Rose Hill Read Online Free PDF Page B

cement floor, and threw it in the trash bin.
    “No one in Rose Hill will care who did it. Everyone will just be glad he’s gone,” she said. “That doesn’t make your job any easier.”
    “The sheriff’s department has the case, and I’m just helping out as they let me.”
    “Ohhhh, so you spent the morning with the defective detective?”
    “Officially, Hannah, only officially.”
    “That woman is hornier than this whole pack of dogs,” Hannah said. “She’ll be humping your leg by nightfall.”
    “That’s not gonna happen,” Scott said. “I’ve established strong professional boundaries.”
    “You better watch out,” Hannah said. “She’s got a pointy he ad and a sharp tongue, and you’re on her to-do list. I was conferring with my investigative partner on this very subject just this morning.”
    “You and Maggie need to stay out of this one. I mean it.”
    “I can’t help it if people tell me things,” Hannah said. “I’m just a very good listener.”
    “This is serious,” he said. “I don’t want you two involved. It could be dangerous.”
    “Yeah, yeah, yeah,” Hannah said. “I get it.”
    “I may need to talk to you again, and I’ve no doubt someone from the sheriff’s office will be around to talk to you and Sam,” Scott said, preparing to leave.
    Hannah clicked her heels together and saluted.
    “I will make sure all my papers are in order, sir.”
    “You might as well have your gun permits handy. They will probably want to see them.”
    “Yes, sir. Anything else, sir?”
    “At ease soldier. Have you told me everything?”
    Hannah followed him out of the barn, shrugging in response to his question.
    “I’m working on a comic book name for Sarah,” Hannah said. “I’ll let you know what I come up with.”
    The dogs were now lounging around the meadow, panting, and some were rolling on their backs in the snow. After Scott helped Hannah climb up and over the fence, the dogs boosted themselves up from the ground and swarmed around her. Hannah took turns patting and rubbing them as they jostled each other for a position near her.
    “How do the dogs seem to you?” Scott asked.
    “Frisky and frustrated, just like your pint-sized policewoman,” Hannah said. “They need to run nonstop for a week just to get their ya-yas out. I’ll keep an eye on them.”
    Scott admire d the shiny coats and lean muscular bodies of the different breeds represented in the pack. There weren’t any black labs, but there were two chocolate and two yellow.
    “Do you think that stray was his?” he asked.
    Hannah herded the dogs toward the barn entrance and some of them veered off, not wanting to go back inside. She produced a bag of treats from her coat pocket to lure them back.
    “If Theo had a black lab there’s no paperwork for him,” she said. “I checked that first thing when I got here. Everyone else is accounted for and their tags match the records in the office. You want to hear something weird, though?”
    “Always,” Scott said.
    “They’re all males.”
    “So? Aren’t they supposed to be?”
    “It’s a funny way to run a breeding business is all,” Hannah said. “Usually a breeder keeps some females and raises litters to sell or replenish stock.”
    Scott didn’t know the first thing about the dog breeding business, so he just shrugged.
    “Just thought I’d mention it,” Hannah said.
    Scott leaned over the fence so he could still see her as she walked backward into the barn, enticing the dogs back in their kennels with the treats.
    “So why would he claim the dog was his if it wasn’t?” Scott asked.
    “Sheer cussed meanness,” she called as she backed out of sight.
     
     
    Scott went to the back of the old stable, now a garage, where a flight of steps led up to Willy’s apartment. He knocked and called out but no one answered. He tried the door and found it was unlocked.
    As he entered the apartment the stench hit him first. His eyes watered and he was