Free Take Stock in Murder by Millie Mack Page A

Marshall, and Terry Conan would form the second team. Carrie would have preferred to have golfed with Marilyn to find out more information. However, after the first several holes, she understood why she was playing in the second group. Clearly Marilyn’s goal was to assign the players to a team based on skill.
    By the ninth hole, Carrie felt very comfortable with her team and her golf game. On most holes she either tied or was within a stroke of her teammates. By the fifteenth hole, they were golf chums, and the casual conversation allowed Carrie to ask some important questions.
    “Delores, how’s everyone taking the recent murder of Todd Barrington?” Carrie asked casually.
    “Oh, I hate to even hear that word ‘murder.’ Who would have thought that at a Club like ours, there could be a murder?” Delores wiped off her ball with the yellow TC3-emblem towel attached to her golf bag.
    “Not only a murder, but the murder of the son of one of our most distinguished Club families,” Pat chimed in as she removed a number-two wood from her bag for the next shot. Carrie wondered for a moment whether Pat’s clubs had been custom made because of her height.
    “Yes, it does seem unbelievable. Todd was so likeable and seemed to have so much going for him. Don’t you think?” Carrie deliberately ended with a question, hoping the ladies would continue the conversation.
    “Well, far be it from me to say anything ill of the dead, but of all the Club members, Todd’s death surprised me the least. It was bound to happen sooner or later.”
    “Delores, that’s an awful thing to say!” Pat replied.
    “Perhaps, but I just can’t get all emotional over his death. Maybe it’s because I’m a good ten years older than you two and have seen a lot more in my time, or maybe it’s because I’m the mother of a daughter. But I can say that I was never pleased with Todd’s behavior. Just because his family has money is no reason to allow his flirtatious behavior with his various women. It was rumored that Todd was having affairs with several different women at the same time.”
    “He had affairs with women here at the Club?” Carrie tried to sound surprised.
    “Well, that was the rumor.”
    “Rumors are no good without names, Delores,” Pat said.
    “Pat, now you’re being awful,” replied Delores.
    “No, I’m not. There’s no sense implying a rumor if you don’t give the proper details. That’s how untrue rumors get spread. If people have all the details, they can make up their own minds about a rumor.”
    “Well, OK, but you two have to swear that this won’t go any further. Because like you said, Pat, these are just rumors, and we don’t want innocent people to be hurt.”
    Both Pat and Carrie stood side by side, raised their right hands, and swore they wouldn’t repeat anything Delores told them.
    “I don’t know whether I should.” Delores still had doubts.
    “Come on!” Carrie and Pat shouted at the same time.
    “Oh, all right. The rumors are about members of the other team. That’s why I was hesitant to say anything.”
    “The other team!” Pat said, looking at Delores and then at Carrie. “You mean Marilyn, Judy, and Terry?”
    “Yes.”
    “All three?” asked a surprised Carrie.
    “Two of them.”
    “Which two?” asked Pat as their golf game came to a standstill on top of the hill approaching the sixteenth hole.
    Delores checked that no one else was around to hear and then answered “Marilyn and Terry?”
    “I knew it couldn’t be Judy,” Pat said. “Well, I mean, being married to the president of the Club, well…She would have to be more careful. Plus she seems totally devoted to James.”
    “Delores, why do you think Todd may have been involved with Marilyn and Terry? Did someone tell you about them?” Carrie asked gently.
    “No, I saw them. I mean, I saw one of them with Todd, and then later I overheard a fight about Todd.”
    “OK, Delores, enough is enough. Stop giving us bits