Free The Busy Woman's Guide to Murder by Mary Jane Maffini Page B

settled down and smiled at us, expectantly. Her face was already less puffy and she was obviously more with it than when we arrived.
    “I’m sorry,” she said, “I just didn’t follow what was going on. Explain it again.”
    “Charlotte thought you were dead,” Jack said, blowing on his coffee cup.
    “Dead?”
    “We’re both glad you’re not.”
    “Hey, me too,” she said. “But, um, what would make you think I was dead?”
    “Silly,” I said, feeling my face redden.
    “Charlotte lets her imagination run away sometimes. This was one of those times. Great coffee, Haley.”
    What a liar. He seemed so innocent too.
    “Excellent,” I said, adding to the lie quotient in the room. “Just strong enough to do the trick.”
    “I still don’t understand why you thought I was dead.”
    “It’s crazy.”
    She nodded. I guess she already knew that.
    “Another woman was killed in the middle of the night. She was walking to her car near Ambleside Acres, probably going home. She was found around six this morning.”
    Haley’s watery blue eyes widened. “Killed? You mean another hit-and-run?”
    “Exactly,” Jack said. I noticed he wasn’t actually drinking the coffee.
    Haley’s gaze shifted from Jack to me. “I didn’t catch the news yet today. We usually finish around three and sleep until ten or eleven. Randy’s still sleeping now.”
    “I hope we didn’t wake him up.”
    She grinned. “An atomic bomb wouldn’t wake him up. Don’t worry about that. The same with our daughter, Brie.”
    I felt a bit of relief that I only had to appear like an idiot in front of one person. Jack didn’t count. We were used to being foolish in front of each other and so that never mattered. I said, “I knew you worked nights in offices and I knew that there were those couple of strip malls at the edge of Ambleside Acres so I started to worry. What if . . . ?”
    “What if someone’s trying to kill me too?”
    I nodded. “I realize it’s silly now. It’s just that the first victim looked so much like Serena and I was wondering if it was a case of mistaken identity.”
    Haley had just started to realize what that might have meant. “You think someone wanted to kill Serena? And me? Because of actions when we were kids? Oh my God, I regret all that so much. Why would someone want to kill me? I’m sorry for everything I did.”
    “That was my thinking. But it wasn’t you, so it was obviously a product of my feverish mind. I am so sorry, Haley.”
    Haley stood up, walked over to the stack of split firewood, opened the glass-fronted door, and added a healthy top-up to the fire. I liked the crackling noise. She sat down again and said, “But it might have been me. What if this was another mistake? Randy and I do have clients in those strip malls. We just don’t work there on Saturday nights.”
    I added, “We’re sorry about this, Haley. I shouldn’t have panicked and alarmed you. I see now that it didn’t happen and that’s a good thing.”
    A sound between a squeak and a roar caught our attention and we turned. A large hairy man stuck his head out of what must have been the bedroom door. He stepped into the room and scratched his belly. He spotted us and then scratched his head. He turned to face Haley. “What’s going on, sweetheart?”
    “Randy,” she said. “You remember Charlotte Adams, don’t you, hon?” I gave myself yet another mental kick.
    He squinted at me. He was a man who had worked all night and found himself with unexpected visitors in the morning before he’d had a cup of coffee. Considering all that, he seemed pretty mild. He said, “Who?”
    “Charlotte Adams. From St. Jude’s? She almost went out with your buddy Jason Gardner? Remember? Before we were going together. Or we could have double-dated.”
    He blinked. “Yeah, sure,” he said unconvincingly. He managed a teddy bear grin. He was instantly likeable. I would have trusted him with my wallet. I could see how he would have