Drowning in Amber (A Marie Jenner Mystery Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

call and let you know what we decide. Tonight.”
    “Why don’t you come to my place,” she said. “I’ve got more sketches there. You can look at them, too, before you make your decision.” She grabbed a pen and scribbled on the edge of one of her sketches. “Here’s my address,” she said. “Come by about nine.”
    “Nine?” James said.
    “Nine,” Honoria repeated. “I have to work.”
    She reached her hand over the desk. James stared, and then slowly took it, and shook it, once. And then, she was gone.
    “Can you explain to me why we should take that case?” James asked, almost before the door closed on our newest almost client.
    “Shhh. She might hear you.”
    We sat in silence for what felt like enough time to let Honoria trundle down the stairs and out the front door to the street. Then I turned to him and tried to explain, in my overwhelmingly unhelpful way.
    “We need the money, James. And I don’t think she did it.”
    Short, sweet, and to the point. Though I wasn’t really too sure about the last bit. She could have done it, for all I knew. But I wanted to hear who had done it, from the ghost’s mouth, and it looked like Honoria was going to be able to help me find him.
    “Do you really think she’s innocent?” James asked, looking about as unsure as I felt. “The cops—they have instincts about things like this. There has to be a reason she’s a person of interest.”
    “For heaven’s sake, she can’t weigh more than 100 pounds! How could she have hung that guy in the tree?”
    He shook his head. “I don’t know. All that talk about visions and things. That all sounds crazy. Right?”
    “Yeah, right,” I snapped, sudden anger flooding through me. I’d heard those words all my life. Those words were the reason I’d moved away from home and to Edmonton, and they were the last words in the world I wanted to hear coming out of his mouth. “Anyone you don’t understand must be crazy.”
    “Well, what do you think’s going on with her?” he asked, and I could hear anger in his voice. If I didn’t get off this track, we were going to fight again, and I didn’t want to fight.
    “I think there’s more out there in the world than we know,” I replied, doing my level best to drive the emotion from my voice. “And maybe we need to just believe her, for the moment.”
    “Seriously?” He laughed, and it bumped up against the anger still rolling through my veins until I thought I’d blow a gasket. “She’s been in and out of mental institutions all her life. That doesn’t make you think she’s crazy?”
    “No.” I stared down at the top of the desk, at the sketches Honoria had left. “There’s something else going on here. Just call it a feeling.”
    I picked up the sketches with shaking fingers and rolled them into a tube. “I’m going to go and check this place out,” I said. “Maybe there’s someone there who can tell me something.”
    “This is the definition of a wild goose chase, you know,” he said.
    “I don’t care what you think,” I said. “I told her we’d help, and we’re going to help. At least, I am.”
    I whirled and headed for the door. His voice stopped me.
    “So you really think we can figure this out?”
    I shrugged. “Honestly? I don’t know. But I have to try.”
    “Want me to come with?”
    The last thing in the world I needed was James watching me interact with a ghost. “Why don’t you just rest? It won’t take me long.”
    He looked relieved. “But you’ll get back in time for our next meeting with our client, right?”
    I looked at my watch. “Just about,” I said. “If the buses are running on time.”
    “Do you want to take the car?”
    “What?”
    I was surprised. That Volvo—which his dead Uncle Jimmy had left him in his will—was his pride and joy.
    “I asked if you wanted to use the car.”
    “Well, yeah.” Then I frowned. “Are you sure?”
    “Will it get you back here quicker than the bus?”
    I grinned in