Page 14 of Dead and a Best Friend
With a purposeful stride, I crossed the town square quickly and, before I knew it, jogged up the front steps of City Hall.
Just my luck to bump into our esteemed mayor, who had been having a secret affair with my brother who had dressed as a buxom blonde. Discovering the secret life my brother led had been a shock in more ways than one.
"Miss James," Mayor Murphy said, blushing. "Is everything all right?" His eyes fluttered from the entrance to City Hall back to me.
"Just dandy," I replied, tempted to rush on. However, I asked, "Is Louisa Hawke still working for you? I haven't seen her recently."
"She does. However, she has taken an extended leave to visit her family in Alaska."
"Oh, how wonderful." I smiled. "If you'll excuse me, I have an appointment."
The mayor glared at my back as I quickly pushed through the door of City Hall. I turned briefly to see if he was still there. He was. I gave him a small wave, which he ignored.
I grinned as I turned and headed into the sheriff's office. Much to my delight, I found Oliver standing there. My smile widened at the sight of him. "Just the man I came to see."
Oliver smiled and opened the door to the inner sanctum. "It's nice to see you, Tallulah. I hope you are doing well."
"I am. Thanks, Oliver."
He showed me into his office and offered me a seat.
"So, what can I do for you?" he asked, taking his own seat.
"I'll get right to the point. Why are there three detectives from out-of-town sniffing around Sugar Briar?"
Oliver winced. "If anyone else had asked, I would have stayed quiet about it." He sighed. "But as it's you, and I trust you, I'll tellyou. They're looking for someone and something. It's all related to Aiden."
The color drained from my face to my toes. The "something" had to be the money, and the "someone" had to be the creepy guy. I hoped I was wrong, but I had a feeling I was right.
"Tallulah, why do I get the feeling that you know what's going on?"
"I don't. Not really." I winced when I noticed that Oliver had narrowed his focus. Squirming in my seat wouldn't help, so I forced myself to sit still.
"Tell me what you do know."
"I don't know anything."
"Tallulah, I haven't had reason not to trust you, so please don't give me reason now. Yes, I'm the sheriff, but I'd like to think we're friends."
"We are friends." I sagged into the chair, knowing I could trust him. However, I'd promised Pen not to say anything, which made things awkward. “Can you tell me what’s going on that would warrant out-of-town detectives snooping around? Then I promise to be honest with you about what little I do know. Or rather, what I think I know."
He sighed, twitching his lips. "It has come to light that Aiden took money that didn't belong to him. An ex-con named Angel is rumored to be in town looking for it. He's a dangerous man, and Detective Riley has been trying to catch him doing something illegal to send him back to prison. His team followed Angel to Sugar Briar.”
"I heard about a guy after some money, but I hoped the rumor was wrong." Dear Lord! What had Penelope gotten involved in? “How much money are we talking about here? I heard it was around a hundred thousand dollars."
Oliver scoffed. "Try two million."
My mouth dropped open in shock. "Two million—" I couldn't finish the sentence. My mind reeled at the thought of such a large sum of money. But what on earth was going on? Someone was lying, and it wasn't Penelope.
"Who told you how much money is missing?"
"Why does that matter?"
"Because I think someone is lying about the amount."
“Want to tell me why you think that?”
“Not really," I blurted out.
