A Bride for Cameron by Barbara Goss (read novels website .txt) 📗

we need to wash up.”  Annabelle took him from Cameron and led him into the house.

Hannah felt Cameron’s eyes on her.  “Is something amiss?”

“No.  Just that the sheriff came here looking for you not long after we came home from our picnic.  He wanted to know where you were.”

Hannah sucked in her breath.  “What did you tell him?”

“I said you were out visiting friends.”

“Well, he found me at Chloe’s,” she said frowning. “Now,  I’m to be questioned in his office tomorrow morning.”

“You?  For what?”

“I don’t know.  The man gives me the creeps.”

Cameron opened the front door for her.  “You need a lawyer with you, and I know a good one.”

“You’ll go with me?”

“You bet I will, and you’ll let me do all the talking. Only answer him when I nod.”

Hannah felt relieved,  and she let out a slight sigh.

“Now, let’s eat supper.  Something smells mighty good in there.”

Chapter Fourteen

Hannah felt uncomfortable sitting in front of the sheriff’s desk until Cameron had put his arm around the back of her chair.  He wasn’t touching her, but it made her feel secure having him close.

The sheriff’s eyes jumped between Hannah and Cameron. “I didn’t say you were a suspect,  Mrs. Hart.  There was no need to bring your lawyer,  even if he is your husband.  I have a few questions,  is all.”

“Hannah wasn’t even in town at the time of the murder,  so she has no answers for you,” Cameron said.

The sheriff stiffened.  Hannah could tell that as long as Cameron was with her, he would  not get away with badgering her.

“But she did visit Mrs. Monroe and Mrs. Wilson—do you mind telling me why?”

Stafford had asked while looking at Hannah, but Cameron answered. “She’s new to Hunter’s Grove and wanted to make friends with women outside of the ones at church.  New friends.  She didn’t find Mrs. Monroe friendly, but she and Chloe Wilson have become good friends.”

“I see,” the sheriff said, frowning.  “I need to know what either woman told her about the murder.”

Cameron gave Hannah a nod.

“I visited Mrs. Monroe to give my condolences, but she wasn’t friendly.  All she said about the murder was that it was three months ago, and she was over it.”  She looked at Cameron,  and he smiled and nodded again.

“I visited Chloe Wilson to invite her to church.  She hasn’t given me an answer yet.  She told me exactly what my husband told the court.”

“I need you to repeat exactly what she said to ensure what she told you agrees with what she told me,” the sheriff said.

Again, Cameron nodded.

Hannah told him exactly what Chloe had said.

The sheriff shook his head as if puzzled.  “Do you mean she still claims to have been sound asleep while a person axed her boyfriend?”

Cameron nodded. “Mrs. Wilson said she’d always been a sound sleeper and that she didn’t know Mr. Monroe—had never met him.”

The sheriff laughed.  “In a town this small?  Unbelievable.”

“I’ve never met Charles Wilson, but from what Chloe tells me,  they are very much in love,” Hannah said.

“And you believed her?”

Hannah waited for her husband’s nod.  “Yes, I do.  Her face gets soft and dreamy when she talks about him.”

The sheriff grimaced and shook his head. “Charles married a woman from Lilah’s,  and he's out of town more than he’s in it.  I can’t imagine a woman like Mrs. Wilson being alone all the time.”

Hannah buttoned her lip.  First,  the sheriff had sworn Charles was the killer,  and now he seems to be pointing his finger at Chloe.

Cameron surprised Hannah by speaking up forcefully.  “You’re the sheriff,  and in my opinion,  you’re doing a sloppy job of solving this crime.  I think we should bring in a United States Marshal.”

The sheriff growled, “We don’t need them sticking their noses in our small-town business.”

“Murder is serious.  In my opinion,  you should have called them in immediately,” Cameron said.  “In my opinion,  someone killed Monroe and moved him to the Wilsons' bedroom.”

The sheriff stood.  “You two may leave.  This interrogation is over.”

As they were leaving the sheriff’s office, Cameron said, “How about we get some lunch over at Parker’s.”

Hannah felt hungry, as she’d been too nervous about her impending meeting with the sheriff to eat much breakfast.  “I’d love it.”

Over bowls of hot stew and homemade bread, Cameron told Hannah about his dislike of Sheriff Stafford. “He inherited the job because his uncle was head of the town council.  I have no respect for the man.  He is a frequent client of Lilah’s himself.  When a fight breaks out in the saloon, he’s never around,  and the barkeeper has to break it up.  He’s useless.”

“You’ll probably think I’m foolish,” Hannah said, “but I felt something wasn’t right when he came out of Myra Monroe’s house the day I visited.  She never mentioned she had a guest, then he comes strolling out,  pretending to have been there to investigate.  It just felt fake to me.”

“I would never think you foolish.  Women’s intuition is never wrong.” He winked.

Hannah felt a strange tingle run through her when he smiled and winked.  She felt like her body was betraying her,  and she had to remind herself that she didn’t even like Cameron Hart.  Well, maybe she liked him a little.  He could be charming when he wanted to be.

“You have a strong intuition yourself,” she said.  “You knew Charles Wilson wasn’t the murderer, didn’t you?”

Cameron took a long sip of his coffee.  “I had a feeling he wasn’t the murderer, but I wasn’t positive.  When I was with him,  I was sure he was innocent, but when I wasn’t, doubt haunted me.”

“You didn’t have to do or say anything dishonest in the courtroom for the jury to find him innocent, did