Free Death in Room 7 (Pine Lake Inn Cozy Mystery Book 1) by K.J. Emrick

sides.  “Cutter, I swear I’ll see you bounced out of that uniform.  I swear it on every Bible in every dresser drawer in my Inn.  I’ll get you bounced out of this office.  Out of this town!  I’ll get you bounced so far you won’t be within cooee of the Northern Territory!”
    Cutter waited for me to finish.  Then, very calmly, he leaned forward on the windowsill.  “Just try it.  Have a go.  Pretty sure it will take more than one crazy lady to get me removed but have at it. Do your worst.”
    Then he winked and slammed the glass window closed.  I watched him walk away, wishing I could think of something to say to wipe that smirk off his face.  A second later he had the door that led from the entry to the offices open for me.  I stormed past him with my blood boiling.  My only concern now was my son.  I can think up nasty things to say to Senior Sergeant Cutter later.
    After all, you should never get into a battle of wits with a moron.  Both of you lose.
    I’ve been inside the station before.  Hard not to, seeing as how my son is one of the handful of officers.  Maybe in the big cities like Sydney they have tighter security for their police stations.  Here, everyone knows everyone else, and what’s marked as confidential in a file is the same thing floating around the rumor mill around town.  Not much need for security checks and metal detectors here.
    The open inner office has its filing cabinets and wooden console desk with radio equipment and telephones.  Also has this old green couch with duct tape covering the rips in it.  I doubt this room has changed much since the previous Senior Sergeant was here years ago.
    I was expecting him to have me wait on that couch, but instead he brought me down the hall to the door to his office.  The surprise must’ve shown on my face.
    “Your son’s in here, Miss Powers.  I’m just gonna let the two of ya have a nice chit-chat.  Tell him it will go easier on him if he just confesses, right?”
    “Is there some reason you won’t call me Dell?” I snap at him.
    “Too right, there is.”  He opens the door for me with an overdone wave of his hand.  “It’d mean we were friends.  You two talk.  I’ll be back in a bit.”
    He glared at Kevin, inside, before closing the door.  There was a lot of hate in that man’s eyes.
    Kevin sat on this side of the desk.  He was sort of sagging in the chair with his hands held loosely in his lap.  When he saw me, he shakes his head.  He doesn’t say anything, though.  Not until the door is closed.  Not that it should matter.  Cutter’s probably listening on the other side of the door anyway.  Truth be told I wouldn’t put it past him to have the office bugged.
    When the door closes, Kevin’s words nearly break my heart.
    “Mom, I didn’t do this.”
    “You think you’ve got to tell me that?”
    He shrugged, head still hung low.  “Just thought ya should hear it straight from the source.”
    Standing up, he hugs me, and I hug him back.  “Never doubt your mother,” I remind him.  At least I got a laugh out of him.
    “I’ll remember that.”
    “Now.  What’s this Cutter’s going on about?” I ask him, sitting on the edge of the Senior Sergeant’s desk, hoping my backside is making a mess of the neat piles of paperwork there.
    Kevin rubs a hand up over his bristle-short hair.  “He’s gone daft, Mom.  He brought me in here an hour ago, and I thought it was from the report I wrote for him.  The blood trail from the victim…sorry, from Jess to the window, the things Horace said.  Put it all down on paper for him, suggested we needed a warrant to look for the missing key, all that.  So he brings me in, sits me down, and outta the blue he starts asking me where I was last night.”
    “So you told him what?”
    “I didn’t tell him, actually.  None of his business.  But then he got this look on his face like he just got me over at chess or something.  Starts telling me he