Spit In The Ocean: A Laid-Back Bay Area Mystery (The Jake Samson & Rosie Vicente Detective Series Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

didn’t know there was such a thing. You mean that’s really a poodle?”
    “Yes.” I tried to get away.
    “I’ll be damned. Smart dog, I’ll bet. Well, I like dogs, just as long as he doesn’t make a mess.”
    “She’s a she. And she weighs seventy pounds. Thanks for being so understanding. I’m kind of wet and I’d like to see my friend.”
    He raised his hands in a don’t-let-me-stop-you gesture, and I stepped out of the puddle I had been making in front of his desk.
    I went to Rosie’s room first, and knocked. Alice whined quietly in greeting, and Rosie opened the door. She was wrapped in a big purple terry-cloth robe and her short dark hair was wet.
    “I’m glad you came up early,” I said. I noticed our rooms had a connecting door. “I’m going to go get dried off a bit, then we can talk. Looks like you got wet too.”
    “Just a little,” she said wryly. “You know that spot on 101 in San Rafael?”
    “The part that floods?”
    “Uh-huh. It had, and that was where I got the flat tire. Fortunately, I did get an early start. The storm’s not going to let up tonight and I was afraid I wouldn’t be able to get through at all.”
    “I’m glad you did. We’ve got an interesting one this time.”
    I went to my own room, toweled myself dry, and put on fresh clothes. Dry socks helped a lot. I knocked on the connecting door.
    Rosie had had the foresight to stop somewhere and get a six-pack of beer, remarkable foresight, I thought, under the circumstances. She was dressed, now, in a sweater and corduroy pants. The bulk of her clothing didn’t conceal the strength or the softness of a body that turned the heads of various genders. Not spectacular, mind you, but very tidy. We cracked a couple of the beers and I told her what we had so far. Which reminded me that Nora was expecting one person for dinner, not two and a dog. I dialed the home number she’d given me and left a message on her answering machine. Then I got back to our discussion of the case.
    “Where do you think we should start?” Rosie wanted to know.
    “With some hip boots,” I groused. I turned on Rosie’s transistor radio. Sure enough, more weather. A big ugly front out over the Pacific.
    I left the radio on low. “We need to get to know the people in this town. We need to check out the religious fanatics the chief mentioned. We need to talk to the kid who found the stuff at the beach before Paisley got there. Oh, hell, you know. We need to be able to walk through town without using oars.”
    “What time’s dinner?”
    I told her.
    “We’ve got a while, then. We could spend some time in a local tavern, catching the gossip.”
    That’s one of the things I love about working with Rosie. We think alike.
    Still, I wasn’t eager to go out into the storm again.
    “Let’s finish these beers first, okay? It’s dry in here.”
    “You’re such a tough guy, Jake.”
    “Never said I was. Never will say so. People start expecting tough, a guy could get hurt.”
    We both remembered a few times when the guy had, indeed, gotten hurt.
    “Okay, so what we’re dealing with is several different possibilities.”
    “Right.”
    “It’s a prank, like the chief says. It’s the work of someone with religious convictions. It’s someone trying to get to Nora or to her company and covering up their real motives.”
    “Right.” I finished my beer and stood up, ready to go again. “Or it’s something else.”

– 5 –
    It was still raining, but not quite as hard, and the wind had died down somewhat. According to the Chevy’s radio, though, the lull was just that and the storm was going to have plenty more to offer before the night was over.
    I remembered seeing a tavern not far from the police station. It was certainly not the only one in town, but at least I knew where it was. We parked on the street, right in front of an antique store with plywood nailed over its display window. The grocery store on the other side of the tavern was