The Armstrong Assignment (A Janet Markham Bennett Cozy Thriller Book 1) by Diana Xarissa (books for 10th graders TXT) 📕

“Thank you,” she said. “I must check on my patient.”

Janet wondered if she should stay, just in case either the nurse or Bobby needed her, but Edward took her arm.

“Let’s go before Bobby decides to have you sleep on the couch, just in case he needs you,” he whispered in her ear.

He rushed her out of the room and into the lift.

“Has Mr. Harrison gone home for the evening?” Janet asked as they rode down to the fourth floor.

“Mr. Harrison has gone for some additional training. No one is blaming him for what happened to Bobby today, but after the accident he couldn’t tell me where any of the suspects had been just before Bobby fell. He should have been tracking all of them, and even in that crowd he should have been able to see at least one or two of them.”

Janet nodded. “I wish I’d been paying more attention.”

“You aren’t being paid to pay attention to such things.”

When they got inside Janet’s room, Edward pulled her close and kissed her thoroughly. “I miss you,” he whispered.

“I’m right here.”

“Yes, right where you belong.”

When he lifted his head some time later, Janet sighed.

“What’s wrong? I mean, aside from our honeymoon being interrupted.”

“I’m worried about Bobby. I don’t really care for him, but I don’t want him to get murdered, either.”

“You’ve had a chance to get to know everyone a bit better. Who is behind the murder attempts?”

“I wish I knew. In spite of everything, I rather like Dixie. I think she’s rather desperately in love with Bobby. I’m not certain how he feels about her, though.”

Edward nodded. “He said tonight that he’s known her forever and that she’s a wonderful woman, but that he isn’t interested in getting married again, probably not ever. He seems to think that Dixie will get tired of waiting for him eventually and will find someone else.”

Janet thought back through her conversation with Dixie. “He may be right. I do think they could be good for each other, though.”

“I think Bobby might consider marrying her if she and Lucy got along better.”

“I can’t see that happening. I think there are a lot of issues there that have built up over a long period of time.”

“So who is trying to kill Bobby?”

“I don’t think it’s Dixie. She’s at the very bottom of my list of suspects.”

“Okay, who comes next on your list?” Edward asked.

Janet frowned. “Everyone else is rather muddled together, but I suppose Lucy is next. Bobby is her father. In spite of her difficult childhood, she seems to care about him. I can’t see her trying to kill him. She’s also incredibly spoiled. I think if she were going to try to kill him, that she’d pay someone to do the job.”

“Next on the list, working from the bottom?”

“Probably Neil, because I get the impression that he needs Bobby around.”

“Even though he’d double his personal wealth if anything happened to Bobby?”

“Dixie seemed to think that he’d run himself out of business pretty quickly, though. She said he was smart enough to know that he needs Bobby.”

“So, assuming Dixie can be believed, you’d put Neil next?”

“Yes, although I will admit that I probably shouldn’t be believing Dixie,” Janet told him.

“That leaves two suspects at the top of your list. Which do you think is more likely, Tony or Theodore?”

“You said that you could see Tony this morning. My goodness, was it only this morning that Bobby fell into the road? It feels as if it happened a lifetime ago.”

“It does feel a long time ago,” Edward agreed. “But yes, I could see Tony just before Bobby fell. There’s no way he pushed Bobby into the street.”

“And no one could see Bobby,” Janet sighed. “I don’t really understand how he managed to fall and hit the back of his head.”

“Mr. Jones recreated the fall at the scene. It’s only just possible, if Bobby was pushed sideways as he stood on the edge of the kerb, that he could have fallen at the angle necessary to hit his head in the way that he did.”

“Only ‘just possible.’ Does that mean that you think Bobby fell on purpose?”

“No, actually, it doesn’t. I think if he’d fallen on purpose, he’d have fallen head first into the street and probably broken the fall with his hands. That he fell at such an odd angle actually seems to me to prove that he was pushed.”

“And Tony couldn’t have done it.”

“Absolutely not.”

Janet frowned. “He’s still on the top of my list of suspects. I think he’s after Bobby’s money, or maybe just Lucy’s money. Maybe Bobby doesn’t approve of him marrying Lucy.”

“I asked Bobby about that, actually. He doesn’t really care for Tony, but he also doesn’t expect them to ever get married. Apparently, Lucy gets engaged all the time and has never even gone as far as setting a date. Bobby is pretty certain that Tony will be gone as soon as they get back to the US.”

“All the more reason for Tony to be in a rush, then.”

“Maybe, but what can he truly be hoping to accomplish?”

Janet shrugged. “If it isn’t Tony, it’s Theodore, and I can’t imagine any motive for him.”

“Ah, Theodore. He’s at the top of my list.”

“But why would he want to kill Bobby?”

“Maybe he’s simply tired of Bobby calling him Teddy,” Edward suggested.

Janet laughed. “That isn’t a motive for murder.”

“People have been killed over things that you or I might consider even less significant,” Edward replied. “I do believe that Theodore’s motive is more complicated than that, though. I simply don’t know what it is.”

“You’ve investigated his past?”

“My agency has done some looking into his past. Unfortunately, we don’t have the same access to