A Decadent Way to Die by G.A. McKevett Read Free Book Online

meet you, Blanca. And this is my friend, Detective Sergeant Dirk Coulter.”
Dirk gave the young woman his most intimidating “cowboy gunfighter” scowl … the one that made Savannah feel the need to bop him and tell him to be nice.
The look worked well on tough gangbangers, but when used on less hardcore citizens, it scared the daylights out of them and frequently caused them to withdraw.
Blanca looked like a turtle pulling into her shell as she took a step backward, ducked her head, and crossed her arms over her chest.
“Detective?” she whispered. “You are police?”
“I’m not the police,” Savannah told her. “And he’s just my friend. We’re here to make sure that everything’s okay for Mrs. Strauss.”
“Miss Helene,” Blanca corrected her. “You call her Mrs. Strauss, she gets very mad. She did not like her mother-in-law.”
“Oh, right.” Savannah smiled. “I forgot. Miss Helene. We’re just checking a few things to make sure that she’s okay. You heard what happened to her … the accidents?”
“Yes!” She nodded vigorously, her beautiful, dark brown eyes wide. “I heard! She fell off the mountain! My husband saved her.”
“Then your husband is the gardener?” Savannah asked.
“Yes. She was going to fall. He pulled her back.”
“Were you there when it happened? Did you see it?”
Blanca glanced right and left, then down at her sneakers. “No. I was not there.”
“Where were you?” the still-scowling Dirk wanted to know.
“In el castillo. I was cleaning. I clean for Miss Helene.”
“ El castillo ? Oh, the castle … the big house?”
“Yes. I clean the house and my husband is the gardener. And he takes care of the cars.”
Savannah looked deep into the mahogany-colored eyes that seemed so reluctant to meet hers. “Blanca, do you know anyone who would want to hurt Miss Helene?”
The young woman dropped her shears. She bent over and took her time picking them up. When she did, Savannah noticed that the handful of cilantro she was holding was shaking like a willow tree in a Georgia wind storm.
“No,” Blanca said. “Miss Helene is like an angel. She gets mad sometimes, and she screams at people sometimes. But she isn’t bad. She’s good.”
“Who does she scream at?” Dirk asked.
Blanca shrugged. “Everyone, when they don’t do things right. She wants everyone to do their work right. But she’s good.”
“And you can’t think of anyone who would want to hurt her?” Savannah asked again.
Blanca hesitated just a bit too long, then shook her head. “No. I can think of no one.”
Savannah lowered her voice to a soft whisper. “If you think of someone, would you tell me? You know … to help Miss He-lene?”
Blanca looked up at Savannah with eyes filled with painful secrets. After several long, tense seconds, she finally nodded.
“Thank you,” Savannah told her, reaching into her purse and pulling out a business card. She held it out to the woman. “My phone number is on there. You can call me any time at all, day or night. Okay?”
Blanca mumbled a halfhearted, “Okay,” and shoved the card into her jeans pocket.
Savannah glanced around. “Where is your husband, Blanca? We need to speak to him, too.”
A look of fresh fear crossed the housekeeper’s face.
“Just for a moment,” Savannah added. “There’s no problem. We just need to ask him about how he saved her. He’s a real hero, your husband.”
Blanca gave her a weak smile and a slight nod. “Yes. A hero.” She pointed toward the back of the cottage. “He’s working on the chicken house.”
Savannah heard Dirk groan, and she couldn’t help smiling just a little.
Dirk liked cats and dogs, but he was no fan of livestock … beyond eating them.
“Thank you, señora ,” Savannah told Blanca. “Please call if me you think of anything.”
“I will.”
No, you won’t , Savannah thought.
Her internal lie detector was pretty reliable, and even though she had sensed that Blanca harbored a certain degree