Free Booked for Trouble by Eva Gates Page B

needed . . . needs someone to talk to.”
    â€œSweetie, Karen talks to everyone. I’m not saying she has an easy life, not married to Norm Kivas, but she has a steady job, reasonably good kids. She loves to play the martyr, though, milks it for all it’s worth. Like last night. Can’t just say she had car problems, but made sure we all knew she couldn’t afford repairs. Oh yeah, she’ll sigh and say she can’t complain. And then she’ll complain. And complain. She came here the day after I fired Norm.
Soooo sorry.
I had no idea of how difficult poor Karen had it all these years. But, mustn’t complain.”
    â€œYou don’t like her?”
    â€œSweetie, I don’t know her well enough to like her ornot. She was hinting that I should give Norm one more chance, and when I lied and said I’d found someone else, she was, shall we say, not polite. Of course next time she came in, she was all sweetness and light and
soooo sorry
about mean old Norm.”
    I nibbled at my scone, and thought about Monday’s meeting between Mom and Karen at the hotel. My mom had been unpardonably rude to her. Karen had struck back, hard.
Was there anything wrong with that?
No, not unless she’d meant to take it further.
    â€œYou still haven’t told me why you’re asking all these questions, Lucy.”
    â€œKaren died yesterday.”
    â€œWow! What happened? We saw her just last night.”
    â€œI don’t know.” I explained about Karen’s body being found on the lighthouse grounds. “The police are there now.”
    Josie leaned back in her seat. “I feel bad about saying mean things about her.”
    â€œYou were more honest that way.” I licked the tip of my index finger and ran it through the remaining crumbs on my plate.
    â€œThere’s more to this than your curiosity. Spill, Lucy.”
    â€œIs your dad in town? I mean, he hasn’t gone to Louisiana to visit his family or anything?”
    â€œYes. And no. He’s home.”
    My uncle Amos was a lawyer. He’d cut back on his workload in the past year, easing himself, he said, into retirement. He’d once been one of the top criminal lawyers in the state. “I might need to have him on speed dial. It turns out that my mom knew Karen back in the day and they had an unpleasant encounter recently.”
    â€œHow unpleasant?”
    â€œMom was rude, and Karen threatened her.”
    â€œThreatened her. How?”
    â€œSomething about some secret Mom wouldn’t want to get out.”
    â€œYeah, I noticed they weren’t exactly friendly at book club.”
    And that was the problem. Everyone had seen them being cold and distant. And no one, except me, had seen them make up.
    â€œForget about it,” Josie said. “Karen was all talk. She’d never do anything to ruin her poor-little-me image.”
    â€œMom wouldn’t know that.”
    â€œYou can’t be thinking . . .”
    â€œI’m not thinking anything. But Detective Watson is. And Mom didn’t help her case by treating him like the hired help. I’m surprised she didn’t tell him to use the servants’ entrance. What a mess.”
    â€œYou want another coffee?”
    â€œNo. I’d better get back to the library. See what’s happening there.” I dug my phone out of my purse and checked to see if I’d missed any calls. Nothing.
    A family tumbled into the bakery. Mom, Dad, teenagers, preteens, grandparents, and an aunt and uncle or two. They were dressed in an assortment of brilliantly colored clothes and all had sunburned noses. “You have work to do. I’ve taken enough of your time.”
    My cousin gave me a radiant smile. She reached across the table and patted my hand. “Anytime, sweetie. You know that. I’ll call Dad right now. Tell him he might be hearing from you. Just as a precaution. You have absolutely nothing