Free Antiques Bizarre by Barbara Allan

foolish. I know how much the baby means to you and Kevin.”
    She was nodding, but her blue eyes asked, “ Do you?”
    The tenseness of the moment broke as a college-girl waitress flashed by on roller skates, throwing a handful of bubble gum on our table.
    I let go of Teen’s hand, sat back in the booth. “Sweetie,you have nothing to worry about—the church thing was just a freak accident. Anyway, the chief has told Mother in no uncertain terms that she’s to stay out of the police investigation.”
    Tina gave me a rumpled smile. “And since when has that stopped her?”
    I leaned forward. “I admit I can’t always control Mother, but I most certainly can control myself. And I’m not going to get involved in anything that will jeopardize either me or the baby. I promise.”
    She frowned at me. “You’re not…parsing words, are you?”
    “Of course not!” I frowned at her. “What do you mean?”
    “You stopped short of saying that you wouldn’t get yourself involved, or allow your mother to, either. And if the TV is to be at all believed, this was no ‘freak accident.’ That Chicago art dealer may have been murdered. And who’s to say the food poisoning was accidental?”
    “You sound like you’re the one who’s involved.”
    Her eyes flashed. She wasn’t cross with me, but she wasn’t fooling around, either. “I am involved, if you’re involved. You’re carrying our child!”
    Again, whether “our child” referred to me and her, or her and Kevin, or me and her and…forget it.
    “I’m sorry, Teen, but I’m already involved. I’ll try not to get any more involved, but you have to understand—these deaths, not to mention serious sickness among over one hundred people, all grew out of something Mother put in motion.”
    “That stupid auction.”
    “That stupid auction is going to raise a lot of money for flood relief in this town, so while Mother always has ulterior motives, her heart was in the right place. Teen, she was up all night, worrying about this.”
    I didn’t go into detail—Tina hearing about Mother making a cardboard replica of the church and peopling it with game tokens would have hardly been reassuring.
    “Well,” she said almost timidly, “just let the police handle it. Just you girls stay out of it.”
    “That’s just it—we’ll be involved somewhat, because we were at the scene, and this was Mother’s idea in the first place, the auction. She ran it. I helped. We’ll be questioned and all that kind of stuff. Can’t be avoided.”
    “I…I understand. I do understand.”
    “And the way Mother is reacting…I’ll admit she’s talking this amateur-sleuth silliness again, but the real reason is not that she’s delighted to have another crime to ‘solve.’ She blames herself. Holds herself responsible for the two deaths. And the churchful of sick people.”
    “And you’re saying she’ll try to do something about it?”
    “Teen, I’ll do my best to prevent that. But she’s going to make noise. That much we know about Vivian Borne—she is going to make noise.”
    How could Tina argue with that?
    And when Tina smiled in defeat, I segued into, “Have you thought about baby names?”
    She nodded. “Both boy and girl.”
    When she didn’t provide the prospective monikers, I raised my eyebrows in question. Anything went these days, as names for offspring; I just hoped it wasn’t anything too weird….
    Tina smiled again, warmly now. “Kevin and I have agreed that…if it’s a girl…we’ll name her Brandy.”
    “And…if it’s a boy?”
    “ Brandon , for a boy.”
    Tears sprang to my eyes—heartfelt, not hormonal. “Oh, Teen,” I said softly, “that is so sweet. I’d be honored, of course. You are the best.”
    She shook her head, a little embarrassed. “We always planned on doing that…even before the surrogate thing.”
    Our food arrived, and I immediately took a big bite of the cheeseburger and swallowed before my stomach had a chance to know