Free Murder and Salutations (Book 3 in the Cardmaking Mysteries) by Tim Myers Page A

paperback mystery I’d been reading during my spare
moments, from where it was stored safely away in my purse.
    Dame Agatha Christie herself couldn’t hold
my attention as I kept thinking about Eliza Glade’s killer. Someone
had to have had the guts of a second-story man to kill her with all
those potential witnesses just on the other side of the door. Had
the perpetrator planned to kill her with the letter opener from the
start, or had it been a weapon of opportunity once the murderer was
on-site? I knew Bradford thought that anybody could be a killer
given the right circumstances. I couldn’t imagine being able to
bring myself to do it, and I hoped I never would.
    The next few hours felt like an eternity
until Lillian finally showed up again.
    “ How was lunch?” she asked
as she took off her coat.
    “ It was great. Let me pay
you for it,” I said as I reached for my purse, “Please, it was the
least I could do,” she said. “Have you had many customers since I
left?”
    “ For all the good I did, I
might as well have gone home right after you left.”
    “ Don’t worry, Jennifer, soon
enough we’ll be longing for the good old quiet days.”
    “ I hope you’re right,” I
said as I straightened the counter displays for the fourth time in
two hours. “If you’d like, why don’t we just shut the shop down an
hour early and you can go home, too.”
    Lillian shook her head. “I don’t mind
working until five,” she said.
    “ Really, I’m fine with it.
In fact, I’d feel better if you took off, too.”
    “ That’s nonsense. I have
nothing else I need to do.”
    Something was going on. Normally my aunt
would jump at the chance to go home early, even though she was only
a volunteer and could come and go as she wished. “What is it? What
aren’t you telling me? You’re not having a man meet you here, are
you?”
    “ Jennifer Shane, I have
enough places to entertain my gentleman friends without using your
store as a rendezvous point.”
    “ Then what is it? I’m not
going until you tell me.”
    She frowned, then finally said, “If you must
know, I’ve made a few telephone calls, and I’m hoping I get some
answers before we close.”
    “ Is there anything I should
know about?” I asked.
    “ I won’t know that until I
get my answers,” Lillian said plainly.
    I held her hands in mine. “You didn’t do
anything silly, did you? I won’t have you taking unnecessary risks,
Lillian.”
    “ You worry too much,” she
said as she withdrew her hands. “Now go. Have a lovely
evening.”
    “ Be careful,” I said as she
ushered me out of the door of my own shop.
    “ I’d say the same thing to
you, but it might just do you some good to take a chance tonight. I
expect a full report in the morning, Jennifer.”
    “ You’re overly optimistic
about a blind date,” I said.
    “ I thought you said it
wasn’t anything like that.”
    I was outside by that point. “So I lied.
I’ll see you tomorrow.”
    Oggie and Nash were waiting by my door when
I walked into my apartment. They both looked too smug for my taste,
so I looked around, and sure enough, someone had been foolish
enough to slide a note to me under my door. Short of a roomful of
catnip, there was nothing my cats loved more than shredding paper.
I found remnants spread throughout the apartment, and to their
credit, my roommates had been terribly efficient. There wasn’t even
enough of it left to read the handwriting, a monumental feat given
the required level of destruction.
    “ So who came by?” I asked.
“Did you happen to see enough of the handwriting to tell who it was
from before you shredded it?”
    They both stared at me as if they were
fascinated by my discourse, but I knew better. Most likely they
were waiting for dinner. Of course, they were waiting for dinner at
most times of the day or night.
    “ What am I going to do with
you two?” I asked as I knelt down to stroke Nash’s coat. Oggie,
normally not one to seek out