A Ghostly Undertaking by Tonya Kappes Read Free Book Online

captive.
    â€œI have no idea.” Granny folded her hands and put them on the table. Her left eye twitched. “I got up to feed it and it was a goner.”
    â€œSee! I told you!” Ruthie pointed.
    â€œWhy are you asking about that silly frog?” Granny asked. Her eyes widened as she looked over my shoulder toward the oven. “My casserole!” She got up and brushed her hands down her apron before she walked over to the oven.
    Smoke poured out when she opened the door. I could never recall a time Granny had burned anything. Burned casserole for first time , I wrote in the notepad to remind myself to mentally go back through our conversation and see exactly where Granny had gone mushy-­brained and forgotten about the casserole.
    â€œChild, you caused me to forget all about my chicken-­and-­green-­bean casserole.” She waved the oven mitt in front of her face to clear the smoke. Not only was the food as black as night, so was the dish.
    Granny didn’t bother with trying to save any of it. She dumped the entire thing in the sink.
    â€œWho was that for?” I asked. Granny only made that particular dish for certain occasions.
    â€œI had planned on taking it to Ruthie’s funeral tomorrow.”
    Yep, all good Southern women, whether they liked you or not, brought food to a funeral.
    â€œShe knows I can’t stand chicken-­and-­green-­bean casserole.” Ruthie pinched her nose as if with a clothespin. “She always wanted to make it for the ­people staying at the inn, but I never let her. Harrumph .”
    â€œWhich reminds me.” Granny’s burnt food brought me back to the real reason I was here. “Jack seems to believe you know more about Ruthie’s death than you are letting on.”
    â€œHe didn’t say that to me.” She hurried around her kitchen. There was definitely something going on in her head, because she was doing a good job of ignoring me.
    â€œHe told me that he told you to get a lawyer.”
    â€œHe did? Hmm. I don’t recall.” Granny looked up to the ceiling as if she were really thinking about it. But I knew better. Granny really should have been an actress.
    â€œGranny?” I needed her to look at me.
    â€œWhat?” She stopped and turned. Her eye was twitching again.
    â€œLie!” Ruthie screamed and pointed.
    â€œHe served me a warrant.” I rubbed my head. It was beginning to hurt. Trying to keep up with two conversations at the same time was exhausting.
    â€œHe arrested you?” She gasped.
    â€œNo.” I shook my head. “The warrant was to stop Ruthie’s funeral until he investigates her suspicious death a little further.”
    â€œShe fell!” Granny untied the apron and threw it on the table. No eye twitch this time.
    Changing the subject at this point was a good idea. Granny was getting irritated not only by my line of questioning, but by the fact that her casserole was burnt. She didn’t seem to be worried about Ruthie’s funeral being stopped. She didn’t question me any further. Nor did she seem to care that Jack thought she might be a suspect.
    Regardless, another ten minutes of idle chitchat and I said good-­bye. There was a little sneaky suspicion in my gut that Granny would be making me a visit with some more information that she wasn’t quite willing to give up . . . yet, anyway.
    â€œI’m telling you she is hiding something.” Ruthie tapped her kitty slipper on the passenger-­side floorboard. “I could always tell when Zula Fae was lying by that darned ol’ eye twitch of hers.”
    I glanced in my rearview mirror to make sure no one, including Jack, was watching me before I spoke.
    â€œI can’t get over it.” I shook my head, keeping my eyes on the road. “I have never noticed that little quirk about Granny before.”
    There was no denying it. Granny was hiding something, but