Sealed with a Hiss, Addison Moore [best e book reader for android txt] 📗

of my employees, Nessa and Grady, are busy helping a crowd of guests, so I bypass them and head out into the icy February night. The sky is clear, but it’s definitely cold enough to snow if we had a good storm. We’re right on the cove, so the snow doesn’t stick as long as I’d like it to.

Just outside the inn sits a tall three-tiered fountain with pink lights in honor of the heart-shaped holiday upon us. The inn is a palatial structure, and surrounding it are over three dozen cottages, one of which I happen to share with Jasper and our two fur babies.

I glance in that direction, and something right in front of my cottage catches my eye. It’s about a five-minute walk, so I start in on a decent jog until the jumble lying in front of my driveway begins to take shape and a breath gets locked in my throat.

Lying on the ground before me are both Chip and Bobbie Buckingham. And judging by the blood pooling around them, there may just be a real need for that casket yet.

Make that two.

Chapter 3

A sharp scream escapes me. It feels innate, an autonomic response that I have no control over, and oddly, it feels as if I’m watching myself and this entire horrific nightmare unfold from somewhere in the navy sky.

Fish lets out an ear-piercing yowl. Run, Bizzy! In the other direction!

Sherlock barks and snaps as he scampers over to the bodies, and his barks quickly dissipate to whimpers.

No sooner do I stagger my way closer to the couple splayed over the ground than both Jasper and his friend, Deputy Leo Granger, materialize. Jasper checks Chip’s vitals and shakes his head up at me, letting me know it’s too late to save him. But Leo checks Bobbie’s vitals repeatedly before hovering his cheek above her nostrils.

Curled in Bobbie’s left hand is a sleek black handgun, and it takes my breath away once I spot it.

“She’s alive!” Leo shouts, and soon Jasper is calling it in.

It all feels like a dizzying nightmare as the sirens saw through the icy night. The seizure of blue and red flashing lights illuminates our small corner of the world, and soon an entire tribe of EMTs is hauling Bobbie into the back of a waiting ambulance.

A crowd amasses around us, and Leo quickly cordons off the area with caution tape that looks as if it glows in the night.

Jasper comes my way and pulls me in close. “Bizzy.” His chest is palpitating as if he just ran a marathon. “It looks like it was an attempted murder-suicide. We’re going to be here until morning. You might want to head to your mom’s for the night.” He glances to our cottage less than a few feet away. “I don’t think you’re going to get a whole lot of rest with the ruckus that’s going to take place out here.”

“I’ll be fine.” I take a moment to study the scene behind him. “Jasper, it doesn’t make sense. Aren’t these kinds of events usually planned out with a little more thought? Why would Bobbie want to kill herself when she had a packed house of her most ardent fans less than a hundred feet away?”

“She was humiliated.” He sighs in the poor woman’s direction. “Unfortunately, it happens.”

“What about the pictures? Where are they?” I quickly pat down his torso as if they might be on him somewhere.

“I put them in the back of Leo’s cruiser. And right about now, I’m glad I didn’t take them to the cottage. I checked them out. It was hard to see who the other woman was. But it was very clear that Chip was doing something he shouldn’t have been doing with her. Look, don’t worry about this.” He dots a kiss to my cheek. “Just take care of what you need to at the inn. I’ll have these guys wrap this up as quickly as they can. I plan on following the ambulance to the hospital. I need to speak to Bobbie Buckingham as soon as she’s medically stable.” He bends over and gives Sherlock a quick pat. “You watch over our girls, buddy. Who knows when I’ll be back. I’ll hitch a ride with Leo since my truck is blocked in.”

Sherlock barks. I’ll protect Bizzy and Fish with my life if I have to! Even if the killer comes at us with a fistful of bacon.

Oh brother, Fish mewls. Bizzy, I hope you realize we’re on our own.

Jasper gives me one last kiss before taking off.

“Be safe,” he says as he darts into the crowd.

“Bobbie?” a woman screams from behind, and I spot the woman with the short platinum hair holding Sugar, the small gray kitten. It’s Diane, the manager, trying to garner Bobbie’s attention as her stretcher is being hoisted into the back of the waiting ambulance.

I head over and Sherlock beats me there, already whimpering around Gizmo as the two of them seem to be having a private conversation. I’m not sure how, but the animals always seem to understand one another, and I’m glad about it, too.

“Bobbie!” Diane shouts once again. “What’s happening?” Her gaze darts to the medical team tending to her friend, then to me. “Bizzy, what’s happened? Why is Chip lying on the ground over there? Why aren’t they helping him? What’s happened to Bobbie? Why is she bleeding? Was there an accident? Did they get hit by a car?”

“It wasn’t a car.” I shake my head. “It was a gun.”

Diane’s mouth falls open as her face bleaches out.

The tiny kitten in her arms mewls, and I carefully extract her from the woman in fear she’ll drop her.

“Diane, let me get you something to drink. Some cold water,” I say, trying to move her away from the gruesome scene.

“No.” She lifts a hand. “I’ll be okay.” Her lips curl at the tips. This is a fine end to a disastrous night. At least there’s some closure for me.

Closure?

She