Read 3 A Basis for Murder for Free Online

coagulating against the glass, and then onto the street below. The rain cleared for a moment, and I saw a man who looked like Jamie ducking into a store. I did a double take. Was I seeing things? Why would Jamie be in town and not tell me? Was he following me, or Douglas?
    "Misty!" Douglas's tone was insistent.
    "Sorry, Douglas; I'd zoned out. I just thought I saw someone who liked like - oh, never mind."
    "Looked like Jamie?"
    I nearly leaped out of my chair. "Yes! How did you know? Did you see him too?" I looked out the window again, but the rain had cut visibility to a minimum.
    "I've thought I've seen Jamie around here recently, but didn't know if it was him or not. After all, I don't know him as well as you do." The sneer in Douglas's tone was all too obvious. "Anyway, I took this photo on my phone the other day. Is this him?"
    Douglas slid his phone across the table to me. I caught my breath. It was Jamie all right, sitting in a local café with a woman whose back was partly to screen, but who nonetheless looked attractive even from that angle. Jamie was smiling broadly. My stomach immediately knotted. "Where was this taken?"
    "Only a few blocks from here."
    "When?" My voice came out high pitched.
    "Two days ago."
    Why would Jamie be here of all places? I lived in a small country town; nothing ever happened here. The most exciting thing was the weather warning of a "sheep farmers alert" which did not mean that residents needed to beware of sheep farmers; simply that the weather was going to be very cold. Still, I was uncomfortable that Jamie was in Australia and hadn't let me know. I didn't want Douglas to see my discomfort, so changed the subject. "What were you saying?"
    "I asked if you'd had any experience at all of seeing into another realm. It may be insignificant; something you didn't quite realize at the time."
    I scoffed at him, rather rudely. "Hardly; I think I'd notice if I'd seen into another realm, even accidentally." Then, out of the blue, I remembered when I'd been poisoned by a voodoo priest and had felt that I'd slipped into another dimension or some sort of other world. I had thought at the time that it had been a side effect of the poison.
    I looked up to see Douglas staring at me. "You have been, haven't you? What did you see?" His voice betrayed his eagerness.
    I felt a warning chill right through my bones. Why was he quite so interested? Something just wasn't right.
     
    * * *
     
     
    If human, cats might play solitaire, but they would never sit around with the gang and a few six-packs watching Monday Night Football.
    (Time Magazine, December 7, 1981)
    Chapter Six .
     
    I hadn't told Douglas anything, and in turn, he hadn't told me any more about The Orpheans . I doubted I could trust him. Just trying to figure out any possible agendas that he may have had put me in a headspin. The rainy day matched my gloomy mood, and I trudged back to the office with my doggy bag. I was going to eat the leftovers for dinner.
    Melissa had not returned to the office, so I scurried past Skinny's open door and hurried to my storage cupboard which doubled as my office. I booted up the computer and googled Druids . It wasn't my day. The first site I opened played loud Celtic music. I looked for the sound icon as fast as I could and muted it. Too late.
    " Misteeeee !"
    Oh no.
    Why do some websites have music anyway? Don't they know that some people are secretly accessing websites at work, for goodness' sake?
    I hurried to Skinny's office. Her face was bright red, and she was clearly in a rage. She pointed to the chair opposite her desk and barked, "Sit!"
    I sat, thinking that even a dog would have gotten a treat. Skinny waved the form in my face. "What's this?" she yelled.
    "Err, the form that you made me fill out."
    "Don't be smart with me, Misty." Her voice rose even higher. "You know very well that you weren't supposed to fill in the times that you went to the toilet or made coffee. This is ridiculous. Well, it just