03 Murder by Mishap by Suzanne Young Read Free Book Online Page A

…”
    Reading the number, she recognized the area code for Chicago. She knew the code because Chicago was where her sister lived. Edna shrugged, realizing she’d have to wait for another visit from Jaycee to find answers to the questions going around in her head. Stepping into her office, she slipped the envelope into a desk drawer before returning to the living room.
    No sooner had she figured out where she was in the little sweater pattern and begun to knit again when she heard the front door open. Did I forget to lock it? Her heart began to thump in double-time before her daughter’s voice rang out. “Hello. It’s me.”
    “I’m in the living room, dear.” Edna called back, as her heart rate returned to normal.
    The youngest of her four children strode into view and threw herself onto the sofa, facing Edna with a look of utter dejection.
     Deciding to ignore what she knew from experience was her child’s self-pitying attitude, Edna said, “You’re looking particularly lovely this evening. What are you doing here—and all dressed up on a Monday night?”
    Starling lived in the Back Bay area of Boston where she was co-owner of a photography studio. She was tall and willowy, having her father’s physique. Instead of his pale blondeness, however, she had her mother’s auburn coloring. Typically, she wore slacks and a pullover, but this evening, she had on a black, sleeveless, fitted sheath dress with a V-shaped neckline. Her straight, shoulder-length hair had been pulled back and pinned at the crown. A slender, onyx pendant that matched her earrings hung from a thin silver chain around her neck.
    “I thought I was going to have dinner with Charlie, but he’s working … again .
    Why did you ever fix me up with a cop?”
    Edna lowered her knitting and looked over the top of her glasses. “As I remember it, dear child of mine, you asked me if he were married, and he asked me if I’d mind him calling you. I said ‘no’ to you both.”
    Starling paused and frowned for a few seconds before bursting into laughter. “Got me there, Mommy Dearest. Your defense is indisputable.” She laughed again as Edna, smiling, resumed her knitting.
    “But it’s so frustrating,” Starling wailed. “He said he’d have the next few evenings free, so I decided to bring my cameras and shoot around South County for a couple of days. We were supposed to meet at that new restaurant in Narragansett. I was even on time, but just as I was pulling into the parking lot, he called and said he couldn’t make it.” She turned and fell dramatically sideways to press her face into a sofa pillow, muffling a melodramatic scream of disappointment. Coming up for air, she groaned, “He was assigned to a new case late this afternoon and told to get on it yesterday .”
    During her daughter’s tirade, Edna had turned off the CD player, and now she gave up trying to count stitches. Removing her eyeglasses and setting them on the side table next to the player, she said in what she hoped was a sympathetic tone. “Surely, you’ll be able to see him tonight. He has to eat sometime.”
    “You’d think so, wouldn’t you?” Starling pouted and clutched the pillow to her chest with both arms.
    “Don’t sulk, dear, it’s unbecoming, and your face will freeze like that.” Edna teased with a quote from her own grandmother who used to drive everyone to distraction with her commonplace advice.
    As she’d hoped, her child chuckled and regained her more-typical sunny disposition. Edna knew this daughter’s peevishness was mainly for immediate dramatic effect and not deep-seated petulance as would be the case with Diane, child number two.
    Of Edna’s four children, Starling was the only one who hadn’t yet married. She’d had a number of suitable boyfriends over the years, but at age thirty-two, she hadn’t yet found someone she couldn’t live without. Edna thought maybe her current interest, Charlie Rogers, might be different. For one