Read Audrey Claire - Libby Grace 02 - How to Blackmail a Ghost for Free Online Page B

tightening his lips. “What do you want?”
    “I wanted to tell you…” How selfish it seemed to assert right now that I wasn’t to blame. “I wanted to say if you need anything, please let me know.”
    “Can you find my parents?” he snapped.
    “I—”
    “Just leave me alone.”
    I refused to give up and stepped closer to him. I started to touch his arm but changed my mind. “Can you think of anyone who might want to hurt her?”
    He didn’t bother to answer but turned away, stuffed his hands into his pockets, and strode down the street. I felt bad for Ken and…guilty, which was ridiculous because I couldn’t afford to carry any more guilt right now. I shouldered a heaping pile for Clark on a daily basis, and sometimes it still got me down.
    Forgetting where I was and that I might be overseen, I was just about to wink out when a voice stopped me. I turned to find a sixtyish woman with silver hair standing before me, Mrs. Mary Cavendish, secretary of the Ladies in Summit’s Relief Association.
    “Excuse me?” I asked. “What did you say?”
    She pursed her lips, the skin around them wrinkling like she’d just sucked a lemon. “I said why are you leaving the police station?”
    I blinked at her. “I don’t understand.”
    Two spots of color stood out on her cheeks, and I couldn’t be sure if their roundness was artificial or natural. Mrs. Cavendish wagged a finger at me, stepping closer. “You should be locked up, shouldn’t you? After all, Sadie is dead. I heard the truth myself, that she was murdered. Why haven’t the police arrested you?”
    Bernie the taxi driver drew up just as Sadie spoke her last sentence, and he hopped out to hurry up to us. “Shh, Mrs. Cavendish, you know Libby wouldn’t do something like that. Now come along. I’ll take you home.”
    Mrs. Cavendish resisted. “I’m Sadie’s friend, and I demand justice.” She looked past me, and I turned to see Bart exiting the station. “Bart, do your job!”
    He frowned. “I’m sorry, Mrs. Cavendish, but right now we don’t have evidence against Libby Grace to arrest her.”
    “You’re sorry?” I quipped. “You sound like you wish you did. If everyone thinks I killed Sadie, then I might as well figure out who really did.”
    Bart’s nostrils flared, and he pinned me with a look of such dislike, I took a step back. “You stay out of police business.”
    “I have a right to clear my name,” I insisted. He would not intimidate me if it meant my freedom.
    Bart mumbled something under his breath, but I wasn’t sure I’d heard right so I didn’t comment. Still it sounded like he’d said, “Some people think they are free to do whatever they want just because they’re dating the chief of police.”
    I preferred to think I misheard and dismissed his irritability and dislike. As far as I knew Bart had never been unkind to me. He, like all the others in the station, had greeted me pleasantly whenever I visited the station or saw them around town. I was also pretty sure Clark’s men knew of his attraction to me, after I noticed it myself. No one had complained or seemed to think it was a bad idea on Clark’s part.
    Before I could think of anything else to say to Bart, he strode away to his squad car. I turned to find Bernie assisting Mrs. Cavendish into the taxi and jogged over to them. “Mrs. Cavendish,” I called. She looked up at me with some impatience, but I didn’t let it deter me. “Can you think of anyone who might want to harm Sadie? I mean…” No one liked her, but I doubted anyone wanted her dead. “Someone who hated her. I didn’t hate her by the way.”
    The older woman dropped into the backseat of the taxi and swung her feet inside. She stared straight ahead, and I prepared to walk away thinking she wouldn’t answer. “No one hated Sadie. I admit she was inordinately nosey, and sometimes it got on my nerves to the point that I snapped at her a time or two, but she was not spiteful in gleaning