Read Read and Buried for Free Online Page B

for integrating a new reading program into their work plans at the start of the new
     term. Finally, the meeting ended as the school bell rang. Lunch over.
    Lizzie tried to avoid the few stragglers still in the staff room, anxious not to have
     to answer any more questions about the murder. She made it out the door and beat a
     hasty retreat to her car in the school parking lot. She liked most of the teachers
     she worked with but, as in any small community, she sometimes felt as though they
     were living in one another’s back pockets.
    Her afternoon was clear until two thirty, when she had a meeting with the principal,
     Herbert Slocam, and she planned to head home in the meantime. She remembered to switch
     on her cell phone as she started her car. An instant buzzing alerted her there was
     a message from Officer Craig, who wanted to know when she planned to bring her statement
     into the station. Now was as good a time as any, she guessed.
    As she pulled up to the station, she noticed that Mark’s black Jeep wasn’t in the
     parking lot and breathed a sigh of relief. She wanted to talk to him but not with
     all his colleagues around. Officer Craig looked up from her computer screen as the
     desk officer called over to her. She nodded to him, and Lizzie was told to go ahead.
    “I thought you’d come by first thing in the morning,” Craig said without even a hello.
    Lizzie bristled, as she often did when in her presence. “I wasn’t aware a time was
     stated, by either of us.”
    Craig glared at her and held out her hand. Lizzie pulled the handwritten statement
     out of her tote. She really had meant to drop it off on the way to school but had
     totally forgotten. No way she was about to let Officer Craig know that, though.
    “Was there anything you wanted to add to it? Something that might have come to you
     as you went about your business all day long?”
    Lizzie bit back her instinctive retort. “No. There wasn’t a whole lot to tell in the
     first place. So if that’s all, I’ll just go and let you get on with your work.”
    “If you do happen to think of anything more, be sure you call.” It sounded like a
     warning of some sort.
    Lizzie nodded and left, glad to have it over and done with. She headed home and again
     felt happiness and relief at being able to pull into her driveway. No police van or
     cruiser blocked it. Better yet, a brand-new window had been installed in her living
     room. All traces of yesterday’s violence had been eliminated from the outside. She
     braced herself as she opened the front door, dreading the bloodstained carpet in the
     living room.
    Thank God for Nathaniel
. Lizzie smiled at the sight of a clean hardwood floor. The small area carpet, fortunately
     one she hadn’t been overly fond of, had been removed and any traces cleaned away.
     His cleaning lady must have come in just after she left him this morning.
    She glanced at the mistletoe hanging right where she’d stuck it when the bullet had
     been fired at Derek Alton. She sucked in her breath as her internal video of the scene
     went into replay. How could such violence have happened here, in her house? Who had
     known Derek was stopping by? Lizzie hadn’t. He’d taken her by surprise. But he must
     have told someone, or else he had been trailed. A stalker?
    And why would anyone want to kill him? He was a stranger in town. So had he really
     been stalked all the way to Ashton Corners? She wanted some answers. Her house was
     the crime scene, after all. And the location had not sat well with Mark Dreyfus. She
     didn’t believe for an instant that Mark would let this color the way he viewed the
     investigation. But, if she could maybe figure out who had killed Derek, it might put
     her back in his good graces all the more quickly.
    She walked into the kitchen and picked up the phone to dial Molly.
    “Oh, Lizzie . . . thank you so much for calling. I’ve been wondering all morning how
     you are. How are