Random Acts of Murder: A Holly Anna Paladin Mystery, Book 1 (Holly Anna Paladin Mysteries) Read Online Free

who’d had a crush on him. He’d found out about it and made me miserable.
    “I never made fun of you, Holly Anna.” His voice sounded smooth and serious. But he’d just called me Holly Anna again, so any points he’d won with his supposed sincerity immediately disappeared . . . and then some.
    “Please stop calling me that.”
    “It’s your name.”
    “A very ill -fated name. My parents had a twisted sense of humor.”
    “I’ve always thought it fit you.”
    I gripped my briefcase with one hand and knocked at the door with the other. “I don’t view life through rose-colored glasses, thank you very little.”
    “A little testy today, aren’t we?”
    “I don’t want to talk to you anymore.” So much for going the mature route. I banged on the door again, a little harder than I intended, which was especially noticeable since my knuckles throbbed. “Why aren’t they answering? I told them I was coming today. You’d think—”
    Before I had the chance to finish my statement, a loud pop sounded.
    “Get down!” Chase threw me on the rough cement slab of the porch.
    I looked up just in time to see a gun peeking through the window of an old Cadillac on the street in f ront of us. The gun was aimed . . . at me.

 
     
     
     
     
    CHAPTER 4
    Once the drive-by shooter emptied four bullets and squealed away, Chase and I both pulled ourselves back to our feet and faced each other on the lopsided porch. Reality hadn’t quite sunk in yet. What had just happened?
    “Are you okay?” Chase asked , concern filling his eyes.
    I nodded, although I wasn’t nearly that certain. “Yes.”
    “You have a cut on your forehead.”
    I reached into my purse and pulled out a handkerchief with an H embroidered on the corner. I tried to find my injury when Chase reached out to help. I flinched when his fingers touched mine.
    “Hold that there a moment,” he instructed, pressing the handkerchief into my temple.
    He radioed the incident in before turning back to me.
    Chase’s steely gaze latched onto mine. “Why in the world would someone shoot at you?”
    I shook my head, erasing the fog in my head like a picture from an Etch A Sketch. I pictured Katrina’s house. I remembered what I’d done. Was this somehow connected? “I don’t know. Coincidence?”
    “Is there anyone who might want to hurt you?”
    “My sister is an assistant district attorney who’s put countless criminals behind bars. My brother is running for state senate, where his viewpoints have angered about half of the people in the state. And in my former job as a CPS investigator, I routinely took children away from homes where their parents were violent. You narrow it down.”
    He shifted his weight and sighed. “Is there anyone specifically that you can think of?”
    I shook my head and took a deep breath, willing myself to calm down and act like the lady I knew I was. “No. I haven’t been threatened directly, if that’s what you’re asking.”
    A couple of forensic techs arrived on the scene. Chase patted my arm and excused himself to go talk to them. I watched him interact and realized something seemed different about him. Had he grown up? It was doubtful.
    He wrapped up the conversation , and the techs began collecting and documenting evidence—evidence like bullets, shell casings, and skid marks. A couple more officers showed up, as well as a detective who got a statement from me before questioning neighbors. In the meantime, the homeowners still weren’t here, and if they’d merely told me in the first place they weren’t available, all of this mayhem could have been avoided.
    Mainly, Chase could have been avoided.
    I wiped the dirt from my dress again, an exercise in futility if there ever was one. The clothing was ruined, and I just needed to accept that. I needed to accept a lot of things, for that matter, but sometimes issues should just be ignored for sanity’s sake.
    “Can I go now?”
    He stared at me like the big brooding