Free Thin Blood Thick Water (Clueless Resolutions Book 2) by W B Garalt

seafood dinner and the Martinis were all perfect, as was the remainder of the evening back at the penthouse suite at the Grand Hotel.
    After a leisurely stroll around the scenic Maine seaport on Sunday morning, the ‘Max and Maggie tour’ was complete. They mutually agreed that it was time to pick up their laundered clothing items and check out of the hotel. Max texted a few words of appreciation to his friend Jock and they walked to the dock for the flight home. The fuel tanks on the floatplane had been topped off and Max settled the tab with the assistant dock manager. The take-off and flight back to Lyme was uneventful. Max did not disturb Maggie when he noticed that the drone of the engine had lulled her into a nap. He made a mental note however, to remind her for future reference, that sitting in the co-pilot’s seat of an airplane in flight was much different than riding in the front passenger seat in a car, and dozing was not recommended.
    After taxiing to the river docking station, and before Maggie got out to retrieve her car, Max called Tweed Airport in New Haven to reserve an overnight docking spot at their now-operational float plane facility. The couple exchanged ‘bye-for-now’s with a plan for Maggie to pick Max up there. Driving off toward route I-95, she waved to Max from the car window as he lifted off from the river and banked the DHC2 in a southward turn. She had a feeling that he might be the first to reach their meeting point.

Chapter 11
    At 9:00 A.M. sharp on a Monday morning in early October, Marshall Real Estate Services was open for business. The owner/operator of the company was in the building. ‘The staff’ Jessie Knowles was not, however, on the premises.
    Maggie had been in her office since 7:30 AM following her week-end jaunt with her VIF (Very Intimate Friend) Max Hargrove. She was catching up on her scheduled tasks and planning her day of appointments, visits with clients and cold calls for new contacts. She was relaxed and had a contented mind-set up until now. A check of the office phone showed two missed calls from the previous Friday, one at 3:50 PM and one at 4:10 PM. She recognized the caller’s number on the 4:10 call as one of her lender clients, so she was waiting to check with her young ‘office manager’ for the explanation as to why the calls were missed.
    The wall clock showed 9:18 AM and Jessie had not appeared this morning. Maggie was concerned and, at the same time, irritated. Jessie had gained her confidence as being reliable and trustworthy. Maggie began to wonder whether she was that way during instances when ‘the boss’ was away. She called Jessie’s cell phone and, while it was ringing, Jessie came rushing in through the office door, flushed and panting.
    “Maggie, Hi!” she blurted out. “Sorry about being late, my car had a flat tire. I called Triple-A and they came and put the spare tire on.” Maggie returned the greeting and asked Jessie if everything was okay. Nodding in the affirmative, but with no further details, Jessie reached her desk. As was her usual routine, she immediately checked the office phone for calls and messages.
    “There are a couple of calls, do you want me to return them, or would you rather do it?” she asked, hoping that Maggie hadn’t noticed the times.
    “See what the 3:50 call from Friday is about and I’ll call the other,” Maggie responded in a business-like manner. Jessie, flabbergasted at being caught being absent before closing time on Friday, tacitly went about returning the call.
    Maggie could sense that Jessie, with this tense demeanor, was out of character. It might be because I am being stern with her coming in late and leaving early on Friday, she thought silently. Ordinarily she would have gotten a phone call from Jessie with an explanation as soon as she walked into the office, or else, it could be something personal. Thinking it might be a personal matter, Maggie decided to give her some time to bring it