Free Cranberry Bluff by Deborah Garner Page B

that encompassed the comforter, six shams, a bed skirt and a fluffy afghan throw. The scalloped window treatments and imported throw rugs all matched the color scheme.
    The furniture was a little sparse for her taste, but there was only so much that would fit in a restored barn suite. She would have liked a Jacuzzi tub in the room – as long as Dan was on the opposite side of the door – but the antique furniture would be easier to search, anyway. It was bad enough she was going to have to tap each tile in the bathroom to listen for hollow spaces where someone might hide contraband.
    She started with the bed itself, running her hands up and down the posters, looking for cracks or openings. There weren’t any. The wood was solid. The only joints were located where the bottom panel and headboard attached. Sliding under the bed, Susie was relieved to find old-fashioned slats holding the box spring and mattress. Slat frames were always the easiest to check. She ran her fingers along each one-by-four slat of wood, determining that they were solid and flat against the box spring. There was nothing wedged in between.
    The dresser was her next target. She pulled out each drawer, checking it for a false bottom and inspecting the area behind it. Finding nothing but dust, she sighed. Shouldn’t the cleaning people be getting the inside of the drawers when they dusted? She made a note to herself not to unpack anything from her suitcase. She didn’t need anyone’s discarded dust, or germs, for that matter.
    There were four paintings hanging on the bedroom walls – a large landscape of the coastline, a medium watercolor of one of the town’s water towers and two long, narrow panoramas. A quick check behind all four indicated thin backings in the matting, not thick enough to hide anything. The frames themselves were narrow and solid. And there were no compartments or holes in the walls behind the pieces, which would have been too obvious, anyway. Anyone who could create a new life for herself, three thousand miles away from a crime, would do more than stash money behind framed paintings.
    Susie had just finished inspecting the interior of a standing wardrobe and was contemplating a crawl space panel – how she hated spiders! A knock on the door caused her to jump.
    “Getting dolled up for me in there?” Dan laughed.
    “In your dreams,” Susie shouted back.
    He was pathetic. If his jobs didn’t pay so well, she would have walked away from the Patterson Detective Agency long ago. Instead of hanging out in a measly coastal town, she could be on assignment with that hunk she worked with on the cruise ship around the Greek islands. Or Paolo, from Brazil.
    “Just trying on outfits for that fancy dinner you’re taking me to tonight.”
    “What dinner would that be?” Dan asked.
    “Whichever one puts us at a prime table in the most prestigious restaurant in the area.” She smiled. Might as well play it up and get a good meal out of the trip. There were always side benefits to traveling with someone who had deep pockets, even if that someone was Dan.
    “In this town?” Dan said. “I doubt it. Maybe a cute café, if we’re lucky. I’ll treat you to some clam chowder. How does that sound?”
    Susie opened the door and walked into the living area, sitting on the couch. She ignored Dan when he glanced at her legs as she crossed one over the other. “You forget what a good detective I am, my dear Mr. Patterson. I never go out on assignments without thoroughly researching an area first. That’s one of the reasons you hire me, remember?”
    “And what did you find?” Dan prodded.
    “There is an exquisite restaurant north of here called Ocean.”
    “That’s it, just ‘Ocean’?” Dan asked. “Couldn’t they think up a better name?”
    Susie rolled her eyes. “You’re so small town, Dan. You really need to get out on some bigger assignments. Don’t you have those connections in Amsterdam that you used to