Girls' Night Out Murder (Ryli Sinclair 2) by Jenna St. James Page B

more jello shots when I saw
him, too. I had just enough time to grab the gun from my bedroom and haul ass
over here.”
    “I’m thinking we won’t mention the gun to Mom or anyone
else, okay? No sense getting everyone up in arms.”
    Aunt Shirley grinned at me. “Good thinking.”
    I looked around and didn’t see any signs of Jim. “I wonder
where he is? His truck is still here, and he left the window open in his shop.”
    “Maybe he worked all night and accidentally fell asleep in
there. I’m sure it’s heated, so that wouldn’t be so bad.”
    I followed Aunt Shirley to Jim’s workshop. The door was
shut. Aunt Shirley reached out and pushed the door wide open. He obviously
wasn’t worried about thieves.
    Aunt Shirley was right. The spacious workshop was semi-warm
as we stepped inside.
    “Hello, Jim, are you in here?” I called out.
    No response.
    “I’ll go look over here,” Aunt Shirley said pointing to an
area containing lots of lumber and even more saws. “You check over there by the
cabinets he was working on. Look for clues. Overturned tools, maybe blood.”
    “Stop!” I cried. I was suddenly afraid to move. I didn’t
want anything bad to happen to Jim. Just thinking about what Aunt Shirley was
suggesting left me queasy.
    “I’m sure it’s nothing,” Aunt Shirley soothed. “Hell, maybe
he left with the person in the car last night. Ya know…went to go get a little
hanky panky on.” She wiggled her eyebrows in a lewd manner. “Make up sex!”
    I couldn’t help but laugh. “I doubt that. Besides, he has a
house…why leave with the person?”
    Aunt Shirley sighed. “Just go look you big sissy.”
    Biting back curse words, I turned and made my way to the
cabinetry. I stepped onto a tarp Jim had set down to catch some of the sawdust.
The crinkling noise quickened my heartbeat and I felt my pulse jump. Willing
myself to calm down, I tiptoed as best I could through the sawdust. Obviously
Jim hadn’t cleaned up totally like he’d planned.
    I stopped in front of the cabinets and looked around.
Outside of all the sawdust, everything looked normal.
    I’d just turned to make my way back toward Aunt Shirley when
I saw a pair of boots sticking out from the side of one of the cabinets.

Chapter 12

 
    “Jim,” I whispered. My voice seemed unable to register above
a whisper. Clearing my throat, I tried again. “Jim, are you okay?”
    I peered around the cabinet a little more. My eyes traveled
up from his boots to his chest. My breath caught in my lungs, making my chest
hurt. Jim was lying on his side, a pool of blood all around him, with the cordless
drill and that two-foot auger bit sticking out of his chest.
    Crying out, I ran over to where he was. I dropped down on my
knees and reached down to pull the drill out of his chest. “Don’t touch it.
He’s already dead. Touching it will contaminate the scene more than we already
have,” Aunt Shirley said.
    I looked over at her, ready to yell at her apparent apathy
toward my friend, when I noticed she was ghost white and shaking a little.
    That was my undoing. I started to cry. I wish I were one of
those girls who could find dead bodies and be totally unaffected…but I’m not.
This was my third dead body in as many months, but this was even worse. This
person I liked. This person was a family friend.
    It took all my effort to stand up. When I looked back at
Aunt Shirley, she held her arms out to me. I didn’t need to be asked twice. I
ran to her arms and cried as she held me.
    “We’re gonna have to call 911 soon,” she said when I’d
stopped blubbering.
    “I know.”
    “You got your phone handy?”
    I quietly chuckled. “Of course. Garrett says it’s
practically attached to my hand at all times.” I groaned, thinking of Garrett.
“I’m going to have to tell Garrett what’s happened, and he’s going to blow a gasket
over the fact I found another dead body.”
    Aunt Shirley scoffed. “If he expects to stick around, he
better get