Worked to Death (Working Stiff Mysteries Book 2) by Kerri Nelson Page A

could see that." I thought of how nice he'd been to me on more than one occasion when Paget had decided to pull one of her "runaway"stunt s he'd helped me find her and bring her home.
    "I don't know. There's no mystery about him. What you see is what you get." She munched down some more fries.
    Apparently, her perpetual diet had fallen by the wayside tonight. I was glad I didn't have to pig out on my own. But I missed those steaks. They taunted my memory with every bite of this overcooked burger.
    "Well, there's nothing wrong with that. Mystery men aren't always what they're cracked up to be." I thought of my own Mystery Man. He'd appeared in my life just a few months earlier, solved the matter he was in town for, admitted that he was a covert operative of some sort, and then disappeared. I hadn't heard from him since, and I both missed him and was miffed at him at the same time.
    "Never hear from Colin, huh?" she asked, as if reading my mind.
    I gave her a half smile but didn't answer. Instead I said, "I'm moving on. You know Ty and I kissed over the holidays, but then he didn't pursue anything. I'm kind of glad, but he's such a pain. Why did he even kiss me if he was going to keep fooling around with that obnoxious hussy?"
    Sundae shrugged. "Men are temper mental people."
    "Do you mean temperamental?" I corrected her and then smiled.
    "Whatever. They have tempers, and they act mental." She wiped her mouth with the back of her hand.
    "You've got that right," I agreed and then collected the refuse from our chow-down session and headed to Matty's kitchen to dispose of it.
    In the kitchen, I found the trash bin under the sink, hidden away in the cabinet. As I tossed our papers and cartons in the can, something caught my eye. I pulled the can out and pushed aside the fast food wrappers to get a closer look.
    There, was the Honey Do notepad page with the note from Mick on it—the one that Matty had told me about this morning. It had his apology and reason for leaving just as she'd described it. Then in a different handwriting was scribbled the words, "You must die."
    "What are you doing?" Matty's voice startled me from the kitchen door, and I dropped the wrappers and shoved the garbage can back into its spot.
    "Oh, just cleaning up. Did you want something to eat?" I motioned to the counter where we'd bought another one of everything we'd eaten for her in case she woke up with the munchies. My heart was beating so fast that my breath was hard to catch.
    Her bloodshot eyes stared at me.
    Had she written the note and then followed through with her threat. Was Mick dead and in that trunk because he'd cheated the wrong woman? Did she know that I'd seen the note?
    "I'm not hungry. I feel sick." Her voice was shaky, and she looked over at the greasy burgers and fries on her granite counter and let out an uneven breath.
    "Why don't you lie back down? Sundae and I will hang around until you feel better," I offered with a calm voice that I wasn't sure how I'd managed to emit.
    I wanted to get that note and take it to Ty. I wasn't sure if it was just something a jilted wife had written or the real intention of a woman pushed to her breaking point. I suddenly felt the need to fill in my ex on all the things that were adding up in this case before something else bad could happen.
    "No, I—"
    "Oh hey, Matty. Want some of these onion rings? I ate the crust off, but the onions are just delicious, all naked and slimy like this." Sundae tilted her head back and let a cooked, clear-skinned onion slither down her throat.
    I scrunched up my nose at the weird display—even I required that the crust remain on my onion rings. But Matty's face turned an awkward shade of greenish-yellow, and then she stumbled forward and shoved me backward.
    I almost lost my balance and grabbed the handle of the fridge, swinging backward with it as it opened.
    She fumbled under the sink, pulled out the trashcan I'd been snooping in moments earlier, and proceeded to