Halloween in Paradise (Tj Jensen Paradise Lake Mysteries Book 6) Read Free Page A

rooms, sounded in the distance. Tj knew that in a few minutes the hallway would be filled with students. She began setting files aside and turning things off.
    “Coach Jensen, you have a call on line one,” the student aide announced over the intercom.
    Tj glanced at the phone.
    “I gotta go. I’ll talk to you later.” Gina got up to let herself out.

Chapter 2
     
     
    Tj answered the phone after Gina closed the door behind her.
    “Hey, Tj; it’s Roy.”
    Roy Fisher was the deputy sheriff who served the Serenity branch of the Paradise County Sheriff’s Department.
    “Hey, Roy. Why didn’t you just call my cell?”
    “I tried to, but you didn’t pick up. This is kind of important, so I decided to call the school line. I figured if you weren’t in your office I could at least be certain you’d get a message.”
    “What’s wrong?” Tj asked with a tone of dread in her voice. If Roy was calling her at work someone was most likely dead. Tj had helped Roy out with more than one murder investigation lately. After his assistant had been arrested over the previous winter, he was alone in the local office, and he depended on her help when there was a complex case to solve.
    “Samantha Colton.”
    “Who’s Samantha Colton?” Tj asked.
    “She’s one of the investigators on Second Look .”
    “ Second Look as in the show that investigates cold cases and then airs their findings on television?”
    “That’s the one. She’ll be in town tomorrow, taking a ‘second look’ at Holly Riverton’s murder. She wants to talk to everyone who was at the party the night Holly died, including you.”
    Tj swiveled in her chair and looked out the window at the colorful fall foliage. What were the odds that she would receive a call concerning Holly’s murder just as she finished discussing it? It felt a lot like one of those déjà vu moments, when you realized something greater than chance was at work. Tj made a point of taking the little signs the universe threw her way seriously, but this week she really didn’t have time for otherworldly side trips.
    “I’m happy to talk to her,” Tj answered. “And you know I’m always happy to help you out, but I’m really swamped this week.”
    “I arranged for her to come to you,” Roy informed her. “She’s going to stop by the school tomorrow during your prep, so it shouldn’t interrupt your day in the least.”
    “Oh, okay. If she wants to come by during my prep period tomorrow I’ll talk to her. I’d planned to grade midterms then, but I can take them home and tackle them tonight. Did you provide her with the time of my prep and the location of my office?”
    “I did. And I appreciate your meeting with her. There’s one thing you should be aware of, though. She’s known for being very aggressive in her bid to find the truth. Anyone who might have a secret of any sort should be prepared to have it revealed.”
    Tj frowned. “What do you mean by aggressive ?”
    Roy sighed. Tj could tell he was feeling uncomfortable about asking her to meet with the woman, but apparently he had little choice but to cooperate. “She does her homework and it seems like she sees a motive in almost every situation. She’s good at what she does. I think you’re her first appointment in this area, but she stopped off in Los Angeles yesterday and spoke to Mia Monroe and Jada Jenkins. Both women called me in a rage and indicated they no longer plan to attend the homecoming reunion this weekend.”
    “Oh, that’s too bad. I was looking forward to catching up with both of them. What could this woman possibly have said to convince them to change their plans at the last minute?”
    “I think it’s more how she said it and what her comments implied. Do you remember Mia as being passive-aggressive in high school?” Roy asked.
    Tj thought about it. Mia definitely tended to march to her own drummer but passive-aggressive? “Not really. She was always very self-confident. She was a drama