I Have a Secret (A Sloane Monroe Novel, Book Three)

I Have a Secret (A Sloane Monroe Novel, Book Three) by Cheryl Bradshaw Page B

Book: I Have a Secret (A Sloane Monroe Novel, Book Three) by Cheryl Bradshaw Read Free Book Online
Authors: Cheryl Bradshaw
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unit—I’m sure I won’t be able to find out anything, so I was hoping you could…”
    “How long has the guy been dead do you think?”
    “I don’t know,” I said. 
    “All right, you’ve seen the body up close, right?”
    “Yeah…”
    “Describe it to me.  What did it look like?”
    “Bloated,” I said.  “Kind of a greenish color.”
    “Does his skin look like marble?”
    I thought about it for a moment, and actually, it did.  “Yeah.”
    “Have you upchucked yet?”
    “Multiple times.”
    “All right, then I need you to go back into the house and send me some photos of the body—get as close as you can, okay?”
    “I don’t think my stomach can handle round two,” I said. 
    “You can do this,” she said.  “Get to the bathroom as quick as you can.  Open the medicine cabinet if he has one or whatever he keeps stuff like that in and look for some Vicks VapoRub.  Stick a good chunk of it under your nose.  I mean a big one—plop it on there.  It’ll help with the smell.  Then go back into the bedroom, snap whatever photos you can and send them to me.” 

 
    I returned to the hotel, discarded the clothes I’d worn that day outside in the dumpster and showered for what felt like several hours.  But it didn’t matter.  The smell was in my nostrils and clung to my body like a wet bikini.  No matter how much soap I used, I couldn’t get the stench of rotting flesh to go away—not completely. 
    After my shower, I slumped down on the bed and allowed the past few hours to settle in around me.  I wished I could have stomached Nate’s house long enough to get a good look at everything, but that chance came and went when the wheels of the first police car squealed to a stop in Nate’s front yard followed by another vehicle that contained the police chief and one of his sergeants.  It was my queue to leave.  The few photos I took I forwarded to Maddie.  But since they were all surface shots, she could only estimate his death which she agreed could have occurred on poker night.  The question was: Why hadn’t anyone discovered him until now?
    I regained all five senses, got dressed and texted Trista.  I had one final stop to make before heading over for dinner: Nate’s Automotive.  When I arrived, I fully expected my car to be swarmed with salesman like a bunch of peppy cheerleaders at a car wash, but when the wheels touched the inside perimeter of the lot, nothing happened.  I parked and searched for signs of life, but the area was more deserted than the town of Tombstone in the thirties. 
    I entered the dealership and looked around until I spotted a warm body.  A boy with long black cornrows and a slender frame weighing in at about a buck fifty, approached me. 
    “Hey,” he said.  “What can we do for you today?”
    “Why isn’t anyone out on the lot?”
    He laughed.  “You’ve never been here before, have you?”
    I shook my head.  “Why?”
    “We don’t do that here.”
    “What?”
    “Pester customers.  We let you to come to us.  No pressure.  It’s better that way.”
    “Nate teach you that?”
    He nodded.  “Do you know him?”
    “We went to school together.”
    From his chipper attitude I deduced he hadn’t heard the news about Nate’s untimely demise, but it hadn’t been long since I’d made the discovery.  
    “When was the last time you saw Nate?” I said.
    “He’s in Fiji, and he doesn’t take kindly to phone calls when he’s on vacation unless it’s an emergency.”
    It explained why his body went unnoticed for days. 
    “How long has he been gone?”
    He shrugged.  “A few days I guess.”
    It added to my suspicion that the last time anyone saw him alive was poker night.  I swallowed and realized if I wanted to get the details on Nate’s final hours, I’d have to talk to Jesse—yet again. 
    “Did Nate vacation alone?”
    He swiped his hand through the air like he was swatting a fly.  “Naw, he took someone with

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