Page 59 of Always Murder

“Not a murder,” I said hastily, but my brain was still elsewhere.I made the decision in a heartbeat: a phone call wouldn’t be enough.“Stephen, do you have Three’s address?”

Chapter 18

The cottage was barely visible from the street, even though the day had reached eye-watering brightness.In part, that was because of all the brush growing where a front yard should have been—several bushes in the mix clearly had aspirations of becoming trees.And in part it was because of the house’s color.If they ever started making a lime-flavored Laffy Taffy, I thought, that’s what it would look like.But the mailbox had the right number on it, and although the cottage looked old, it also looked well-maintained.There was no clutter, no trash, no weeds.The driveway had been freshly swept.

I parked the Pilot and began searching for a front door.A worn concrete walk forked off from the driveway, and after pushing my way through most of a rhododendron, I found myself in front of the porch.

(Also lime green, in case you were wondering.)

With the brush screening the sounds from the street, the silence thickened.No sounds filtered out from the house.I knocked, and the thud of my knuckles against the wood seemed smaller than it should have.

The door flew open.

It took me about half a second to swallow my scream.Then I settled for a glare.

Three was one of those middle-aged guys who never actuallylookmiddle-aged.He was White, a little taller than me, and he typically dressed in what might best be described as gay chic.Today, that meant pointy black boots, tight black jeans, a boxy black blazer, and a T-shirt that said HIGHLY FUNCTIONING INTROVERT.(Yes, the T-shirt was also black.) He wore little steel-rimmed glasses that somehow looked cool and futuristic, and his fade was so tight, I was pretty sure barbers wept when he passed them on the street.

“Oh.Hey, Dash.”Three glanced past me—although what he thought he might see, with all those bushes in the way, wasn’t clear to me.“Is everything okay?”

“I’m sorry to drop in like this.I needed to ask you something in person.”

Three’s eyebrows went up.And then they went up some more.“I thought—I mean, I assumed—you and Bobby—”

It was actually a little insulting.

“Not that,” I said.The relief on his face was even more insulting, so I rushed ahead with “I had a question about your package that got stolen the other day.”

“Oh.Oh, yeah.Wait, did somebody get murdered?”

“This freaking town,” I said, only partially under my breath.“No, Three.I just wanted to ask you about it.Could you tell me what got stolen?”

“That’s what’s so annoying; it was only a book.I mean, it’s going to be an inconvenience to get it again, and I’ll have to wait.Meanwhile, I hope that guy who took it is excited to read the thirty-seventh volume in a gay manga about a werewolf who can only eat fish and a sushi chef who can only walk backward.”

“I—” But then the summary caught up to me.“What?”

“It’s so good!”

“Uh huh.I don’t suppose you know if the package had anything on the outside that might make it appear valuable.”

“No, it was your standard padded envelope.I’ve never had anything happen like this before; I mean, people can’t even see my porch from the street.”

I gave another look over my shoulder.Three was right.I hadn’t been able to see the porch until I’d gotten past the rhododendron.That didn’t necessarily mean anything; if whoever was stealing these packages had been watching Paul’s live streams, then they wouldn’t have been operating like an ordinary porch pirate, and so the cover provided by the bushes wouldn’t have made any difference.The same was true if this was some kind of inside job through CPF.If nothing else, it reinforced my suspicion that this wasn’t chance and it wasn’t run-of-the-mill package theft—but I suppose the attack on Paul had already confirmed that.

I was still trying to decide if what Three had told me was actually helpful when Three said, “I’ve got to be honest, it’s been kind of scary.”With a sheepish grin, he reached through the door and brought out a curling iron.“Home defense.I can’t get over the fact that this guy walked right up to me in the middle of the day.I like my privacy, but the fact that nobody even saw it happen is making me think maybe I should trade some privacy for some safety.”

It took me that long to process what he’d said.“Wait, you saw the thief?”

Three considered me.“I thought that’s why you were here.”

“What happened?”

“I was off that day, doing stuff around the house.You know how exciting it is when one of your favorite series has a new book come out?So, I was kind of waiting for the delivery.And it’s not like I get a lot of people coming up to my door, so when I heard someone on the porch, I knew that’s what it was.I went outside, and I picked up the envelope.And then this crazy Santa came charging out from behind the blackberry bush.”

“Santa?”

“The hat, the suit, the whole thing.”

“Okay.What happened next?”

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