New release sample: BRIGHTEN YOUR CORNER
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“Investigator?” David blinked a few times. Hismouth moved like he was going to say something else, but didn’t.
“Yes, you remember our friend Eden, from whenCharlotte tried to move in with Cilla?” Melba said.
“Oh, yeah, right. I remember. You threw me offtrack. I’m talking about security for your house, keep someone from breaking in,or at least send for the cops if something happens, and you talk about that lunatic.”He chuckled, but the sound didn’t entirely convince Melba.
“Never to worry.” Cilla gestured at the back door.“Ted keeps an eye on things, and if he thinks the situation is dire enough we needa burglar alarm, he’ll help us with it. Not that we don’t appreciate your help,but he is a police officer, he lives here, and he knows how things are done.”
“Yeah, yeah,” he said with a grin that didn’tquite reach his eyes. “I’m big city and you’re little township, with nothing incommon.”
“I wouldn’t put it that way.” She chuckled. “Now,would you like to join us for dinner? I’ve got a lovely batch of chicken and potatowedges I put in the slow cooker this morning, and we’ve got the last of the cornon the cob from Dalrymple’s. Their corn is always so good.”
“Thanks, but …” David shrugged. “Got a businessmeeting on this side of town. Just thought I’d check on you before I headed overthere. You didn’t get back to me, so I figured maybe you were out of the house allday, or out of town or …” Another shrug. “Glad you’re okay and on top of things.”
He turned like he would head down the windingpath of paving stones through the middle of the garden, and out the back of theyard, then stopped after two steps and headed up the driveway to the street.
“Give our greetings to your folks,” Melba called.“How are they doing, by the way?”
“Fine, fine. You know how it is with them. Alwaysrunning around.” David walked backward a dozen steps as they made their farewells.He turned left at the end of the driveway and in a few steps vanished behind thehouse next door.
“Huh, that doesn’t make sense.”
“What doesn’t?” Cilla was already on the backporch and fumbling with her key. “How about dinner outside tonight? It’s cooleddown enough.”
“Fine.” Melba couldn’t recall seeing any carsparked on the street between Overview and their house, so where was David going?A sigh escaped her as she turned and headed down the path through the flowerbeds.She stopped halfway there, so she was partially hidden by the line of skinny evergreensthat stood as a threadbare sort of barrier between their back yard and the parkinglot of the apartment building behind them. Sure enough, she saw David jogging downthe sidewalk and turning left into the parking lot to a car parked next to the driveway.
He had come up through the backof the house, like he had done dozens of times before when he came over for picnicsor brought his parents for a family get-together, whenever relatives dropped infrom out of town. That explained why Heinrich went after him, coming through thetrees like that. The old curmudgeon certainly wouldn’t have believed David whenhe claimed he was there on a legitimate visit, if he didn’t come to the front door“like an honest man with nothing to hide,” as he often finished so many of his complaintsnowadays. But why didn’t David want them to know where he had parked?
