Whisper of Revenge (A Cape Trouble Novel Book 4) Read Online Free Page B

you should go to Colburn.  Just in case there’s an
escalation.”
    “An escalation.”  She sounded like an idiot.
    “What if you say no to the wrong person?  How’s he going to
take it?”
    “You’re scaring me.”
    He huffed with frustration.  “I’m trying to.”
    “I…”  Remembering her shock when she saw the mug – never
mind the puppy – she sighed.  “All right.  I guess it won’t hurt anything.”
    “Have him come by here.  Maybe your admirer will see him and
back off.”
    “Chief Colburn is a pretty regular customer, so that’s
unlikely.”
    Elias grimaced.  “Okay.  Hannah…”  He glanced toward the
other room again, rolled his shoulders and said, “This is lousy timing.”
    She frowned at him in perplexity.  “For what?”
    He looked into her eyes for a long moment, then shook his
head.  “Never mind.  Ah, I’d like to be here when you talk to Colburn, though.”
    She felt odd, as if a cavity inside her had filled with
helium that might have her rising gently toward the ceiling.  Except…she
thought it might be hope.  Had Elias Burton considered asking her out?
    But a deep breath displaced anything silly like hope. 
“Sure.  I’ll call him right now.”
    Wonderful.  All the man of her dreams wanted was to be sure
she didn’t downplay her fears to the police chief.  Good to know he cared.  Not
so good that he thought she was downplaying what should be real worry.
    A band tightened around her chest.  He was right.  The puppy
had been an attempt to get to her using her child.  The thought chilled her. 
She didn’t want this man, whoever he was, anywhere near Ian.
    She went to find her phone.
     
     

CHAPTER TWO
     
    Settling down to think, Daniel Colburn stacked his feet on
his desk at the police station and stared straight ahead at the blank wall
above metal file cabinets.  There was a lot about Hannah Moss’s story that he
needed to consider.
    Starting with his surprise that Elias Burton of all people
had been the one to press Hannah to call him.  In Daniel’s experience, Elias
wasn’t big on community involvement.  Yes, he’d readily agreed to supply the
auction artwork for the Save Misty Beach campaign, which brought in a whole lot
of money, and, yes, he’d gone so far as attend the auction held over in
Portland.  But even at the event, he had somehow remained aloof.  He had a way
of seeming alone even when surrounded by other people.
    Daniel’s first acquaintance with him hadn’t been positive. 
He’d had to briefly consider the possibility that, twenty years before, a
teenage Elias Burton had murdered a summer visitor named Michelle Thomsen. 
He’d been one of the first people to reach Michelle’s then ten-year-old
daughter who had found her mother’s body and screamed until she had to be
sedated.  Elias hadn’t even denied being obsessed with Michelle.  He’d worked
that summer at Misty Beach Resort, where Michelle brought her daughter every
year for a three month stay.  That many years later, uncovering the killer had
seemed unlikely, but Daniel had been falling in love with a grown-up Sophie
Thomsen and was determined to bring her peace.  Elias had been cooperative but
hard to read, uneasy with questions about how he’d felt about Michelle. 
Sophie’s prickly reaction to Elias had muddied the waters.
    In the year since, Daniel had come to believe the artist was
a decent guy, just a loner.  There was nothing wrong with his desire to keep to
himself.
    So what had happened to have him stopping near daily at
Sweet Ideas to buy chocolate truffles, of all things?  Daniel had seen him
there often enough to awaken his curiosity, and there’d been a buzz around town
about Elias’s new-found fascination with books, chocolate…or the redheaded
proprietor of Sweet Ideas.  He wondered if Elias had any idea how much talk
there was.
    This business of a secret admirer…  Daniel didn’t much like
it.  How were presents supposed to