Read The Body in Bodega Bay for Free Online

super auction, this one client who would slip away tomorrow.”
    â€œLook, Tom,” Toby said again, “this is no time for us to sort this out. Some of my stuff is mixed up with his, as well. Let’s put all that aside for now and just deal with Charlie’s death.” That caused a heavy silence.
    When Tom straightened himself up in the chair, he looked stricken. “You shouldn’t be alone right now,” I said. “Do you have anyone to stay with?”
    He bit his lip and then shook his head. “I’m all right. Annie’s coming over.” I knew who he meant. Everybody in the Russian River Valley knows Annie, the lovable butterball of a gal who runs the Guerneville Tavern. She has a heart as wide as the river that runs by her bar. She’s always there for those in trouble, and that was Tom tonight. He would be in good hands.
    Soon enough, we were alone in the shop, looking at each other with fatigue and dismay. “He seems really broken up by Charlie’s death,” I said.
    â€œHe’s going to be a pain in the ass, is what it seems,” said Toby.
    â€œThere’s more involved than just business for Tom. Did Charlie ever say anything to you about their relationship?”
    â€œNo. He kept his private life to himself, which was fine with me.”
    â€œDidn’t he say anything at all to you about Tom?”
    â€œNothing personal. I never said much to him about you, for that matter.”
    â€œOh? Don’t men ever talk about their love life to their friends? Women do. All the time.”
    â€œMen are different,” said Toby.
    â€œNo kidding,” I said. Why is it men get turned off whenever we want to talk about relationships? Doesn’t the subject interest them? Toby once joked that his idea of hell was to be locked in a cell with a TV on twenty-four hours a day with nothing to watch but Oprah Winfrey.
    â€œSo what do you say about me?” Toby pursued.
    â€œHmm?”
    â€œWhat do you say when you talk about me to your friends?”
    â€œRelax. They’re the ones who usually complain. I just say I’m lucky. I married a great guy.”
    â€œCome on. What do you say?”
    â€œNo, it’s true. I do feel lucky.” I puckered, and our lips met in a comfort kiss.
    â€œSo do I,” said Toby. Then a distinctively guilty expression clouded his face, and he looked toward his shoes. “But I have a confession to make.”
    Uh-oh, I thought. What’s coming?
    â€œTom isn’t the only one who loaned Charlie money. I did too.”
    â€œYou did? How much?”
    â€œI don’t know. A few thousand.”
    â€œYou don’t know? What do you mean, you don’t know? I thought you were watching every penny around here.”
    â€œI am. But I felt sorry for Charlie. Or not exactly that. The guy was just likable.”
    â€œSo likable that you tossed a wad of money at him and didn’t even count it?”
    â€œDon’t fly off the handle. It didn’t happen that way. It was an investment in our partnership. Charlie needed some cash for Morgan’s auction, but he didn’t have ready money. So I gave him access to the shop’s account. I said he could charge up to five thousand dollars on it. Then we’d figure out how he’d pay me back after he resold the items, or maybe we’d go in together on the purchases. We left it sort of vague.”
    â€œâ€˜Unsettled’ was the term Tom used,” I said. “I see what he meant.”
    â€œYou could say that. For now, the shop, my shop, was buying the items at Morgan’s.”
    A thought occurred to me. “Let me see that bill of sale again,” I said, returning to the file drawer in Charlie’s desk, if indeed the desk was his. Sure enough, the bill was made out to the shop, a detail that hadn’t registered with me before. “So that icon and whatever else Charlie may have bought belongs