Free Murder in Death's Door County by Elizabeth Rose Page B

behind the bar to pour me a snifter of brandy. He
poured a pint of beer for himself.
    “Do people know what happened?”
    “Yeah, unfortunately.”
    I studied his face, noting that his nose
was healing nicely. He only had a little butterfly bandage over its bridge. I
figured I should probably apologize for my crazy behavior at Janie’s shop. I
opened my mouth to speak.
    But he beat me to it, “I’m sorry about
the other day.”
    “You? Why are you sorry? You were just
being funny. I yelled at you. In. A. Store.” I took a sip of brandy. Wow, that
went down easy. The drink warmed me completely through (or it could have been
how Donovan looked at me). I felt the color begin to return to my face.
    “You were fine. You were just spooked, I
get it. My sister would have done the same thing. Oh, and just to bring
everything out in the open, you did $1600 in damage to my car the other day.”
He looked at me over his beer before he took a long drink.
    For a second, I just stared at him,
perplexed. I clenched my teeth and ground out, “Are you kidding me?”
    I noticed the teasing twinkle in his eye
the moment before he burst out laughing and said, “Oh my gosh, it is too easy
with you! Nah, you did hardly any damage.”
    I started laughing too. Then I
remembered Harry’s corpse and stopped abruptly.
    “What’s wrong?” Donovan asked.
    “I was just thinking about Harry and
thought maybe I shouldn’t be laughing. What with everything going on upstairs
and all.”
    Donovan seemed to sober up a bit, too. “How
well did you know him?”
    “He was my editor.”
    “Oh, have you written a book?”
    “A couple. I’m a ghostwriter for a vanity
publishing house, so it isn’t nearly as glamorous as it sounds. But this
particular gig was really good.” I frowned a little in thought.
    “If it was so good, why are you making
that face?”
    “Well, my gut has been bugging me since
I accepted this gig. And this mysterious death just makes me even more edgy.”
    “Oh, by the way,” Donovan made the “hold
on a second” motion with his finger and walked over to his charcoal grey sports
jacket. He pulled a white envelope out of the pocket and brought it to me. “I believe
this is yours.”
    Donovan handed me an envelope that
simply said, “Annie Malone, Bonus.”
    “My five thousand dollars! Oh, thank you
so much! Where did you get it?”
    “Sure, no problem. I don’t like to
divulge my methods. Is that your normal pay?” He sounded impressed.
    “Oh no. Between the higher-than-normal
pay and now Harry’s murder… I don’t know what to make of this project. My guts are
getting so tied up. This project just feels off.”
    Still thinking about his Houdini tactics
in getting my bonus, I figured he must have slipped into Harry’s room while
everyone was busy in the bathroom. I wondered if he had discovered anything
else in Harry’s room. Donovan seemed to have many layers to him. Interesting.
Hey, how did my brandy fill up again?
    “I see. May I ask what the book is
about?”
    “Sure.” I gave Donovan the Reader’s
Digest version in between sips of brandy. At the mention of Marcos’ name, I
thought I saw a shadow flicker across his face. His eyebrow definitely twitched
when I mentioned Tina Delvecchio. I made a mental note to ask him about that
later. As I wrapped up the story, the paramedics came downstairs with the body.
    “Interesting. So, had you ever met Harry
before?”
    Drinking the last of my brandy, I
noticed my hands had stopped shaking. I looked at my face in the mirror behind
the bar. My color had definitely returned.
    “Annie, had you met Harry before this
weekend?”
    “What? Oh, I’m sorry. This brandy was
the greatest idea! But to answer your question, no, I had not.”
    “I’m sorry that he was killed.”
    “Yeah, me too,” I frowned as said this.
Was it my imagination (or the brandy) or was Donovan staring at me really
intently? Why was he so interested in my relationship with Harry? Oh