Murder by the Seaside Read Online Free Page B

worked for the FBI,” I explained. “Past tense. I’m a counselor now. Maybe I could offer to talk with you later about how you’re handling all this?”
    “There’s nothing wrong with me. I need you to clear his name. My son is innocent. He needs you, Patience. If you ever loved him at all, how could you let him go to jail for something he didn’t do? Adrian isn’t a criminal.” Tears coated her eyes and my blood pressure dropped a fraction.
    “Look, Mrs. Davis. Even if I wanted to help, I can’t. I’m not in law enforcement. I worked in human resources. I interviewed new hires and arranged fundraisers. Sometimes they sent me to colleges to recruit people. I’m no investigator. I’m hardly the one you’d want responsible for Adrian’s well-being.”
    Inch-long black roots sprouted into cherry-red tips on her head. Her hair never stayed the same long. She still stuffed a size fourteen body into size ten shorts though. Years of tanning showed in the wrinkles over her aging face. Owning a tanning salon on an island seemed like a bad idea to me, but Sunny Daze Salon was always busy.
    She shifted under my gaze and cleared her throat. “You always did hold a grudge, Patience Price. I know you planned to run away together. You wanted to keep him from being all he could be. Selfish. You wanted a partner to run around with, ignoring civic responsibility, avoiding education, and destroying any hope of a decent future for the both of you. What if he had gone with you? Where would you be? Not working for the FBI. Not holding a master’s degree. He wouldn’t have played college ball for four years or graduated from a good school—with honors. You’d both be broke and probably divorced after a shotgun wedding somewhere. I’d be raising your kids and you’d be reading cards with your mom.”
    Blood boiled under my cheeks. “Adrian never talked to me about college. I didn’t even know he applied.” I kicked myself every day for years over that. Thanks to my parents’ obsession with island life, the only thing I thought about back then was leaving town. College seemed like something I could do later when I settled on the West Coast or in Canada. How was I supposed to know Adrian went home at night to fill out applications so he could attend immediately? He deceived me, made me look stupid and feel worse. I should’ve been the one with college plans. I was the levelheaded one, darn it.
    “I was never angry he went to college. I was mad he lied to me. One minute we had plans for a life together, the next minute he’s playing ball in Florida. I never saw it coming. He duped me. It won’t happen again.”
    Mrs. Davis jolted upright and snatched up her purse before I could toss her down my steps. Shotgun wedding . Jeez. Who said that to someone?
    She knocked the screen door open with a loud bang and yelled at me on her way to the sidewalk. “Help my boy. You owe him that!”
    If there was anything in my reach, I would have lobbed it at her. I slammed my door shut and locked it. No wonder Adrian was a creep. His mother was the devil. I dragged the folding chair around and grabbed my laptop again. Raising my kids? I’d never let her touch my kids. They’d be better off being raised by wolves.
    I closed my eyes and took deep, calming breaths. Counting backward from ten, I opened my eyes and resolved to be thankful she didn’t wind up as my mother-in-law. Eyes back on the search engine, I typed Adrian Davis . He appeared in old articles from his football days. Then in some technology magazine for building the winning fighter robot during grad school. I’d read all those years ago. I sorted the search results, starting with the most recent. His face appeared in various local papers, endorsing everything from the Humane Society to literacy. He donated to St. Jude and his alma mater. He even did a public speaking stint through state high schools about scholarships and dream chasing.
    I knew there was a reason I had