Free Death Wore Brown Shorts (Happy Holloway Mystery Book 1) by Audrey Claire Page A

moaned.
    A creak preceded the wardrobe door opening in degrees. When fingers curled around the edge, Annie screamed. Her hand spasmed in her fear, and she threw the sheaf of papers out the window.
    Flynn spun around just as the person inside the closet made a beeline for the door. Rather than the masked murderer Annie expected, a young boy popped into view.
    “Oh no you don’t,” Flynn shouted and pursued. The two disappeared down the steps to the street.
    Annie leaned over the windowsill and looked down. The window overlooked an alley and a cemented square of yard space. She frowned at the papers scattered every which way.
    “I guess I better go get them.”
    For a moment, she paused to see if there were any other hidden spots someone might jump out at her. The bathroom maybe, but from her vantage point, no one occupied it, and there was no shower curtain to hide behind.
    Annie descended to the street and headed around to the back of the property. She gathered the pages and examined the one on top. “Overton, forty-five millimeter. A camera maybe? If this is code, surely the pages wouldn’t be lying around.”
    Annie started to turn back the way she came when she noticed another sheet caught in the narrow space between Paul’s apartment building and the next. She judged the width and wondered.
    “One way to find out.”
    She sucked in a breath and squished her boobs as much as possible. The side movement was slow going.
    “I’m not claustrophobic. I’m not claustrophobic,” she chanted.
    Paper rustled under her foot. Dang it. She had stepped on it, and how in the world would she bend to grab the page?
    “What are you doing?”
    Annie stilled. Flynn stood in the opening of the passage with a firm hand around the boy’s nape. Both of them looked at Annie as if she’d lost her mind. Her face flamed. “Oh, catching a little sun.”
    Flynn glanced over his shoulder. The sunlight started several feet away from the building.
    “Shade,” she corrected.
    “Come on. We’re going to see what this one has been up to.”
    Annie shuffled out of the passage and straightened her dress. She left the single page behind and followed Flynn and the boy back up to Paul’s apartment. This time rather than fiddle with the window, she located the thermostat and turned it down. Cool air blew from the vents, and she found a chair to flop down in.
    After Flynn had shut and locked the door then leaned on it with his bulky figure, he released the boy. Annie eyed the window and hoped the trembling fellow didn’t get any bright ideas in that direction.
    “Who are you?” Flynn demanded.
    Annie came to his defense. “Don’t sound so angry, Flynn. You can see he’s scared. I’m Annie, sweetheart. What’s your name?”
    The boy didn’t look away from Flynn. “Coty.”
    “So before I call the police—”
    “Flynn!”
    “I didn’t take anything,” Coty shouted, defiant, angry. His trembling hadn’t stopped in the face of Flynn’s attitude, but he had backbone. “Paul gave me—”
    Flynn narrowed his eyes. “What did he give you?”
    “Stuff…sometimes.”
    “Stuff,” Flynn repeated. “So now that he’s gone you figured you would break in here and steal some more ‘stuff’?”
    “No. He said he would get me a digital camera, so I was hoping he got it and didn’t have a chance to give it to me yet.”
    “My cousin didn’t make that much that he could just give every kid in the neighborhood a digital camera.”
    “How do you know?”
    Annie suppressed a chuckle.
    “I know. So tell me the truth.”
    “He did!” Coty was a small boy. Annie put him at ten or eleven at the most, but he had an air of innocence about him, too. Tears filled his eyes. “Paul was my friend. I used to come over, and we hung out when he didn’t have to work and played video games. I said I wanted a digital camera, and he said he could get me one easy.”
    Suspicion entered Flynn’s expression. “Where?”
    “I don’t know, but he