11 Eleven On Top by Janet Evanovich Read Free Book Online

so big you could push a potato through it.”
    Bellas eyes rolled around in her head. “I'm having a vision. I'm having a vision.”
    I grabbed the gun from Grandma and shoved it back into her bag. “No shooting! She's just a crazy old lady.”
    Bella snapped to attention. “Crazy old lady? Crazy old lady? I'll show you crazy old lady. I'll give you a thrashing. Someone get me a stick. I'll put the eye on everyone if someone doesn't give me a stick.”
    “No one thrashes my granddaughter,” Grandma Mazur said. “And besides, look around. Do you see any sticks? It's not like you're in the woods. You know what your problem is? You gotta learn how to chill.”
    Bella grabbed Grandma Mazur by the nose. She was so fast Grandma never saw it coming. “You're a demon woman!” Bella shouted.
    Grandma Mazur clocked Bella on the side of the head with the big patent-leather purse, but Bella had a death grip on Grandma Mazur. Grandma hit her a second time and Bella hunkered in. Bella scrunched up her face and held tight to the nose.
    I was in the mix, trying to wrestle Bella away. Grandma accidentally caught me with a roundhouse swing of the purse that knocked me off my feet.
    Bitsy Mullen was jumping around, wringing her hands and shrieking. “Help! Stop! Someone do something!”
    Mrs. Lubchek was behind Bitsy, at the cookie table, watching the whole thing. “Oh, for the love of God,” Mrs. Lubchek said with an eyeroll. And Mrs. Lubchek grabbed the pitcher of iced tea off the cookie table and dumped it on Grandma Bella and Grandma Mazur.
    Grandma Bella released Grandma Mazur's nose and looked down at herself. “I'm wet. What is this?”
    “Iced tea,” Mrs. Lubchek said. “I poured iced tea on you.”
    “I'll turn you into an artichoke.”
    “You need to take a pill,” Mrs. Lubchek said. “You're nutsy cuckoo.”
    Stiva hurried across the room with Joe's mother close on his heels.
    “We're out of iced tea,” Mrs. Lubchek said to Stiva.
    “I'm having a vision,” Grandma Bella said, her eyes rolling around in her head. “I see fire. A terrible fire. I see rats escaping, running from the fire. Big, ugly, sick rats. And one of the rats has come back.” Bella's eyes snapped open and focused on me. “He's come back to get you.”
    “Omigod,” Bitsy said. “Omigod. Omigod!”
    “I need to lay down now. I always get tired after I have a vision,” Bella said.
    “Wait,” I said to her. “What kind of a vision is that? A rat? Are you sure about this vision thing?”
    “Yeah, and what do you mean the rat's sick?” Grandma Mazur wanted to know. “Does it have rabies?”
    “That's all I'm going to say,” Bella said. “It's a vision. A vision is a vision. I'm going home.”
    Bella whirled on her heel and walked to the door with her back ramrod straight and Joe's mom behind her, scurrying to keep up.
    Grandma Mazur turned to the cookie tray and picked through the cookies, looking for a chocolate chip. “I tell you a person's gotta get here early or there's only leftovers.”
    We were both dripping iced tea. And Grandma Mazur's nose was red and swollen.
    “We should go home,” I said to Grandma Mazur. “I have to get out of this shirt.”
    “Yeah,” Grandma Mazur said. “I guess I could go. I paid my respects to the deceased and this cookie tray's a big disappointment.”
    “Did you hear anything about Michael Barroni?”
    Grandma dabbed at her shirt with a napkin. "Only that he's still missing. The boys are running the store, but Emma Wilson tells me they're not getting along.
    Emma works there part-time. She said the young one is a trial."
    “Anthony.”
    “That's the one. He was always a troublemaker. Remember there was that business with Mary Jane Roman.”
    “Date rape.”
    “Nothing ever came of that,” Grandma said. “But I never doubted Mary Jane. There was always something off about Anthony.”
    We'd walked out of the funeral home and down the street to the car. I looked inside the car and saw