Alpine Zen : An Emma Lord Mystery (9780804177481) by Mary Daheim Read Free Book Online Page A

Burger Barn,” I said. “Why aren’t you?”
    “I’m sitting out front for Mullins,” Milo replied. “Jack wanted to eat before he started digging up the dump site. Get me corned beef on rye, butter, mayo, mustard, lettuce, potato salad, two bags of chips, and a slice of…” He paused. “Banana cream pie. Oh—two dill pickles.”
    “You expect Little Emma to carry all that without a wheelbarrow?”
    “You can get one at Harvey’s Hardware,” he said with a straight face. “I wouldn’t mind some of Pie-in-the-Sky’s good coffee.”
    “As opposed to the paint thinner you drink at headquarters? Give me a break, Dodge. I don’t have enough money to cover all this.”
    He let out a big sigh as he reached for his wallet. “For a kept woman, you sure are broke most of the time.”
    “I’m not a kept woman,” I declared. “I’m your wife.”
    He handed me two twenties. “You’re right. But unlike the first wife I had, I’m keeping you. You’re too damned cute to send back.”
    I looked up at him. “Someday I’ll stay mad at you for…hours.”
    “I’ll wait.” He started to turn around, but stopped. “If they don’t have banana cream, get boysenberry.”
    I growled low in my throat and headed for the mall.
    The line was long, and to my dismay, Vida’s despised sister-in-law, Mary Lou Hinshaw Blatt, was in front of me. She, too, is a big woman, and just as opinionated. Also like Vida, she seems to have eyes in the back of her head.
    “Hello, Emma,” she said, turning to stare down at me. “I drove by your house the other day. You certainly put a lot of work and
money
into the remodel. The newspaper must be raking it in.”
    I felt the two twenties in my wallet might catch on fire. “Milo paid for all of it,” I said in sort of a squeak.
    “Oh?” Mary Lou sidled up a place in the line. “I heard the sheriff was letting his daughter stay at his house in the Icicle Creek Development with my nephew Bill. I’m glad Lila put an end to that. It’s reassuring to know one member of the Blatt family has good sense.”
    The barb at Vida rankled, but I held my tongue. Luckily the line split in two as a second person showed up behind the counter. Mary Lou barged in front of a hapless dark-haired girl who looked like a college student. I stayed put. Ten minutes later, I entered the sheriff’s headquarters where my husband was still working the front desk.
    “Where’d everybody go?” I asked, glancing at receptionist Lori Cobb’s empty chair.
    “Lori’s grandma had a stroke this morning,” Milo said. “The old girl’s at least ninety. Maybe she misses her husband. He’s been dead for six months.”
    I began unloading the box with the bold brown PITS logo, an unfortunate acronym for an eatery. “I thought she was dating.”
    “They broke up. Lori’s grandma said the guy cheated on her—at Bingo.” Milo grabbed the corned beef sandwich. “Jack’s at lunch, Dwight’s on patrol, Doe Jamison and Sam Heppner are breaking up a fracas at RestHaven. Where are my pickles?”
    “Your…
what
fracas?”
    Milo didn’t answer until he’d swallowed a big bite of sandwich. “The drug and booze rehab unit chief, Iain Farrell, called a few minutes ago. A couple of patients got into it. It’s not the first time.”
    I glared at the sheriff. “It’s not? You’ve never informed
the press
about any such incidents.”
    Milo found his damned pickles. “The set-tos were in the log.”
    I was puzzled. “Then why didn’t I notice? I always go over what Mitch takes down every day.”
    “Let me check something.” Milo popped a couple of potato chips into his mouth and went to flip through the log on the counter. “I’ll be damned,” he muttered. “You know we list only addresses with domestic disturbances that don’t require a citation or an arrest. Those RestHaven bastards changed their address from River Road to Bonneville Way. They must be using the medical rehab center as the address instead