Free Deathtrap by Dana Marton

not,” Bing joked.
    But Sophie wasn’t smiling. “Can I ask you something?” She pressed her lips together for a second. “Before you came up to the door earlier, did you go around the side of the house first?”
    “No.” He raised an eyebrow. “Why?”
    “I thought I saw a shadow. And Peaches was barking.” She shrugged as she went back into the house. “Probably another squirrel.”
    He noted the tension in her jaw. “What did you really think it was?”
    She flashed an embarrassed half smile. “Peeping Tom?”
    “I didn’t see anyone walking away when I came up. No reports of any Peeping Toms in the neighborhood either, or any home invasions. Dogs will bark at anything.”
    “I know. I’m getting used to it.” She drew a deep breath. “I appreciate your help with the collar.”
    “No problem. You know how to reach me if you need anything.” Because that was what this was about—him helping a citizen in need. Not about the way the weight seemed to lift from his chest when he was with Sophie.
    He’d had business out this way, had to drive out to his house on his lunch break to let Joe’s sister, the Realtor, quickly run through it to get some ideas. After she left, he’d thought he would check in on Sophie and the dog. End of story.
    “I better get going.” He strode to her front door, then through it with a quick wave.
    He had plenty to do at the station and more at home when he got off shift. Maybe coming back to Sophie wouldn’t be the best thing. According to the Realtor, he needed to put half his stuff in storage. He needed to refresh his bathrooms and kitchen—whatever that meant. And he needed to update the landscaping.
    But before he left, he walked around her house, looking at the ground. No footprints in the grass that he could see. Then again, a flagstone path led to the gate, so someone could have walked down here without leaving prints.
    He watched the dog for a second, now chasing birds in the back. Just because the dog had barked earlier didn’t mean somebody had been around. The Labrador he’d had as a kid used to bark at the wind.
    If anyone decided to case out the neighborhood, Sophie Curtis’s cottage, the most modest house on the street, wouldn’t be their top pick. The front porch needed a paint job, and the windows needed replacing. The place didn’t exactly scream money.
    Yet he could afford to drive by now and then when he was on duty and maybe ask the others to keep an eye on the place, he thought just as his phone rang.
    “We got some prelim lab results on the Haynes case,” Joe said on the other end. “It’s not much. All they have so far is that the blood on the ground came from one person. It’s the vic’s.”
    “Of course it is.” An obvious link to the killer would have been too easy. He glanced at the time on the display. “Why are you still in?”
    Joe had the night shift that ended at six in the morning. He’d stayed on to help Chase with a violent arrest, but still being at the office at noon was overdoing it. Just because Bing didn’t have a life, he didn’t expect his officers to do the same.
    “I thought I’d go through e-mail and phone records again. Now that we know it’s murder instead of her just running off, I want to double-check everything, in case we missed a clue in the first round of interviews.”
    And because of the possible connection to him, Bing thought, part of him touched. He had good men in his department. He cleared his throat. “Find anything?”
    “Not yet. I’m still looking.
    He got into his car and started up the engine. “Go home. You put in enough hours. You’re entitled to a life while you’re young and pretty,” he joked as his phone beeped. “Gotta go. Mike’s on the other line.” He switched between the two men.
    “I think I might have something here, Captain. I’m at the bank. One of the tellers remembers Kristine Haynes being here the morning of her disappearance. Routine transaction. But the