One Deadly Sister (Sandy Reid Mystery Series #1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

lawyer.”
    Mercifully, she closed her legs, sat up and brushed her hair back with her hand. “So, you’ll try to find Tammy?”
    “Okay, I’ll try to find her and explain what she needs to do. Then you turn yourself in.” That would be one way out of this, he thought and it might work. Once Tammy reports the rape then Loraine would feel better about coming forward. If she doesn’t, then he’ll go to the police anyway and explain what he knows.
    She seemed to go along with it. “I don’t know where Tammy is now. Maybe she’s scared, maybe she ran. I’ll give you her address and unlisted phone number. Just don’t get cozy with her.” She pointed to a motel note pad. “You can nose around. Could be she left a message with a neighbor or something. What’s your phone?”
    “Let’s exchange numbers.” He wrote down the information. “Her friend Norma Martin could back this up. How do I reach her?”
    “Not sure, I think she’s a waitress at the Jardin Café.”
    “You’ve got four hours, Loraine, until three, okay? I’m giving you four hours.”
    She grinned. “Hey, if you aren’t in the mood now, why don’t we get together tonight? I don’t want this to affect our relationship.”
    That senseless offer meant zero to him now. The affair was over. He went to the door and looked back at her. Still enticingly naked, her arms wrapped around her pulled up knees. He felt pity for her. He slowly closed the door and stood at the railing. Fresh air made it easier for him to think beyond the reality of her lying there so easily accessible.
    He shouldn’t be seen there. He glanced around the balcony and down below at the pool area. Two maids talked at the foot of the stairs. Two other women were now poolside. He took the opposite direction down the back stairs to the parking lot. He held back and waited while an older couple packed the car next to his and pulled out.
    This wasn’t how he had intended to spend his Saturday. Two hours ago, he was going to shop for a lamp, now he was behaving like a fugitive. He’d go along with it for a few hours. If he can’t find Tammy and Norma by three, then he’ll go to the police and then so long Loraine. He could hear the police saying “Come on, Reid, you aren’t really an innocent bystander, now are you?”
     
     
     

Chapter Four

    R ay switched on the radio as he drove away from the motel. Nothing about a murder, at least not yet. Soon the media would be all over the story: sex gone awry and a revengeful hometown killing—hot story of the year. Police might already be looking for Loraine, maybe that’s why she left her house and went to the motel. When they find her, he knew he’d be next.
    She had confessed a murder to him; he couldn’t just walk away as if it never happened. People saw him with her. Better to report it and explain everything before they came looking for him. What if they clear her because of self-defense, and he goes to jail as an accessory?
    What he should do is stop worrying about her and drive straight to the police. Yet, he had given her a three o’clock deadline. Waiting a couple of hours shouldn’t hurt. Find this Tammy and convince her to report the rape, then Loraine will have her justification for shooting Barner. That’s all he’s going to do. Then he’s out of it. Goodbye crazy Loraine, you’re only a one-night stand from hell.
    He phoned the Tammy Jerrold number given by Loraine. No answer. He left a message.
    What’s next? Norma Martin was a waitress at the Jardin Café, so said Loraine. Maybe she can be Loraine’s excuse for dishing out instant justice at gunpoint. He remembered passing the Jardin Café in the sticks on the county’s far western edge. He headed there.
    Ray drove from the motel across the Intracoastal Waterway Bridge to the mainland. He looked down at the waterway that divided island living and the mainland, from the Georgia line down to Key West. The waterway ran through the middle of Park Beach,