

the main banking area. Or in the parking lot at work…mostly at the end of the day.   And also on my lunch hour, walking to a restaurant, doing an errand, just getting some fresh air.”
    “No phone calls?” Sonny was making notes on a pad he had commandeered from its little cage on the wall next to the kitchen phone.
    “No.”
    “Has anybody said anything strange to you? Or touched you unnecessarily, even though it seemed innocuous at the time?” Sonny scribbled on.
    “No.”
    Whoever this was, was beginning to seem like a real phantom.
    Digging into her purse on the table, she sighed heavily. “Today I found this under my windshield wiper. I almost tossed it; it makes no sense. I still think maybe somebody got the wrong car.”
    She pulled out a note and handed it to me. I took it gingerly by a corner, hoping there might be fingerprints. It was fairly neatly printed on what was probably a page torn from a pocket calendar and read: Don’t worry about anybody giving you a hard time. I will be there for you. Love, your lifegard .
    Sonny leaned over my shoulder and read it aloud. “Whoever it is, seems fairly well educated…it’s grammatical and neat.”
    “Lifeguard is misspelled,” I noted.
    “Yeah,” Sonny nodded. “Maybe it’s one of those words you just don’t seem able to spell right…like I always tend to put an extra a in apart a ment .”
    “Maybe.” I laid the note carefully on the kitchen counter. “I’ll get an envelope for this in a minute. You know, Cindy is right; this thing makes no sense. It sounds as if he’s saying he’ll protect you against himself.”
    “I know,” Sonny answered. “Unless the stalker has a stalker.”
    “Oh, my God,” Cindy groaned. “Two of them are all I need!”
    “Well, they might as well get used to a crowd, because I’m going to be stalker number three, right behind you every inch of the way.” I lit a cigarette and blew a cloud of smoke forcefully toward the ceiling.
    “The hell you are,” Sonny snapped. “Having you as a bodyguard would make about as much sense as my tailing her in full uniform, blowing a tuba. Whoever knows Cindy, probably knows you two are a pair. In fact, I’ve been trying to think whom I could use to trail her from a distance. I’ve decided everybody on the force would probably stand out like a cat at the dog show to anybody local. There’s no point in having someone follow her if the stalker connects the two of them. He’d just quit until we took the tail off. Or he might switch to someone we won’t know about. Or he might get nasty.”
    “Well, somebody has to be near her. I can always wear a disguise.”
    Sonny roared, and even Cindy had to smother a giggle.
    “I could think of something,” I insisted. “But if you don’t like my idea, what’s yours?”
    “Very simple,” he smirked, and I wanted to slap him. “There’s a cop down in Eastham who retired last year. He told me recently he’s bored to death and has nothing to do but argue with his wife. He’ll jump at this, I know.   I’ll make Edgar a temporary deputy tomorrow morning. He and I will be having lunch at noon at the Hot Diggity Dog. You come in, Cindy, and say hello to me but keep going, place your order and go outside to eat.   We’ll stop on our way out and chat for a moment. Simple way for you to know who he is. After tomorrow, he’ll be somewhere near you from the time you leave the house in the morning till you get home in the evening. Even if you don’t see him—and you often won’t—he’ll be there.”
    Cindy nodded silently, and I told Sonny it sounded very good. “Guess I won’t have to dream up an effective disguise, after all.”
    Giving me a sour grin, Sonny said, “Yeah. Like a couple of Halloweens ago you got all decked out in my old army camouflage uniform plus a mask…and everyone in town told me the next day how good you looked in my uniform.”
    Cindy tittered, “I didn’t know that.”
    “You weren’t