Vampire Wake (Kiera Hudson Series #2) Read Online Free Page B

better get a warrant and come back and seize the lot. What do you reckon, Constable Miles?”
    “Gee, and there seems to be so many pretty items in this shop to go through,” Sparky said looking at owner. “It could take months to work our way through all this stuff – I mean this place could be closed down for God knows how long!”
    “Okay, okay,” the man sighed. “He came in last Thursday with it.”
    “Who did?” I asked.
    “Didn’t give his name,” he said.
    “CCTV?” John asked.
    The man nodded.
    “We’ll be taking that, and the ring,” I said, and held out my hand.
    We drove back to my rented room, and while John fixed us both up with a mug of coffee and a sandwich, I watched the CCTV disc on my DVD player. There was a camera right above the counter and it gave a clear view of anyone that approached it. I sped through the disc to the previous Thursday. At 15:22 hours that day, my man came into the shop and produced Mrs. Lovelace’s ring.
    “I have him!” I shouted over my shoulder at John.
    After a quick call to the number I had taken from Mrs. Lovelace’s phone, I sat back in my favourite chair by the window, with John sitting opposite me, and we waited. Within half an hour, the buzzer on the door below sounded. Pressing the intercom button, I told the caller to come up. Leaving my door ajar, I went back to my seat. Moments later, a plump-looking middle-aged man, wearing overalls and muddy boots, stepped into my room. His hands were rough and dirty-looking, with mud under his fingernails.
    “Mr. David Evans?” I asked, not getting up from my seat. “Owner of ‘Tidy Gardens’ who can be contacted via Tidy Gardens dot com, whose business address is fifteen Hayfields Road, Havensfield?”
    “Why, yes,” he said, looking at both me and Sparky. “You called me about some gardening that you need done?”
    “That’s correct,” I said, not taking my eyes from his.
    “But I don’t understand,” he said, scratching his untidy hair, “you live in a flat – you don’t have a garden.”
    “No, I just like watching people dig themselves holes,” I said back at him.
    Looking at me totally confused, Evans said, “Is this some kind of joke?”
    Placing Mrs. Lovelace’s wedding ring onto the small coffee table that sat between Sparky and me, I said, “I don’t think stealing from a seventy-eight-year-old woman is a joke.”
    The gardener looked down at the ring then back at me, his face white – the colour of paper. He opened and closed his mouth like a drowning fish.
    “What have you got to say about that?” I asked him.
    “‘I-I don’t know…” he stammered. “I’ve never seen it before.”
    Snatching up the ring, I said, “Have it your way, Mr. Evans, but this gentleman over here is a police officer and is ready to take you into custody.”
    Hearing this, Evans dropped to his knees at my feet and gripped my ankles.
    “Please, I beg you!” he cried. “This will ruin me – my family and my business!”
    Kicking him away, I shouted, “Pull yourself together, man. It’s only yourself you have to blame for the situation that you now find yourself in. You have tears of pity in your eyes, now that you have been caught – but where were your tears for Mrs. Lovelace?”
    Still on his knees, Evans looked at me and, through his tears, he said, “I’m so sorry. I have been a fool. These last few months or more have been difficult for me. What with the credit crunch, most of my business has dried up. People can’t afford to have their gardens tended to by me. It’s a luxury that most people can now ill afford.”
    Showing him no pity, I said, “And so it is hard for millions of people up and down the length of the country, but do they all take to stealing from the elderly to supplement their wages?”
    Sniffing, the man wiped his eyes with his dirty hands. “No they don’t – but you must understand, I was desperate. Never before have I stolen anything. But I am behind with my