Fugitive Filling Read Online Free Page B

apologies as he quickly joined me on the other side. Stephen took it in stride. “You can sit there if you’d like.”
    “No, sir. I appreciate the offer, but you’ve got the responsibilities now, so that makes it your seat. I’m more than happy to sit on the other side.”
    “That’s one of the things that I wanted to talk to you about,” Stephen said gravely.
    “Would you like me to step outside?” I offered.
    “No. This concerns you as well, so I’d like you to stay, if you don’t mind.”
    “It’s fine with me,” I said, trying not to let them both know that I’d just been bluffing. If either man had tried to take me up on my offer to leave, I would have found an excuse to stay put. There was no way that I was going to miss whatever it was the police chief had to say.

Chapter 3
    “I s there any reason in particular you two were taking pictures of the crime scene with your phones when I showed up earlier?” Chief Grant asked nonchalantly.
    I was about to deny it when Jake said, “I thought it was the prudent thing for us to do. We’re going to dig into this case on our own, if that’s okay with you.”
    So much for us keeping a low profile.
    “Just because the murder happened in Suzanne’s building?” the chief asked his former boss and mentor.
    “I’m afraid there’s more to it than that. If you haven’t heard this news yet, you’re going to find out soon enough, so if it’s all the same to you, I’d rather you heard from me first.”
    “I’m listening,” he said, folding his fingers into a tent in front of him. He didn’t show much reaction, and I wondered if the new job wasn’t maturing him already.
    “Last night Teresa Logan tried to kiss me in front of the Boxcar, and I overreacted.”
    “That’s not what I believe. I think you reacted exactly the right amount,” I said.
    Stephen sighed a moment. “How exactly did you overreact?”
    “I yelled at her and called her a few names that I’m not particularly proud of now, but I was upset.”
    “That she tried to kiss you?” the chief asked, his glance darting over to me for a moment to gauge my own reaction to the conversation. As a change of pace if nothing else, I was keeping my cool, at least for the moment.
    “Let me guess. There were witnesses,” the chief said slowly.
    “At least three that I noticed immediately, but perhaps more,” Jake admitted.
    “So, that not only makes you look suspicious,” he said as he looked at Jake, “but it makes you a suspect, too,” the police chief said as he turned to me.
    “I didn’t have any reason to kill her! I just found out about what happened today.”
    “So of course, your first reaction was to storm down there and confront her about what happened,” he said.
    “Would you expect me to do anything less after hearing that particular bit of news?” I asked him pointedly.
    “Take it easy, Suzanne. I’m not the enemy here. I’m just trying to establish a timeline as to what happened and when. After Jake told you what happened, I’m guessing that you weren’t going there to congratulate Teresa on her taste in men,” the police chief said.
    “I was going to evict her, and then I was going to teach her a lesson about trying to steal someone else’s husband, but I wasn’t going there to kill her.”
    “Chief, I didn’t tell her until half an hour ago,” Jake said, “and that’s the truth.”
    “I believe you both, but you know how folks around here are going to react. They’re going to naturally assume that you went straight home and told Suzanne what happened last night. Why didn’t you, by the way?”
    Jake looked a little sheepish as he explained, “At first I thought it might all just blow over. After all, I spanked Teresa pretty hard when I rejected her. I figured she’d accept my rejection and leave me alone once and for all, so there was no reason dragging Suzanne into it.”
    “What made you change your mind today?” he asked, this time avoiding all