Another Trouble in Store sneak peek: Charlie Davies Mystery #13

This is from the draft, so it may have typos and it might change a little in the final book, but here’s a taste of what’s… IN STORE. (Geddit?)

My heart plummeted like someone had hurled it down a well. It landed with a splash somewhere around my bladder. In unrelated news, I needed a wee.

“Oh my god, John,” I said in horror. “You killed someone?”

I stared open-mouthed at the corpse on John’s backyard trampoline. No net. Were those legal? Why was I worrying about the legality of the trampoline when there was a dead guy on top of it?

“Of course I didn’t kill him!” John cried, distraught. “Someone dumped him here!”

“Are you positive about that?”

The sun didn’t really reach his yard due to the high fences and privacy bushes. That his neighbours had grown, I noted, presumably to protect themselves from the sight of John. Smart. But it meant there wouldn’t be any witnesses to John’s crimes.

“I didn’t kill him,” John hissed. “Look at the body. The way it’s positioned. He’s been thrown over the fence from the back road.”

The trampoline did butt up against the fence, admittedly. Weird place for it. Actually, why did John own a trampoline at all?

“Do you use that trampoline so you can bounce on it and spy on your neighbours?”

“That’s my own private business.”

“Did you see who dumped him?”

“No, but the sound of a car speeding away is what woke me up.”

I made a note to check the alley behind the house for tyre prints. Maybe I could match them to the dumper. Maybe they didn’t exist and John had killed this dude himself.

“OK, John. I have a lot of questions.”

“I’ll answer any I can.”

“Firstly, why am I here?”

“Isn’t it obvious?” he said in a low voice. He leaned in conspiratorially and I leaned away in equal measure to maintain my personal space bubble. “Remember when we found your dead ex-boyfriend and I helped you clean up the scene?”

“John!”

“What?”

“You called me to your house to help you get rid of a body?”

Bloody John. You can’t trust him.