Yule Be Magical (Familiar Kitten Mysteries Book 8) by Sara Bourgeois (popular novels TXT) 📗

that, but she insisted on the name,” he said with a dismissive shrug. “Oh, well, it doesn’t seem to hurt business too much. People still come in and are delighted to find it’s more than goat cheese.”

“Quirky things tend to do well in this town,” I said.

“They do, and that’s why I went with Utterly Uncorked instead of Garrison’s Wine Emporium,” he said.

“Good call,” I said. “So while I’ve got you here,” I said, and got you talking, I didn’t say, “I wanted to ask you about Pepper Howard.”

His face fell. It was obviously a subject that Tucker Garrison did not want to discuss.

“I saw you the other night with the sheriff. I thought you guys were a couple. Are you a deputy now too? Because I’ve already talked to the undersheriff.”

“I know,” I admitted. “That’s why I’m here. I heard a rumor that after he talked to you, both of you were upset. If he’s not doing enough to clear your name, then perhaps I can help. Since I’m married to the sheriff and all.”

I hoped that appealing to his need for self-preservation would help my case. It did not.

“What’s it to you?” he asked, and I watched his nostrils flare. A vein stuck out on his forehead too. His temper was about to flame. I wanted to say that he had a quick temper, and I was being a bit of an intrusive jerk. I felt it was necessary, but that didn’t negate that I could possibly have been seen as a pain in the butt. Especially after he’d just been run out of a restaurant over Pepper’s murder. “Look, I know what you people think,” he continued before I could answer. “But Pepper and I were not a serious thing. She knew that. Heck, she wanted it that way. I didn’t move on quickly with Christine after Pepper’s death. That woman you saw me with at Bella Vita, that’s Christine, and she and I have been dating for longer than I was seeing Pepper. Both women knew about each other and any other women I happen to go out with. I don’t date women seriously, but I don’t lead them on either.”

“I’m sorry,” I said because while he seemed ticked off, Tucker also seemed completely sincere.

“Jeremy was ticked off because when he came in to talk to me, I was in a mood about the whole thing,” Tucker continued. “So, I told him to buzz off and either arrest me or come back with a warrant. But I didn’t leave things off like that. I sent him surveillance footage from the shop proving that I had been here all night and into the morning Pepper died doing inventory. I have an alibi.”

“Oh,” I said.

“Yeah, so if you don’t mind, I’d like to stop talking about all of this now. Pepper’s death was sad, but it wasn’t anything to do with me,” he said.

To make up for being a jerk, I bought an expensive case of imported ale and left quickly. The only problem was that when I got out to my car, someone had slashed all of my tires.

I quickly looked around and saw no one suspicious. Meri poked his head out of my bag, and when he saw the shredded tires, he jumped down to examine them. I put the beer in the back seat of the car, and got in to review the car’s sentry report.

There were little cameras all around the car, and anytime there was a security issue, like someone who didn’t have the keycard on them got close to the vehicle, it would start recording. So, the guy who slashed the tires was on the recording, but he was wearing a black hoodie and face mask. I couldn’t even get a good look at his eyes because he looked away from the car as he repeatedly stabbed my tires with a stiletto knife he’d pulled from his hoodie pocket.

I called Thorn on his cell phone and told him what happened. “Go back in the store and wait for me,” he said into the phone.

“I’m going to wait in the car,” I said. “I’ll lock the doors, and I’ve got Meri with me.”

“All right, hold tight,” he said.

Thorn arrived in the parking lot five minutes after I called him, and I had to wonder how fast he’d driven to get to me.

“Are you okay?” he asked after jumping out of his cruiser. I’d left my car when I saw him pulling into the lot and was waiting next to my driver’s door with Meri at my feet.

“I’m fine,” I said. “The car is the only victim. I have a video recording of the guy who did it in the car’s security system, but I’ve already looked. You can’t see his face clearly.”

“Can you send that to me anyway?” Thorn asked.

“I can, and I think Tucker, the wine shop owner has security cameras, but I haven’t been in to speak with him about it.”

“What are you doing here?” Thorn asked.

“There’s import beer in the back seat for you. Would you believe that’s the only reason I came here?” I asked.

“Not a chance,” Thorn said with a chuckle. “Not considering the owner was dating the dead woman.”

“I went in to the Bootique Bed & Breakfast to ask the owner, Karen, if Jeremy was there the other day to talk to her about Pepper’s case. He wasn’t, but she did mention that she’d seen him twice that day. The other time was here at Utterly Uncorked, so I wanted to speak to Tucker, the owner, and see if maybe he was the killer…” I said.

“Why were you at Bootique when Jeremy was there?” Thorn asked. He’d stopped taking the police report and wasn’t writing down anything about me investigating Pepper’s case.

“Azriel stayed there when he was in town, and he hadn’t paid his bill. It got back to me. Apparently, Karen needed the money, so I paid it. And while I’m being totally honest, I used