PENITENCE: An Andi Comstock Supernatural Mystery, Book 2 (95,893 words) by Ann Simas

wife was so strong, she rarely cried. Apparently, he had never considered how she might react to his death, or the allegation that she’d cheated on him. Choosing her words carefully, Andi explained who she was, where she worked, and what she encountered on a daily basis when she sat at her computer.
    Denise stared at her as if she were some whack job just released from a mental hospital. Andi couldn’t blame her. Wouldn’t she react the same way, if their roles had been reversed? Hadn’t she had a hard time dealing with the Smokies in the beginning? And if she were being honest, she still had difficulty with whatever phenomenon it was that had made her the one who could hear dead people.
    The doorbell rang. Stacy righted Denise’s chair and forced her to sit. “I’ll get the door. Be right back.”
    She returned with Vaughn close behind her.
    “Sorry I’m late,” he said to Andi. “Kid issues.” His gaze moved on to Denise, whose expression was a cross between shock and disbelief. “I’m guessing that right about now, Denise either wants to throw you out on your arse or use a butcher knife on you.”
    Denise raised stunned eyes on him. “You believe this madness?”
    Vaughn rounded the table and squatted beside her, taking both her hands in his. “I can’t speak to whether or not you were having an affair, Denise, but—”
    “I wasn’t!”
    “But,” he went on, as if she hadn’t interrupted, “I do believe what Andi’s told you.” He swallowed hard, as if trying to get his emotions under control. “I’ll tell you why.”
    . . .
    Denise led Andi, Stacy, and Vaughn into Clem’s office, then went upstairs to see if she could locate the burner phone in the bureau. She returned several minutes later, looking a little shell-shocked as she handed it and his smartphone over to Stacy, who passed both to Andi. “Honestly, I’m surprised it was there. Clem was constantly misplacing his phone. The fact that he could keep track of two of them astonishes me.”
    Denise and Vaughn sat in the two leather chairs facing the desk while Stacy began a methodical search of the desk and file cabinet. Andi took Clem’s laptop and both phones over to a small table near the window where a chess board was set up. She moved it to make room for the laptop.
    She tackled the disposable phone first, transcribing the text messages between Clem and The Liquidator. An hour later, Stacy came up dry in her search, but Andi, with Denise’s assistance on possible passwords, managed to get into both Clem’s smartphone and his email account. There were only two related texts on the smartphone, but nearly a month earlier, he’d exchanged several emails with The Liquidator. The week before his death, he received one last email, which had instructed him to buy a throw-away phone.
    Andi made a note of the IP address. Maybe, just maybe, the police could track this contract killer down before he got close to Denise.
    “What now?” Denise asked, her eyes on Andi.
    Clem’s widow had gone from tearfully wringing her hands to being royally pissed off. Who could blame her? No woman wants to know her husband, dead or alive, hired someone to kill her. Especially over a bogus assumption.
    Andi looked to Stacy for guidance. Technically, this was her show, after all.
    “First things first,” the LT said, her tone crisp and cop-like again. “Clem gave the hitman a window of opportunity to complete the hit. We’ll do everything we can to make certain you’re not only safe during that period, but inaccessible, as well.” She went on to relay the dates from the summary page Andi had given her.
    Denise looked doubtful. “You really think if this Liquidator person can’t kill me before February eighth, I’ll be free and clear?”
    “We’ll make every effort to ensure your safety, but obviously, I don’t know what’s going on in the hitman’s head, which means I can’t predict every contingency.”
    “So, basically, you’re saying