Free A Touch of the Grape: A Hemlock Falls Mystery (Hemlock Falls Mystery series) by Claudia Bishop Page A

"two."
    "Is there any help we can give you, Mr. Burke?" Quill rubbed the back of her neck. She was tired. She was really tired. She wished that she'd given in to impulse and said to Myles: "Please, yes, come home NOW." "I know it looks suspicious. But honestly. We didn't set that fire. You can't believe my sister and I would do anything like that for any kind of money."
    "You'd be surprised at what people will do for money."
    Denny grunted agreement.
    Quill thought about this, then said, "No, I guess I wouldn't. I've seen a lot of people do a lot of horrible things for money. All I'm telling you is that this isn't that kind of town. And we're not that kind of people."
    Meg squeaked irrepressibly in a high falsetto, "Daddy! Clarence got his wings!"
    "What the hell?" Burke said in a tired voice.
    Quill made a face. "I guess I was sounding Pollyannaish. It's a line from Frank Capra's movie. It's a Won derful Life. Meg hates that movie. Every time I start to sound a little, um …"
    "Jimmy-Stewart dorkish?" Meg asked. "Donna Reedish?"
    "… noble is a word I like. Anyhow, she likes to poke a pin in me. So she quotes. Worse yet, she sings."
    "That so?" Mr. Burke looked at Meg, and grinned suddenly. "You know what? I hate It's a Wonderful Life, too. It's not an especially wonderful life, if you ask me. Look at crime in the cities. Look at the people who think AIDS victims should be shunted away to a camp. Look at Arab terrorists. They are all people like you and me—which is to say, mean, rotten, and dirty as dogs."
    Meg grinned back and slid him the entire fruit bowl.
    Quill shook her head, covered her face with her hands, and muttered, "I get it, Mr. Burke. You don't know us from Arab terrorists. We could be bad guys in innocent young women suits, for all you know. So. Stick around. Poke your nose into anything you want We'll be right behind you. Because if the fire chief is right, and this was a deliberate murder, somebody set that fire to burn poor Ellen Dunbarton to a crisp. And somebody should find out who."
    A slender young girl with brown hair and big eyes sidled softly up to the table. "Quill? I'm sorry to interrupt. There's quite a few people from town to see you."
    Meg leaped to her feet with a whoop. "Yes! Dina Muir, returned from the world of the laid-off, downsized, and unemployed. Returned to her job as receptionist. It's good to see you." Meg grabbed Dina in a hug. "Are you glad to be back? I'm sure glad to see you. And I don't know how long the business generated by these curiosity-seekers is going to last, but I'm sure happy to see you now. Was it horrible, being unemployed?"
    "Um," said Dina. "Not really." She was growing her hair long again, and she wound a piece around her finger. "I, like, was getting unemployment, you know? And, like, the check? Almost the same as my pay here. And I didn't have to, like, work for it. I got a lot of work done on my thesis. Anyhow." She turned to Quill. "It's the Reverend Mr. Shuttleworth? And like that? They said if you were busy or harassed or whatever, they'd come back later. I said you were eating lunch."
    "You should have asked them to come in." Quill got to her feet. "I'll go see them. Unless you need me anymore, Mr. Burke? Denny?" Rocky Burke shook his head. Denny, who had retired to the silent and efficient disposal of his lunch, shook his head and grinned. Bits of pate fell on his shirt. "Where are they, Dina?"
    "I stuck them in the conference center. It looks like it's the whole darn Chamber of Commerce."
    It wasn't the entire Hemlock Falls Chamber of Com merce—which numbered twenty-four—but it was the regulars, plus one new member Quill was very glad to see: Selena Summerhill. Quill smiled at them all: Mayor Elmer Henry; Dookie Shuttleworth, the Minister of the Church of the Word of God; Miriam Doncaster, the librarian; Esther West, owner of the West's Best Dress Shoppe; Harvey Bozzel, president of Hemlock Falls' best (and only) advertising agency. She was even