Free DEATH IN PERSPECTIVE by Larissa Reinhart Page A

harshly, Red.”
    For some reason, that statement did not make me feel better. But the sight of Casey
     carrying in my pimento burger and fries did. I pulled in a deep whiff of cheesy burger
     and deep fried, thin cut sweet potatoes sprinkled with brown sugar and tried to forget
     about crazy drama teachers, Cody’s pilfering, and Branson pirates.
    Before I could take a bite of ambrosial ground sirloin spread with tangy pimento and
     a slice of tomato, I heard the chirping voice of the Tara bird clamoring at someone.
     And where Tara roamed, certainly one Luke Harper must be in the vicinity. My eyes
     left the sesame seed bun to drift to the mirror directly across the bar and locked
     onto the flinty gaze of the man I once loved.
    Maybe still did.
    But shouldn’t.
    Dammit. I dropped the burger on the plate. For the love of pimento, when was fate
     going to give me a break?

      
    I swung around on my stool to face him and instead, came face to face with Tara Mayfield.
    “Cherry!” Her adorableness had not lost its punch with the passage of the day. “I
     spoke to my brother about the school play. Laurence’s going to join the set crew to
     help you so he can get drama credits.”
    She squealed, hopped, and clapped like I had made some sort of touchdown on her behalf.
     I glanced at Leah to see what she thought of the high-pitched screeching, but Leah
     wore the smile she reserved for babies and surgeons who cured cancer. Todd, on the
     other hand, had the glazed-over expression that men reserved for the Dallas Cowboy
     Cheerleaders. I swallowed an eye roll and turned back to Miss Wonderful.
    “Great,” I said. “I’ll be glad to meet him.”
    “I’m coming to the practices, too.”
    I disguised my “ o h, shit” as a half-hearted “awesome.”
    “Did you hear about poor Miss Pringle?”
    “Sure enough. That news was all over the school.” I glanced at Luke. Like a gunslinger,
     he sat with his back to the wall, scanning the room while sipping a beer. At my turn,
     his eyes zipped back to mine. I adjusted my position to block him with Tara’s head.
     Which didn’t work because I had finally found someone with my height limitations.
     “Did you chat with Luke about Miss Pringle? ”
    “Talk about someone’s self-inflicted death with Luke? He hears enough of that nasty
     stuff at work. Why would he want to talk about it when he’s off the clock?”
    I laughed, then realized she was serious. “Tara, you might learn some interesting
     tidbit he picked up at the station. Aren’t you curious?”
    She shook her head.
    “Well, I’m sure as hell curious.” I hopped from my stool, then grabbed my burger.
     “Why don’t you speak to Leah about shoes or feeding the homeless or something?”
    I wound around the tables, bumping into a family with multiple high chaired offspring,
     and slid my plate onto the table across from Luke. He had a basket of wings sitting
     untouched before him. “Mind if I take a seat?”
    He pushed the chair out with his foot. “Please do. I came here hoping to see you anyway.”
    “And your girl, Tara, trailed along right behind you . ” I winked. “Say friend, here’s something. That school secretary who died. She committed
     suicide. They found her today, but the drama teacher said she killed herself last
     Friday. I just wondered if you’d heard anything more. The drama teacher’s all in a
     tizzy about this cyberbullying thing that’s going on at their school again. This time
     it’s the teachers being targeted , not the students.”
    Luke dropped his hand to the table. “I didn’t know. Do the Line Creek police think the cyberbullying and the secretary’s suicide are related?”
    “Dunno. I’m just going by Mr. Tinsley’s report, but he seems as reliable as an old
     Pinto. He did say that Miss Pringle received an insidious text. And sounds like Miss
     Pringle closeted a lot of secrets.”
    “What about Tinsley? Does he have any secrets?”
    I snorted. “He