Free Football is Murder (Bee's Bakehouse Cozy Mysteries Book 4) (Bee's Bakehouse Mysteries) by Kathy Cranston

it.
    Melanie laughed. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to scare you.”
    Jessie took several deep breaths. She was wide awake now, her body surging with adrenaline. “It’s okay. I heard something and came to look.”
    “Who’s that?” Melanie whispered, looking past her out the window.
    “My neighbor. He seems to have hit his gateway. At least that’s what it sounded like. Did you hear it?”
    Melanie shrugged. “I could have. I don’t know. Maybe that’s what woke me, because I heard you walk past my door.”
    Jessie shook her head. “Unbelievable. I’d understand it if it was a narrow space. But my whole house would fit in the gap between the two pillars. He must have had a hell of a lot to drink tonight in order to do that. Hey, what time is it?”
    “I don’t know,” Melanie whispered. “Want me to find out?”
    “Nah,” Jessie said. “It’s not important.”
    She took one last glance out the window before fixing the drape in place.
    “I’m going back to bed. Sorry if I woke you.”
    Melanie shook her head. “No, it’s fine. My sleep’s been light lately. A feather dropping would probably wake me some nights.”
    Jessie felt better now that she’d heard that. She walked across to the door and closed it behind them once Melanie had followed her through.
    “You know, we’re just lucky that he hit his own gate and not mine,” she said.
    Melanie stopped abruptly, sending Jessie colliding into her.
    “Why’d you do that?” Jessie half-laughed.
    “You said he was drunk.”
    Jessie could just about make out her cousin’s profile in the darkness. “Yeah. I was assuming. But what other explanation could there be?” She tried to swallow her irritation at her neighbor. What business of hers was it what he drank?
    “Jessie, I don’t think that’s it.”
    “How do you know?” Jessie asked, confused. “I thought you hadn’t met him yet.”
    Melanie turned and walked back toward the living room. She flung the door open and marched across the room. Toby rushed after her, barking at her heels.
    “I haven’t.”
    “So?”
    When they reached the window, Melanie turned around to face her with an excited look on her face. “Think about it. The car is facing your home. He’s across the street, which means he’s just driven away from his home. He’s on the way out, not on the way back in.”
    Jessie stared openmouthed. Of course! How had she missed that?
    “So unless he was drinking alone at home…” Melanie said. “But then why would he go out at whatever o’clock in the morning it is? I know it must be pretty late—I got carried away and stayed up reading my book until after midnight.”
    Jessie clasped her hands together and then unclasped them. Something about this was seriously rattling her. She looked up and found Melanie staring at her.
    “What is it?” Melanie asked.
    Jessie shook her head. “It sounds crazy, but there was a murder near here a few nights ago. It was the night I moved in and I fell asleep on the couch that night I was so tired. I hadn’t closed the drapes and the light from his headlights woke me up that night too.”
    Melanie didn’t say anything.
    “There’s more. That guy—the guy across the street? He’s a football player. Not only did he play on the same team as the murder victim, but they were old friends. Until they fought a couple of months ago.”
    Jessie stopped talking. Just saying everything aloud had made the pieces fit together in her brain. She rushed through the house and into her bedroom, where she picked her phone up off the nightstand. She found the chief’s number in her contacts and hit dial.
    He answered after two rings. “Jessie,” he said calmly, sounding not the least bit surprised that she was calling him in the middle of the night.
    She pulled the phone away from her ear and glanced at the display. 3.17 to be exact.
    “Chief Daly, I’m sorry for waking you.”
    He tutted. “I’m used to it by now. Anyways I was up late looking