When The Spirit Moves You (The Jeff Resnick Mysteries) Read Online Free

there’s a body buried in the yard.”
    “ Oh, God,” Richard groused and downed what was left in his glass with one gulp.
    “ I was going to search the yard before I left, but the bitch called my bluff. I’d told her to call the cops and she produced a cell phone and pretended to do it. Only they never showed.”
    “ So what happens next?” Richard asked.
    “ Like I said, I think there’s a body buried in the yard. No one’s going to believe me unless I can come up with some kind of proof.
    “ I don’t like the sound of this,” Richard said, and why would he? Thanks to my escapades he’d been shot, and now had the death threat of HIV hanging over his head.
    “ Don’t worry,” I said. “I’m not asking you to come with me—in fact, I don’t want you to come. But if I can bring back some kind of evidence that you can identify as being human—say a bone—maybe you could go with me to the Clarence Police Department when I report it.”
    “ Do you honestly think I’m going to let you go digging for evidence alone?” Richard asked.
    “ Why are either of you even considering going to that house?” Brenda cried.
    I gave her what I hoped was a patient look. “Brenda, if a murder has taken place, then justice needs to be served.” Geeze, I sounded like some kind of sanctimonious asshole right off a TV drama.
    “ And why is it always you that needs to be the catalyst for justice? Why can’t somebody else play Superman?” Now she sounded like Sophie.
    “ No red cape and blue tights?” I suggested.
    She glared at me.
    “ What made you suspicious of this woman in the first place?”
    “ I got weird vibes going into that house. When I asked her about it, she blew me off.”
    Richard frowned and shook the ice in his glass, as though hoping Brenda would take the hint and make him another drink. She didn’t. Finally he got up and poured his own Scotch. “Okay, say the woman killed that guy. What are the odds she’ll be armed if you show up?” he asked as he slopped Lagavulin over ice.
    “ I wouldn’t put it past her. The entry was stained with what looked like a lot of blood.”
    “ You two are not seriously thinking of going out there tonight to investigate, are you?” Brenda asked.
    “ She knows I know something,” I pointed out. “She knows she’s got to hide the evidence.”
    “ And what if she’s digging up the evidence when you arrive?” Brenda insisted.
    “ That would be the perfect time to call the cops and have them catch her in the act.”
    “ And if she doesn’t dig up the evidence?” she demanded.
    “ Then we can call the cops.” I paused. Hadn’t I already decided Richard shouldn’t participate, and yet here I was including him in my plans. “It’s a win-win situation.”
    Brenda shook her head. “Oh, no-no-no. Things never work out that neatly.”
    “ Maybe, maybe not. But we’ve got to give it a try,” Richard agreed.
    “ No, you don’t. Call the police!”
    “ But I’ve got no tangible proof. They don’t treat gut feelings as real evidence.”
    The pasta threatened to boil over and Brenda turned to tend to it.
    I sipped my bourbon and looked at my physician brother. He already had a potential death threat hanging over his head, thanks to being exposed to a bloodied, high-risk patient and no latex protection between his hands and the dying man. Still, there was no denying the longing in his eyes, begging to be involved—to feel alive—especially at a time when he might be looking at his own mortality.
    I wanted to protect my brother, but could I deny him the chance to live at a time when he wasn’t sure what his future might bring?
    “ What’s the plan?” Richard asked.
    Brenda glared at him, but I sensed that she understood that it was up to Richard to decide his own fate.
    “ For now, we assess the situation. There’s no reason we have to hurry on this.” And yet as soon as I said that I knew that time was running out for finding the remains …