Skating Over the Line Read Online Free PDF

he understood.
    â€œI shouldn’t tell you this, but I know you’ll find out from your boyfriend.” The annoyed, almost jealous tone Sean used when saying the word boyfriend made me almost miss hearing him say, “The body wasn’t real.”
    Huh? I blinked. The words made no sense. I’d seen the body.
    â€œWhat do you mean, it wasn’t real?”
    Sean gave me a look that said he suspected I was hard of hearing. “It was a mannequin. One of those life-size dolls people use in store displays.”
    â€œI know what a mannequin is. Why was it there?”
    He shrugged. “That will be one of the first questions I ask when I arrest the person who did this. You’re sure you didn’t see any other cars?”
    â€œNo. I didn’t notice any other headlights, but I guess I could have missed someone who was driving without their headlights on.” Driving without headlights in the country was dangerous, but so was blowing up cars. Although they would have had to have driven in the opposite direction; otherwise, in my extreme haste to get here, I would have hit them. Somehow I didn’t think mentioning to a cop that I’d been breaking the speed limit was a good idea. So instead, I added, “I’m guessing the person who did this was on foot.”
    The book snapped shut. “Guessing doesn’t solve crimes. Police work based on evidence and well-developed deductive reasoning does.”
    My back stiffened at the condescending tone in Sean’s voice.
    â€œAmateurs like you rely on luck. The truth is, your attempts to help only get in the way of people like me who are trained and actually know what we’re doing.”
    His words waved a red cape in my head.
    â€œGot it?” he demanded.
    Sure, I got it. Sean Holmes didn’t want me anywhere near this case. Well, something told me Sean was going to be disappointed.
    *   *   *
    Sure enough, early the next morning I found myself delegating work so I could head back to the scene of the explosion. I couldn’t shake the fact I had missed something important at the scene. Sean would have a fit if he found me there, but curiosity beat out my fear of being arrested any day.
    Parking in the same spot as last night, I hopped out and looked around. Jimmy’s car was gone, which wasn’t going to help my investigation. Still, on an up note, so was Deputy Sean. Aside from two guys in a neighboring field, the place was deserted. No one was here to notice me as I stepped around the police tape and poked around.
    Aside from a lot of wet, trampled hay, there wasn’t much to look at. Black scorch marks from the fire darkened the ground, making a good outline of where Jimmy’s car had once sat. Now it was resting in car heaven. Meanwhile, I was shoe-deep in mud, trying to decide why.
    I walked around the scene, waiting for a psychic moment to hit and tell me who’d done it. Ten minutes later, there was no word from the great beyond. I decided to pack it in. Walking back through the field of hay, I once again realized how lucky the farmer who owned this place was. The fire last night had burned really hot. I’d been able to feel the heat coming off the car sitting in the middle of the field as I stood on the road. A fire like that should have torched everything in its path.
    So why hadn’t it?
    What would prevent fire from spreading through a hay field?
    Hand on my car, I pondered the question. Rain? No rain had fallen recently. The farmers eating at the diner had been complaining about the lack of moisture for the past two weeks. Besides, the heat wave would have kept the fields dry no matter how advanced the irrigation system. The unburned, very dry hay all around me made no sense.
    Unless someone had intentionally saved the field. Maybe the same someone who’d checked whether Jimmy had insurance before destroying his car? Of course, if that was the case, this was the