Murder on the Hoof: A Mystery (Colleen McCabe Series) Read Free

Thirty yards down the beach, children played happily in the waves as Colleen’s men gently placed Doris’s body into the body bag for transportation to the morgue. She heard the zip of the body bag behind her. Jimmy and Bobby lifted the stretcher.
    “You did great today, Bobby,” she said, noticing his pensive expression as he passed. “Don’t let this get you down.”
    “Thanks, Chief,” he said, dejected.
    Jimmy nodded to her and they vanished around the dune.
    Sparky moaned, wanting to follow. “Okay,” she said, patting the dog’s rump. “Go to the station.” And with that, the dog took off to accompany her men the short distance to the firehouse.
    She gazed up the beach with sadness. She couldn’t help feeling partially responsible for Doris’s death. She shouldn’t have allowed someone of her years to spend so much time in the heat. Older adults had a more difficult time regulating body temperature. Doris had died right under her nose, with an entire team of EMTs nearby. She rubbed her temples, trying to push away the mounting headache and feelings of guilt.
    “You okay?” Bill asked.
    Colleen shrugged. No, she wasn’t okay. She was angry. Angry that somehow she might have contributed to Doris’s death.
    “You can’t beat yourself up about this.”
    “After everything that happened last month with Max Cascio, I thought we had had enough death for one summer.”
    The two watched in silence as the ocean pushed toward land, then withdrew again. Life had returned to normal in the weeks since the arrest of Max Cascio, nephew of Antonio “Pinky” Salvatore, one of Corolla’s most successful developers. The federal agents were gone, the horses had been returned to the sanctuary, Myrtle’s house restoration was under way, Bobby had begun firefighter training, and Myrtle and Nellie were busy with the Lighthouse Wild Horse Preservation Society and the upcoming theater production. Colleen and Pinky were even forging a new friendship—what type of friendship it was, she still wasn’t entirely sure of yet—but things had changed between them after Pinky had donated a house intended for demolition to the station for a Burn-to-Learn drill.
    She and Bill had also grown closer since Max’s arrest—but not as close as she had hoped. They had shared movie nights and dinners and had even arranged to take off work for a day trip down to Ocracoke, at the southern end of the Outer Banks, to hear Ocracoke’s native musicians at the Deepwater Creek Theater and Music Hall, but Colleen couldn’t help feeling that there was something preventing their relationship from deepening. Still, she was happy they seemed to be moving away from a purely platonic one. She stole a look at him. As if sensing her gaze, he turned and smiled.
    “I’d better head back,” she said. She couldn’t spend all day staring at the ocean. “I’ve got a lot to talk about with my team.”
    They marched through the sand to the short boardwalk at Dolphin Street that intersected with and linked the beach to Lighthouse Drive, where Bill’s SUV was parked on the shoulder of the road.
    “I’ll check on Marvin,” he said, and opened his door. “It’s not going to be easy for him without Doris.”
    “I don’t envy you,” she said with sincerity. She had always found it difficult to be around the grieving. “Mind if we take a rain check on dinner? I could be a while at the station.”
    “Not at all. Call me if you need anything.”
    Colleen gave Bill a short wave as he pulled onto Lighthouse Drive. She took a deep breath and then headed along Dolphin Street to the firehouse to check on her team.

 
    Chapter 2
     
    “You couldn’t put out a match on a windy day!” came an angry voice from inside the Whalehead fire station.
    “Please, I have more time parking the engine than you have on the job” was the sarcastic retort.
    Colleen’s brow furrowed as she left the road and jogged across the parking lot toward the voices.
    “Hose