Free A Fishy Dish (A Hooked & Cooked Cozy Mystery Series Book 3) by Lyndsey Cole

her, “Show him the drawing and see who he thinks it could be.”
    “No! He doesn’t look like he’s even awake,” Hannah hissed back as quietly as possible.
    “It’s important. Touch his arm.”
    “Geez, Samantha, let him recover first.”
    The two bickered back and forth, Samantha getting louder with each demand and Hannah keeping her body between Jack and Samantha as a barrier from she wasn’t sure what, but she wanted to protect her friend.
    Samantha snatched the drawing away from Hannah. “If you don’t, I will.” She pushed Hannah and approached the bed.
    A throat-clearing made both women freeze.
    “Are you family?” a nurse who looked like a drill sergeant asked. Her eyes bore into first Hannah’s face, then Samantha’s.
    “She can stay,” a weak voice traveled from the hospital bed. “My adopted daughter,” he lied.
    The nurse lifted Jack’s arm to check his pulse. “How are we feeling, Mr. Jackson?”
    “We? Is there more than one of me?” He twisted his head back and forth and winked at Hannah when their eyes met.
    “The nurse ignored his sarcasm and rested his arm on the blanket. “Which one do you want to stay with you?”
    “The beautiful one with the long braid and eyes the color of a rich coffee bean.”
    Samantha clucked her displeasure. “I’ll be in the waiting room after I find some drinkable coffee.” She handed the drawing to Hannah and jerked her head in Jack’s direction. “Show him,” she whispered.
    Hannah sat next to Jack’s bed, her chair filling up most of the empty space in the makeshift room.
    Jack closed his eyes. “I thought it was the end for me.”
    “You’re too ornery for that.”
    He chuckled.
    “Pam will be here shortly. She asked me to stay with you until she finishes at the station.” Hannah gently put her hand on his arm.
    His eyes popped open. “A break in the case?”
    Hannah shrugged. “She’s talking to Matt White. Other than that, she doesn’t share much with me.”
    “Don’t hold it against her, Hannah. She really can’t share anything on an open investigation. Never mind that Pam has trouble trusting most people. My gut feeling? She wants to like you. It’s a start.” His eyes drifted closed again.
    “Jack?”
    “Hmm?”
    “Could you take a look at this drawing I found?”
    His eyes opened. He turned his hand, palm up.
    Hannah slid the paper onto Jack’s hand.
    He stared at the drawing, twisted his mouth one way, then the other before he squinted. “It looks a tiny bit like Matt White but a female version.”
    Hannah smiled. She leaned close to Jack. “Sean Payne made this drawing last night when we were all at The Chowder House. Samantha noticed this woman there, too, and she thinks it is Matt’s sister, Jan.”
    Jack whistled. “I’ll be a son of a gun. Why would she come back after all these years?”
    “Samantha filled me in a bit more about her job.” She glanced at the space between the curtain and the floor to be sure no one was lurking outside and she skootched her chair as close to the hospital bed as possible. “She’s working for Jan, never met her in person, but got hired to keep an eye on Sally when she started working for Gavin Abbott at The Chowder House.”
    “That makes sense. Jan left town after a huge spectacle with Gavin. The details were sealed up tighter than a bank vault, and if the rumors were even close to being accurate, Jan got the contents of that bank vault in a settlement.”
    “If she’s in town, she could be a suspect in Gavin’s murder.”
    “Are you going to tell Pam?”
    “Tell me what ?”
    Hannah twisted around.
    She felt heat rise from her neck all the way to her forehead.
    This was awkward, to say the least.
    “Tell me what?” Pam repeated, a little less friendly. She snatched the paper from Jack’s fingers.
    Caught red handed. Hannah slumped in her chair. This getting Pam to like her wasn’t headed down the right road. At all.
    “Who is this?”
    “Hello Pam. I’m not