Blind Trust Read Free

Her amateur sleuthing three months ago had caused the chief more embarrassment than he could stomach.
    Tom waited for Kate to climb out of her yellow Volkswagen Beetle before getting out of his car. Her tousled red hair didn’t look as fiery as usual, and her stooped shoulders betrayed her unhappiness at having to involve her elderly neighbor. He lifted the groceries from the trunk. “You want to introduce me to your neighbor?”
    â€œOh, Tom,” she pleaded, sounding utterly miserable. “She’s such a sweet old woman. There’s no way she knowingly duped me into passing counterfeit bills.”
    Too many years in law enforcement had drilled reality into him, but he bit back his you’d-be-surprised-what-sweet-old-women-can-do remark. He hated to discourage Kate’s exceptional faith in people. It had served her well when hunting down her friend’s killer. If only Molly Gilmore’s betrayals hadn’t leftit so tattered. “Okay, then we’ll be up front with your neighbor. Tell her what happened and see what she has to say.”
    â€œRight.” Kate strode across her yard, her flowery skirt flouncing with the let’s-do-it attitude he’d grown to appreciate in her.
    The bright August sunshine glinted off her hair, and reflexively his fingers tingled. He could almost feel the silky caress of her burnished red curls. In those moments when he let her take over his thoughts, he could still breathe in her lavender scent and hear the sweet ring of her laughter.
    She stopped at the sidewalk. “Coming?”
    He grinned at the determination blazing in her eyes. He should’ve tried harder to score that second date instead of biding his time until after Molly’s trial. Just his bad luck she’d wind up in the middle of another one of his cases.
    Verna Nagy’s front door stood open with only a flimsy screen door between a possible intruder and the inside. A black and white cat met them on the porch and twined between their legs, purring loudly. Kate lifted him into her arms. “What are you doing outside, Whiskers?”
    Tom rubbed the little fellow’s neck. “Is this the cat that was cured by Grandma Brewster’s herbal brew a few months back?” The police chief’s German grandmother had been making natural remedies for townsfolk and their pets for as long as he could remember—a woman after Kate’s own heart.
    â€œHe sure is.” Kate nuzzled her cheek against the cat’s fur. “You can’t chalk his recovery up to mind over matter, can you, Mr. Skeptic?”
    He feigned offense. “Hey, I never said the stuff doesn’t work.”
    She dropped the cat to the ground and rang the bell. “You didn’t have to.” She winked.
    At least she didn’t take his skepticism about her cure-all teas personally. He admired her work as a researcher. He really did. It was the spin-off industries that preyed on people’s quick-fix mentalities that caused him concern. In his FBI days, he’d had one partner who’d overindulged on a diet tea that not only stripped him of a few pounds but also landed him in the hospital.
    A sprightly, white-haired woman peered at them through the screen door and pierced Tom with a glare. “I already have a vacuum. The no-good, overpriced one you sold me ten years ago.”
    â€œExcuse me?” Tom glanced at Kate. She hadn’t told him the woman was senile.
    Her eyes sparkled with laughter. “Verna, it’s me, Kate. Your neighbor. I brought your groceries. And this is my friend, Tom. Detective Parker. He needs to ask you a couple of questions.”
    Verna’s eyes narrowed as she studied his face. “You’re not selling vacuums?”
    â€œNo ma’am.”
    She swung the door wide. “Come in then.”
    The cat leapt through the open door, leading the way inside the tidy little house. The air smelled like an odd combination of