In Hot Water

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Book: Read In Hot Water for Free Online
Authors: J. J. Cook
Tags: Mystery
suicide on Ben Carson. If John were able to see and talk to Eric, they would have a field day talking crap about him.
    “Thanks for the information. I’m going to consult a lawyer,” she said.
    “A lawyer who doesn’t live in Sweet Pepper?” Eric snorted.
    She ignored him. She’d gotten good at ignoring him around other people.
    “Not to change the subject,” John said, “but I hear you found a dead man out at the fire today. Sounds like it was Barney Falk.”
    “Did you hear that from Chief Rogers, or Judd Streeter?”
    “Neither one. It’s a logical guess.”
    “Then let me repeat what I told everyone else at the firehouse today,” she said. “We don’t comment on this type of thing until the coroner has released his findings.”
    John smiled in the slow and sexy way that Stella liked, his dimple appearing to enchant her. “There’s only one problem with that right now. When I’m in this uniform, I don’t work for
you
. You can’t tell me what to do.”
    “Well, Officer Trump, I won’t forget your insolence.” She grinned. “You could try to persuade me to feel otherwise. I’m open to your best shot.”
    It felt like their on-again, off-again romantic relationship might be on-again. Stella was never quite sure with him. He could kiss her until the room spun around them one minute, and leave her the next with a scathing reminder that she was part of the Carson family.
    Sometimes it was an exciting game to play. Other times, it was annoying. He wasn’t the only man in Sweet Pepper that she’d dated, but he was the only one she was really interested in so far.
    “Oh brother.” Eric groaned. It sounded like the wind blowing through the eaves during a storm. “Didn’t I ask you to take that stuff somewhere else?”
    John leaned closer to her. “I can be pretty persuasive when I need to be.”
    As their lips met, there was a loud knocking at the front door.
    Stella couldn’t see Eric, so she glared at everything around her. He usually chose to be invisible when he was being obnoxious.
    “It’s not me,” Eric said. “You have another visitor. Maybe you’d like to flirt with Walt for a while.”
    Before she could get up and let the former police chief in, Eric opened the door for him. John sprang up from the sofa. He swallowed half of his Coke at one time and choked a little, coughing and sputtering as Walt came in.
    “Glad to see you’re here, John.” Walt hobbled to the cabinet and got everything he needed to start a pot of coffee. “Have I got some news for both of you.”

Chapter 5
    W hile the coffee was brewing, the three of them sat at the kitchen table. Eric was sitting on the stairs to the second floor behind them.
    “I heard on the way over that the coroner made it official.” Walt’s eyes were bright with excitement. He loved to gossip. “Judd said the body the fire brigade recovered out at the lake is Barney Falk. I’ve been hearing rumors about it all day. I guess they were true.”
    Stella shook her head. “They better not have come from my volunteers.”
    “They could’ve come from anyone from the police to the medics.” Walt shrugged as he started to get up for his coffee when it was done perking. “What I can’t figure is why you didn’t call me, Stella. I thought we were friends.”
    “Stay there. I’ll get the coffee.” She put her hand on his shoulder. “You’re still having a hard time getting around.”
    “I’m doing just fine. Don’t try to change the subject. You’re the fire chief. You knew who you’d pulled out of that house.”
    Stella poured coffee into a mug that was shaped like a deer head. It had been Eric’s mug when he’d been alive. Walt had told her that he and Eric had sat around this same table many times drinking coffee and discussing the problems in Sweet Pepper.
    “I can’t give out that kind of information.” She brought the coffee back to him. “That’s
because
I’m the fire chief. We’re not supposed to spread gossip

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