Free The Collared Collection by Kay Jaybee, K. D. Grace Page A

didn’t have the boys to stay over for the weekend. Then when David turned up unexpectedly, you threw yourself at him. Poor guy didn’t stand a chance.’
    ‘Err, excuse me – I wasn’t flirting with myself!’
    She frowned, ‘I know that. You both took advantage of my delicate state …’
    ‘Callie! You were plastered! You fell asleep sprawled all over the kitchen table.’
    ‘I know that too … um … actually, I’ve since made it up with David.’
    ‘Well, I guessed as much, since you’re here.’
    ‘He was at my house when it caught fire – thank goodness. He got us out alive.’ She prayed she wouldn’t probe for details of what he was doing there.
    ‘So, did you go to bed with him? He’s a stud, eh?’ She licked her lips.
    She didn’t want to discuss David’s prowess in the sack. ‘Dee was murdered.’
    Her jaw dropped, ‘Dee … your neighbour, Dee?’
    ‘Yes. I found her body – I went round there and she was dead in the bath.’
    ‘God! You poor thing!’
    ‘The house was empty after that, but I saw an intruder there on Saturday morning.’
    ‘Did you recognise him?’
    ‘Difficult; he was wearing a balaclava.’
    ‘You’re kidding me! In the middle of a sodding heat wave?’
    ‘I swear – then I saw him again on Saturday night. I caught him looking through my kitchen window, so he threw a brick at me. That’s what happened to my face. It was nothing to do with the fire.’
    Ginny looked concerned – and baffled. ‘Are you alright?’
    ‘Pretty much – I must have a hard head. Giles is dead too.’
    ‘What? No! He was murdered too? With Dee?’
    ‘Not at the same time, but it was most likely Balaclava Man who killed them both … and then he set fire to my house, because he thought I could identify him.’
    Ginny peered imperiously down her nose at Callie. ‘You surely have to be making this up?’
    Callie shook her head.
    ‘How did Giles die?’
    ‘He was hit over the head in his garden – and he was holding a balaclava when I found him.’
    ‘You found him too? That’s unbelievable!’
    ‘He actually died of a heart attack, after he reached hospital.’
    ‘Jeez, that’s tragic – those poor kids are orphaned.’
    ‘I know. I don’t know where they are staying, or who’s looking after them …’
    She squeezed Callie’s hand. ‘See how you need me around to look out for you?’
    For another half hour, punctuated by a second pot of coffee, plus Ginny’s frequent interjections of incredulity, Callie trailed through a detailed account of the train wreck her life had so recently become.
    Ginny sighed. ‘Poor Dee. I mean, the woman was a God-awful pain – and a crashing bore – but no one deserves to die like that. Think how frightened she must have been …’
    ‘I’d rather not, actually – there are certain circumstances where ignorance truly is bliss. I didn’t think you really knew her?’
    ‘Huh, only from getting stuck with her at a couple of your barbecues – she’d absolutely no conversation apart from her kids and that school committee … but on the other hand – and with hindsight being such a wonderful tool – I always felt she was being guarded in what she said.’
    ‘Like she was hiding some deep, dark secret?’
    ‘Possibly, I don’t know exactly what I mean, but I always got the impression she wasn’t being entirely straight with me. She kind of monopolised the conversation so that she could control it.’
    ‘That’s your nasty, suspicious legal mind at work – but there must have been something in her past. People don’t get themselves killed in their own house like that for no reason; she was targeted. It certainly wasn’t a case of her disturbing a burglar, because the place was as immaculate as ever – and anyway, that wouldn’t explain Giles. I suppose he was the lucky one, getting banged over the head – he probably didn’t know anything about it.’
    ‘I’m not sure “lucky” is quite the right description,