Free Pushed to the Limit (an Emma Cassidy Mystery Book 2) by Karen Chester Page B

Right. Time to explore the rest of the house.
    She walked down a wide, dim hallway that led
toward the front door. A pink-tiled bathroom sat just beyond the kitchen. The
living room was at the front of the house, the parted drapes revealing a big,
square room with a floral maroon carpet and heavy, dark wooden furniture. Some
of these pieces looked pretty ancient; possibly Faye had inherited them from
her parents together with the house. The most modern item in the room was a
large flat-screen TV that sat incongruously in one corner.
    A cabinet filled with framed photographs
drew her attention. She couldn’t help peering at them, even though it made her
feel like an inquisitive busybody. Judging by the family photos, Faye had been
a remarkably pretty girl, with thick dark hair, bright eyes, and an engaging,
open smile. She seemed to be quite popular, too. There were photos of her with
friends hiking, boating, playing softball. Also pictures of her in evening
gowns accompanied by young men in suits. She’d had a few beaus, apparently.
    She couldn’t help noticing that there were
few pictures of Lorraine, her closest living relative. But there were plenty of
a large, gray parrot, some of them taken inside the house, and others outdoors.
Evidence that Faye adored her parrot…and thought more of him than her own
sister?
    “Wark!”
    Emma jumped at the loud croak. She turned
around. An arched entryway separated the living room from an adjoining dining
room filled with more dark furniture. Near the window was a large domed
structure shrouded by a plastic cover. This must be the parrot’s cage.
    She walked over and carefully lifted one
flap of the cover.
    “Wark?” A beady black eye stared back at
her.
    She pulled the cover off the cage and
admired the parrot inside. He was larger than she’d expected, gray feathered with
a black beak and a bright red tail. The animal cocked his head as if he was
still making up his mind about her.
    “Hello, Pepper,” she said. “I’m Emma.
I’m…well, I’m not exactly a friend of your mom’s, but I’m helping her out.” She
paused, feeling silly for trying to converse with a bird.
    “Mommy’s home. Mommy’s home.” Pepper bobbed
his head from side to side.
    Was he peering over her shoulder, looking
for Faye?
    “Aw, you poor thing.” She found herself
cooing. There was something about helpless animals that always got to her. As
an only child, she’d been inseparable from her golden retriever. Shaggy had
gone to doggy heaven when she was sixteen, and she’d never had another pet. Now
that she wasn’t in New York anymore, maybe she could think about getting
another dog. When she had her own home, of course.
    The newspaper lining the bottom of the cage
was liberally soiled with bird poop and food debris. Three stainless steel
bowls were clipped to the side of the cage. One held an inch of water, another
held some gray-brown pellets, and the third contained a few wilted leaves. Hmm,
it looked like parrots ate vegetables and maybe fruit as well as pellets.
Should she give Pepper some fresh food? He’d probably be all right if she only
replenished the bird pellets, but he deserved a treat after spending the night
on his own.
    She returned to the kitchen and soon found
a bag of bird pellets in a cupboard. Using her phone to access the internet,
she read up on the diets of African grey parrots and discovered they enjoyed
fruit, too. So she took an apple from the fruit bowl and cut it into small
chunks. She gathered several sheets of newspaper from a recycling box in the
laundry, filled a jug with water, and carried everything back to the dining
room.
    “Mommy’s home! Mommy’s home!” Pepper
squawked. He shunted up and down his perch, eyeing her closely as she
approached.
    He wasn’t as calm as before, she noted.
Maybe with the cover off, he was fully awake and expecting Faye. Instead, she
was here, a stranger in the house, and he was probably getting agitated.
    “Easy