Free A Devious Lot (Antiques & Collectibles Mysteries Book 5) by Ellery Adams, Parker Riggs Page B

can tell your mother when you call her in the morning.”
    “What? Hold on, buster.” Molly shook her head. “I’m not calling her. You are.”
    “Why me?”
    “Because she adores you, Matt. If you ask her, she’ll say yes. If I ask her, she’ll lecture me about getting involved in another murder investigation. I’ll never hear the end of it.” She smiled sweetly. “And my demands don’t stop there. When I call Swanson, you have to stand by my side, in case I need to hand the phone over to you. Promise?”
    He crossed his heart with his index finger. “Promise,” he said.

Chapter 7
     
    “Tiffany’s murder is front-page news this morning,” Tessa said. She was sitting at the kitchen table with the newspaper when Molly came downstairs and lifted it up to show her the headline: Local Woman Found Murdered at White Dove Cottage. “There’s no mention of the kind of poison used.”
    “Boyle must be keeping it from the press for now,” Molly said. “We probably shouldn’t say anything about it to anyone.” She went to the coffee machine, and after a minute of getting her bearings, pressed the right buttons and made an espresso. “Matt and I were talking last night,” she said. “If I can get permission from my boss, and Mom is willing, I’m going to stay here with you while Matt goes home, and Mom will take his place.”
    “What?” Tessa put the newspaper down on the table. “I can’t ask you to do that. You should go home and be with your husband. I’ll be fine.”
    Molly sat down next to her. “Please let us do this for you. If the police haven’t found Tiffany’s killer in a few weeks, we’ll reevaluate. You might be feeling well enough to travel by then, and we could celebrate Christmas in Vermont.”
    Tessa squeezed her hand. “You’re a lovely girl, Molly. Thank you.”
    Molly smiled. “Now all we have to do is convince my boss and my mother. This is a high hurtle.”
    “Not so high,” Matt said as he came into the kitchen. “Swanson agreed, as long as you submit some articles to him on the antiquing world in England.”
    “You called him?” Molly jumped up and hugged him. “Thank you! I was dreading that phone call. But wait a minute. Isn’t it the middle of the night on the East Coast?”
    “It is, but I emailed him and your mother before we went to bed last night, and he replied. And speaking of your mother, she wrote a few minutes ago and said you should call her.”
    “Mom’s awake?”
    “She said she couldn’t sleep.”
    Molly put the call on speaker phone. After she was assured her mother wasn’t ill, they sat around the kitchen table and talked pleasantries for a while, and then Molly got down to business and told her everything about Tiffany’s death and their idea for her to fly to England. There was silence on the other end of the line. Molly glanced at Matt, but he didn’t look concerned. Tessa, she noticed, had crossed her fingers.
    Finally, Clara said, “All right, I’ll do it. It’s been too long since I’ve paid you a visit, Tessa.”
    “Thank you, dear,” Tessa said. “It will be lovely to see you.”
    “Matt, what’s the best flight?” Clara asked. Matt told her. “Perfect. I’ll use my credit card to book it, and you can pay me back later.”
    Molly blew out her breath. She hadn’t realized she’d been holding it in. “Thanks, Ma,” she said.
    “You’re welcome,” Clara said. “Now, if Matt and Tessa don’t mind, I’d like to talk to you in private.”
    Uh-oh, Molly thought. She didn’t like the tone of her mother’s voice. She took her phone off speaker and walked down the hall, steeling herself for a scolding. When she was settled on the sofa in the sitting room, she said, “Please don’t yell at me.”
    “I never yell at you,” Clara said. “But really, Molly, this has to stop.”
    Molly feigned ignorance. “Stop what?”
    “You know what I mean, young lady . . . finding dead bodies.”
    “It’s not like I go