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

knows I messed with the evidence and I need to confess or he’ll bury me.  He’s lost it.”
    “Yes, and we both know why, don’t we?”
    We didn’t have to say it.  Ever since the arrests of Roy Fittimer and Alec Beaudoin last year, where Kevin got more of the credit than Cutter, he’d been on the Senior Sergeant’s hit list.  Those were both high profile media events for Lakeshore.  A drug dealer working most of southern Australia, and a murderer.  Kevin had come away looking like the hero no matter how he tried to pass the glory to the Senior Sergeant.  It was Kevin who got interviewed on SBS.  It was Kevin’s quotes in the papers.  Senior Sergeant Cutter had been just a footnote.
    He’d had been looking for a reason to get rid of Kevin ever since.
    Looks like he found one.
    “He thinks I made up the stuff in Horace’s statement,” Kevin told me.  “As if.  Won’t listen to reason, either.”
    “Why won’t you just tell him where you were last night?  That would end the whole thing right quick.  Put him in his place.  Give him nothing to hold over you.”
    My son’s face doesn’t usually turn that particular shade of scarlet.  It did now.  “See, it’s not just my secret to keep.”
    “Ah.” Okay, now I get it.  “So who is she, then?”
    “Aw, ma.”
    “A mother always knows.  So, tell me.”
    He exhaled a breath while rolling his eyes.  “You aren’t gonna like this.”
    “What, did you go and marry a stripper?”
    He laughed, but then took another breath before he answered me.  “It’s Ellie Burlick.”
    I couldn’t help but gasp.  Of all the girls, in all of Australia…  “From last year?  The sister of the girl who died here?  The one who was staying in my Inn?  That Ellie Burlick?”
    He nods, once.  “See why I didn’t want anyone to know?”
    More fallout from the deaths Alec Beaudoin had caused.  Ellie’s sister had been one of the victims.  Poor girl.  When Ellie came into town to find out why her sister had died, she and Kevin had gotten pretty close.  I just hadn’t realized how close.  Until now.
    If it got out that Kevin was dating the sister of a victim in a case where he’d made the arrest, it would cast a shadow of doubt on the whole case.  It would screw up the prosecution of the murderer Alec Beaudoin, cast suspicion on why Kevin made the arrest, make the Lakeshore police department look like a bunch of hicks…
    And all Kevin had been worried about was letting his mom know he’d had an overnight guest.
    Reaching behind myself, I picked up a random stack of papers and slapped Kevin across his chest with them.
    “Hey,” he said, “what was that for?”
    “You go out there right now and you tell Cutter who you were with!  You get that nice woman to vouch for you, and stick it up Cutter’s pompous…nose,” I finished, realizing just how loud my voice was becoming.
    “Think he’ll back down even then?”  He rubbed at his chest like a big baby.  A big, six-foot-tall baby.  “I mean, he’s my boss but he’s not the brightest bulb in the box.  He’s a real drongo.  If he thinks he can discredit me by dragging Ellie down too, I’m thinking that’s where he’ll aim his spear.”
    I hop off the desk and hug him again.  I love my son.  A mother never was so proud.  “You dug yourself into this hole.  Go dig yourself out.”
    “Thanks Mom,” he said.  “Been a long time since you had to give me advice.”
    “No it hasn’t.  You just don’t notice all the times I tell you what to do.  I’m too good at it.”
    He stepped back from me and his face became serious.  “You didn’t come here just to tell me how to be an upstanding bloke, did you?”
    “No.  I didn’t.  Although I’m glad I was here to smack some sense into you.  Did you find enough to get a search warrant?”
    “I think so.”  His frown was sour.  “Thing is, Cutter won’t go for it.”
    Cutter.  The rock sticking up in the middle of