Chapter 12

She didn't go back to the station, but headed home to the little cottage she'd rented in the heart of town. She'd got the place for a song, at least a third of what she would've paid for the same kind of accommodations in the city.

The place was neat and out of the way with its little garden out back and the trees that shielded it from view of anyone driving by. She'd been lucky to find it or more to the point that the captain had found it for her just when she needed it.

The owners had moved away after spending their lives here. Gone to some retirement home in Florida where they were enjoying sun and surf. They'd left all the furniture and she hadn't needed to change a thing, except the mattress since she was never one for home decor.

Though the place looked like something out of a nineteenth century inn, it did fit with the general ambience of Briar Reef so she saw no need to fiddle with it. Plus it had saved her from having to shell out thousands of dollars.

She used one of the