A Killer Deal (A Seagrove Cozy Mystery Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

threatened to call the police and stomped away.
     
    Sadie decided to wait awhile before crossing over to the shop. She didn’t want to run into George again anytime soon. She and Mr. B went to sit on a bench in the shade. She let Mr. B off his leash so he could sniff around while she sat. They’d done this many times and she had no fear of him running away or attacking anyone. She could hear the Frisbee throwers complaining about George and she looked over to see Chief Woodstone taking notes.
     
    “Mr. Bradshaw!”
     
    Rosie was coming up the path, her hands outreached and ready to pet Mr. B when she got near enough. Mr. B saw her coming and sat prettily so Rosie could pet him.
     
    “Good dog, Mr. Bradshaw,” she said and rubbed his head in a way that he particularly liked. “Shouldn’t you be in your shop?” Rosie asked Sadie.
     
    “It’s too beautiful to spend the day inside,” Sadie said. “I left a note on the door.”
     
    “So wise,” Rosie said. “Everyone should take in the sun when they can.” She seemed to notice that Sadie was in the shade. “Or the shade. The shade is good too.” She tottered on down the path.
     
    Sadie saw Olivia Brown talking with someone under a tree down by the creek that ran through the park. They seemed to be talking very quietly so that no one else could hear. Sadie wondered what that was about. Probably something to do with organic farming, and not something Sadie should be worrying herself about. She called Mr. Bradshaw and clipped him back on his leash. The Frisbee boys looked at her curiously as she passed by, but they didn’t say anything to her.
     
    When they crossed back over the street, Chief Woodstone was waiting for them outside her shop, holding what could only be called a contraption. Sadie looked closer, this looked like contraption she’d bought on her last trip to Montana.
     
    “Is that my electric branding iron?” She asked.
     
    “I don’t know, is it?” Chief Woodstone asked in return. He lifted one dark eyebrow over a brilliant blue eye.
     
    “You’d better come in,” Sadie said. “Conducting police business on the sidewalk is not, as my mother would say, proper.”
     
    She unlocked the door and held it open for the Chief, but he gestured her in ahead of him. He put his hand on the door to hold it for her and she was reminded how very tall he was, and also how very short she was. However, she wouldn’t hold it against him. Not everyone could be compact and full of energy like Mr. Bradshaw and herself.
     
    They made their way through Sadie’s “treasures,” including a suit of armor from Yee Olde England, and a rather large and rusty water trough from Montana. The water trough was probably just junk, but Sadie had fallen in love with it and brought it home anyway. At the back of the shop was a 1960s Formica-topped kitchen table that she used when examining smaller treasures, she and Chief Woodstone sat on the red and white vinyl covered chairs. Chief Woodstone put the electric branding iron on the table between them.
     
    “I would have thought an electric branding iron was an impractical tool,” the chief said. “No electricity out where cows are branded.”
     
    “I’ve only ever seen this one,” Sadie said. “I’m not sure if some knucklehead thought they would sell, or if it was meant as a toy of some sort, or for burning wood instead of cattle. It’s on my list to research, but I haven’t gotten to it yet. But I never sold it so why do you have it?”
     
    “It was found in the dumpster out back,” the chief said. “Remember the burns on Roger’s chest?”
     
    “They were made with this?” Sadie felt cold and more than a little sick to her stomach. “But I never sold it.” She got up and pulled out a drawer. Sure enough, it wasn’t there.
     
    “Someone stole it and used it to kill Roger Roberts?” She sat back down and put her head in her hands. She thought she might cry, but then she realized she was