Free 5 A Bad Egg by Jessica Beck

sincere about at least that
much, and that she regretted the trouble she and Gordon had caused Ellen since
they’d come to town.
    “That’s all
that I can ask,” Jessie said, and then she walked away.
    I went back
into the diner, took a deep breath, and decided that the longer I put it off,
the worse it was going to be.
    I needed to
convey Jessie’s message, no matter how unpleasant Ellen’s reaction might be.
    As I walked
inside, I looked back over my shoulder. Jessie was heading toward a nice car,
but that wasn’t what caught my eye.
    Wayne, my
favorite mechanic and Ellen’s current boyfriend, sat up in the car he was
driving after she passed him, and as soon as Jessie pulled out of the parking
lot, he was right behind her.
    What was the
man up to?
    I didn’t
know, but I was going to make it a point to find out the next time I had a
chance to talk to him. That was all we needed, more people trying to solve
Gordon’s murder and getting in our way. Moose and I had it covered, and at
least we had some experience investigating.
    All Wayne
would do was mess things up.

 

 

 
    Chapter 8

 
 
    “Is she
gone?” Ellen asked me as I walked back into the diner.
    “She just left,”
I said. “Do you have a second?”
    Ellen
surveyed the tables, checked the order window, and then nodded. “We’re in the
middle of a lull. What did she have to say?”
    “Among other
things, she wanted to apologize to you,” I said.
    Ellen’s gaze
flared, and her face flushed a little. “What happened? Was she too afraid to
face me herself? Why did she send you to apologize to me?”
    “She asked me
if she should speak with you directly, but I wasn’t sure that it was all that
good an idea. I offered to tell you myself, and if that was the wrong decision,
you shouldn’t hold it against her.”
    “Are you
actually on her side, Victoria?”
Ellen asked loudly enough to get the attention of our diners. Great. I’d been
trying to avoid a scene, and now I was the direct cause of one.
    “Lower your
voice,” I said, and she nodded. “You shouldn’t even have to ask me that
question. I was thinking of you when I volunteered to convey her message, but
if I was wrong, I’m sure she’ll talk directly to you about it. I was just
trying to help.”
    Ellen nodded.
“I know you were. I’m sorry I snapped. I can’t help myself. When I think about
Gordon trying to take my children away from me, with that woman’s deep pockets
behind him, it makes me so furious I could scream.”
    “You’re going
to want to fight that impulse,” I said, trying my best to smile gently. “We
don’t need any help painting you with the ‘Angry Ex’ brush. Half the town
probably thinks that if you did do it, you were defending your children, and
I’m fairly sure none of them blame you for what happened to Gordon.”
    Ellen looked
around the room, and a half dozen folks looked straight down into their plates.
“Do you honestly think that many people in town believe that I’m a murderer?”
    “I misspoke,”
I said, realizing how damaging that must have sounded to Ellen. “I’m sure most
of them believe in your innocence.”
    “But not all
of them,” Ellen said. “Not by a long shot. I’ve lived in Jasper Fork my entire
life. How could anyone think I was capable of murder?”
    “Don’t forget
that plenty of them have believed it of me in the past,” I said, “so don’t feel
like they’re picking on you. Ellen, it’s one of the reasons that Moose and I
are searching for Gordon’s killer. The longer it takes for an arrest to be
made, the worse it’s going to get for you and your family. Trust me on this
one, there are more consequences from being convicted in the court of popular
opinion than any trial.”
    “I know
you’ve been in the center of these things before,” Ellen said. “I thought I
understood how you felt, but that was foolish of me. Until I started feeling
the scorn of folks I thought were my friends, I had no