Free Death of the Couch Potato's Wife: Cozy Christian Mysteries (Women Sleuth, Female Detective Suspense) by Christy Barritt

the background. “You can get away from your job for that long?”
    I straightened, my pulse suddenly pounding. Why did the voice sound familiar? The conversation seem like a rerun? Had someone butt dialed me?
    “Let me think this through. I can’t do it this weekend,” the man said. “I don’t have anyone to fill in for me.”
    “Can’t people take their prescriptions up to Indy just for this weekend?”
    I sucked in a breath. This was a real conversation. A conversation Kent and I had just a couple of days ago right here in my living room. Despite my horror, I couldn’t stop listening.
    “I’m trying to establish people’s trust, Laura. You know how skeptical the locals feel about outsiders. People thought when I bought their local pharmacy that I’d never succeed with my big city values. I have to prove to them that I’m trustworthy and dependable. How about next weekend instead?”
    “That’s the bake sale at church that I promised to help out with.”
    “There’s always the weekend after that. We have the rest of our lives, sweetheart.”
    “Of course.”
    “Honey—”
    “Really, it’s okay. I told you I would support you in this new chapter of our lives, and I am. I just didn’t say I would have fun while doing so.”
    “I couldn’t ask for a better wife.”
    I wasn’t sure what was stronger—my fear over hearing this conversation, or my despair over my marriage.
    Another voice came on the line, this one modulated by electronics. “See, I told you I was listening, Laura Berry. I have eyes and ears everywhere. Spill any beans and you die. Same goes for your husband.”
    The line went dead.
    The phone dropped from my hand and hit the floor, scattering into pieces. How had someone taped that conversation? There had to be a bug in this house.
    Cold chills raced up my spine. I’d thought I was being paranoid. But I wasn’t being paranoid at all.
    Knocking sounded in my backyard again.
    Babe. Trying to get something out of the shed. I was not in the mood for this right now. Didn’t I just tell her that there was a killer on the loose and that she had to be more careful?
    I stormed toward the back door, ready to remind her—in a loving, respectful way, of course.
    As soon as I reached the door, a huge ball of flames rock eted toward the sky.
    My shed was on fire.

Chapter 10

    Three hours later, fire and police personnel had cleared off my property after the flames had been extinguished. The source of the fire had been an old propane tank. Chief Romeo seemed to believe the blaze was accidental, but I had other theories.
    I’d called Kent earlier as the fire crew was on the scene, and he’d asked if I needed him at home. I said no, though part of me wanted to scream, “Yes! Yes, of course I need you at home!”
    At the moment, I stood in the middle of my living room, the silence frightening.
    How had someone recorded my conversation with Kent?
    My gaze roamed over the couch, the stylish recliners, and the end tables. There was a bug somewhere in the house. I had to find it. Now.
    I could have told Chief Romeo about it, only the person who planted the device might have heard me and done something else terrible and awful to my family. He—or she—might have decided to start with blowing up our shed and then move on to blowing up our house.
    I tiptoed to my computer, berating myself for sneaking around my own house. That’s how it felt when your privacy had been invaded, though. I was an outsider in my own home.
    After sitting down at the computer, I quickly did an Internet search for “how to find listening devices.” Pages of results popped up.
    Information assimilated, I rummaged around in my laundry room until I found an old radio. Then I flipped the switch to “on” and walked into my living room, to the area where Kent and I’d had our conversation.
    The articles I’d read said my radio would start to squeal when it got close to the bug. The Bangles sang “Walk Like an Egyptian”