Read Hearse and Buggy for Free Online Page B

later, he regained eye contact. “The candles and the framed photograph of Lighted Way in the snow couldn’t have been more perfect.”
    She searched his face for any indication he was being less than sincere but found none.
    “I … I’m glad.”
    “They will make an otherwise plain home feel a bit less plain.” Gesturing toward the parlor, he studied her closely. “Would it be okay if I sat for a moment?”
    Startled, she jumped back, a burst of embarrassment making her own face warm. “I’m so sorry. I don’t know where my manners are.”
    His smile spread to his eyes. “Don’t worry, I won’t tell your aunt.”
    She had to laugh. “Thanks for that.”
    He pointed her toward the love seat, then sat a few inches away. “Tell me about the gift.”
    If she didn’t know any better, she’d think she was dreaming the kind of dream she used to have as a little girl. Only instead of some castle in the middle of the woods, she was sitting in the parlor of her aunt’s bed-and-breakfast. Peter had never given any of her gifts more than a head nod or a sniff.
    Shaking her thoughts free of her ex-husband, she willed herself to focus on the here and now. “I made those particular candles over the weekend, and the picture is one I took the day I arrived in Heavenly.”
    “You’re very talented.”
    She balked at the label. “Oh no. Any talent I have pales in comparison to your—”
    The peel of an unfamiliar jingle cut her off, mercifully thwarting her from a conversational path she didn’t mean to take. Mumbling an apology, he pulled a cell phone from his back pocket and checked the display.
    He made a slight face and then yanked open the phone. “Fisher here.”
    She pushed off the couch and wandered around the room, her desire to give him privacy tempered only by the need to offer an apology of her own. Had he known what she was going to say? That she was going to speak of his sister’s talent? His niece’s?
    “Where?”
    The abruptness of his words caught her by surprise.
    “When?”
    She wasn’t delusional enough to believe she knew Jakob Fisher beyond their brief encounter at the station that morning and the five or so minutes they’d had so far that evening, but she also wasn’t blind. The calm, friendly man she’d seen seconds earlier was gone, replaced by someone who not only seemed tense but maybe even a bit angry.
    “You sure it’s Snow?”
    A feeling akin to ice water splashed across her face as she abandoned all attempts at privacy in favor of out-and-out eavesdropping.
    “I’ll be there in five.” Snapping the phone closed inside his palm, Jakob jumped to his feet, his amber-flecked eyes trained on her face. “Claire, I’m sorry. I hate to run out like this but I’ve got to go.”
    She crossed to him, stopping his forward progress with a hand on his arm. “He came back again?”
    Regret turned to confusion. “Who?”
    She pulled her hand back, unsure of what to say without breaking her promise to Esther.
    “
Who
?” he repeated.
    “W-Walter.” She heard the stammer in her voice. “Walter Snow.”
    “Then yeah, you could say he came back.”
    Bringing her hands to her mouth and looking at him overthe tops of her fingertips, she sent up a mental prayer for Esther’s safety. “What happened?”
    He trotted toward the door, stopping with his hand firmly wrapped around the knob. “It looks as if someone has settled the score with him once and for all.”

Chapter 6
    S he pushed the hair from her eyes to afford a better view of the bright-yellow tape pulled taut between the buildings.
    Still, it made no sense.
    Things like murder happened in big cities with lots of people, not in quiet places like Heavenly, Pennsylvania.
    And if by chance they did happen, they most definitely didn’t happen behind her shop.
    Claire swallowed against the denial that continued to rise in her throat, its presence futile against the billowing crime-scene tape strung across the narrow alley