Linda Crowder - Jake and Emma 01 - Too Cute to Kill Read Free Page B

to put away her notes. 
    She shrugged into her coat and waved absently at Kristy as she tried to remember if she’d left her club pin in her car.  Like many service clubs, the Rotary “fined” a member who forgot to wear their club pin.  The fines went into the club’s charity fund and ultimately into the community.
    Emma was remembering with dismay that she had put the pin in her jewelry box for safekeeping – she’d already lost three of them – and it was still there.  She sighed, it was a good thing for her the fine was only a dollar.
    Sheriff Reggie Newsome was a member of her Rotary Club.  Emma had met him at meetings and social functions but she wasn’t well acquainted with him.  She was surprised when he sought her out after the meeting.  “I heard you had a little trouble out at your place yesterday,” he told her, steering her to a quiet table.
    “It was awful,” agreed Emma.  “Do they know yet who she is or how she died?”
    “No, nothing yet.  I was hoping you could tell me now that you’ve had some time to get over the shock of finding her.”
    Emma shook her head.  “I wish I could help you, Sheriff.  I can’t stop thinking about that poor woman, out there freezing to death 100 yards from warmth and safety.”  Emma shuddered, trying to erase the woman’s lifeless face from her mind.  “What could she have been doing out in that storm?”
    “I don’t know.”  Reggie looked closely at Emma.  “She didn’t freeze to death, by the way.  The Coroner is pretty sure she was already dead when she was placed up against your fence.”
    Emma frowned at this.  “That means you think she was murdered.”  The Sheriff replied that he didn’t think anything yet and asked if Emma had seen or heard a car on the night of the storm. 
    Emma closed her eyes and thought about that night.  She remembered the headlights she’d seen coming down the county road and told the Sheriff about them.  “That was so early though.  It was right after dinner when I went to bring in the dogs.  That had to have been too early to….” her voice trailed off.
    “To have been the person who dumped the body,” Reggie finished. “I don’t know.  The Coroner won’t even give me a guess at a time of death.  Did you hear or see anything else that night?”
    “No I didn’t, but we closed the curtains to keep out the cold.  With the way the wind kicked up after that, I don’t think I would have heard a tank.”
    Reggie nodded.  Casper wind might be a gold mine to clean energy producers but it was the one drawback to living on the mountain, as Jake and Emma did.  “That’s pretty much what your husband said too.  Well, let me know if you think of anything else.”
    The Sheriff left and Emma realized with a shock that the police had questioned her and Jake separately.  They were comparing their stories to see if they were telling the truth.  Did that mean that the police would consider them as suspects if the Coroner decided the woman was murdered?
    She supposed it couldn’t be helped.  A woman’s body had been found practically on their doorstep.  Emma supposed the police had to rule them out as suspects in order to move on to other leads. 
    It was understandable, she concluded, but it was unsettling.  She pulled her cell phone out of her purse and called Jake’s office.  He was out so she tried his cell but it went immediately to voice mail. 
    He must be in a meeting, she thought.  Jake always turned off his cell during meetings and his meetings could go on for hours.  She left him a message to call her and headed back to her office. 
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
     
    4
     
     
    Jake didn’t like the sound of it; no he didn’t like it at all.  He leaned back in his chair and fixed his attention on Sheriff Newsome, who was sitting across the desk from him.  “If she didn’t freeze to death then someone had to have put her body there.”
    “And that