Tried & True (Mayfield Cozy Mystery Book 5) Read Online Free

something there.” Josh’s tone turned ruminative. “Any hint of weakness, and it’d be blood in the water. It’d be all over for that leader. Huh. Yeah.”
    I chewed my lip, but I was going to have to tell Josh at some point. He deserved my complete honesty. “I heard from Skip again.” I squeezed my eyes shut and plowed ahead—because if I stopped talking I would surely lose the courage. “He returned his wedding ring several days ago—in the mail, sent from Twin Falls, Idaho. And there was a note.”
    After the ring had fallen out of the packet and thunked on the kitchen table, I hadn’t stuck around to examine the envelope. I’d hightailed it outside for a good cry in the woods. Clarice had had the prudence to thoroughly investigate and brought the note to me later that evening.
    She’d sat silently on the side of my bed with a fierce scowl on her wrinkled face—a fortifying presence—while I’d read Skip’s words. And grown so furious that I couldn’t cry anymore. At least the note meant he was still alive, even though it was all about business matters and didn’t explain his motives regarding the return of his wedding ring.
    Josh remained blessedly quiet, and I pressed on. “Did Skip ever hint to you that he thought his corporate lawyer, Freddy Blandings, might be a mole? Not for the FBI, but for at least one of his money laundering clients?”
    “Whoa. Back up,” Josh breathed. “First off, no. Because I had no idea Skip was working on the wrong side of the law until he disappeared. Then, hindsight, yeah, all his questions and interest in my investigations of organized crime syndicates made sense. But isn’t this Blandings guy still involved? I thought I’d heard he was contesting the declared bankruptcy of Turbo-Tidy in court.”
    “Grubby-fingered weasel,” I grumbled.
    “Why, Nora? Why is he making such a fuss?” Josh’s voice rose with excitement. “Think about that. Who’s he really working for? You already suspected he wasn’t really representing the best interests of Skip’s company. So he’s either working for himself or someone else.” It was Josh’s turn to speak in rapid-fire sequence. “You could turn him. Put pressure on him—financial, obviously, and maybe in other ways. I can’t get any dirt on him now since my clearances have been revoked. But it could be big. You just found out?”
    Now I felt guilty about sitting on the information for over a week. But it had just been speculation. Neither Clarice nor I had been sure what to make of it.
    I should have known better though. My entire, rather shaky, plans for the past couple months had been based on nothing more solid than speculation.
    Josh inhaled deeply as though to steady himself, then he paced his instructions methodically. “You’ll have to go through official channels for this. Talk to Matt. He needs to get in touch with the judge handling the disbursement of Turbo-Tidy’s assets immediately. Gum up the wheels of justice with some inane paperwork to give yourselves time.”
    I scrabbled to take notes. Even though Josh was talking off the top of his head, he was operating in a completely different realm.
    Maybe Josh knew my husband better than I did. They’d roomed together in college and had extended the friendship into their professional careers. Josh’s excitement made me wonder if Skip was, in his remote way, teaching me how to know his—and therefore, my—enemies, including their fears. Skip seemed to have mastered the art of manipulating people, and from the tone of his last note, it sounded as though he expected me to do it too.
    Josh paused. “Got it?”
    I fixed my chicken scratch handwriting in a few places. “Mmhmm.”
    “I’m sorry I can’t be hands-on with Blandings. But I wouldn’t do you any good there. Call me the moment you hear from Ebersole, okay? Let me handle the details in my role as spokesman.” Josh gave me a phone number to pass on to Ebersole. “I want to control the