By Cook or by Crook (A Five-Ingredient Mystery) by Maya Corrigan Read Free Book Online Page B

listened to Yumiko, the coffeemaker hissed and burbled. Val imagined the club members hissing and whispering about Nadia’s murder, exchanging theories about the culprit.
    Monique nodded with the phone held to her ear. “Of course I’ll play. Everything’s changed now. . . . I can take over as captain next season.... She’s here. I’ll put her on.” Monique handed Val the phone and drifted to the sliding glass door with its view of oak trees and the water beyond.
    Val cradled the phone and braced herself for a volley of words. Unlike most second-language speakers, Yumiko talked fast. The more she had to say, the more syllables she dropped. Val had done something similar in her first Spanish class, racing through her oral responses in hopes that the teacher wouldn’t notice whether she’d said las or los . “Hi, Yumiko.”
    “I want to know is it okay to play the team match on Thursday. If we don’t play, we have to forfeit, and this match decides who is league champion. Monique says she will take Nadia’s place. But I don’t like to play if it disrespects Nadia.” Yumiko paused for a quick breath. “What is the right thing to do?”
    Val could look in a dozen etiquette books without finding guidance for this situation. Her basic rule would have to suffice. “The right thing is not to tell other people what’s right. Let them decide for themselves. Why don’t we get the whole team together around six on Thursday? We’ll meet in the café and have a little ceremony in honor of Nadia. Then anyone who wants to play can stay for the match. I’ll set out some snacks for the gathering.”
    This morning she’d gone to Nadia’s house with creative menus to showcase her catering skills. Now she would make nibbles for a somber memorial to the woman. A lump formed in Val’s throat.
    “Good idea to have a ceremony, Val. I will make soothing tea for it. Chatty is here at the club now. I will tell her about the ceremony. I couldn’t reach Althea and Bethany.”
    “Leave it to me. I’ll let them know what we’re doing.” Val hung up. She turned to her cousin, still standing motionless in front of the sliding door. “You’ll join the rest of us in a toast to Nadia, won’t you?”
    “Of course. Once we get that out of the way, I’m sure we can coax everyone to play the match.”
    “Don’t coax. Hang back and let the others reach a consensus on whether to play, okay?”
    “Why?”
    “Last week, in front of the whole team, you accused Nadia of seducing your husband and said you wouldn’t play for her team anymore. You even wanted the rest of us to quit the team. Now you’re talking about taking over as captain, stepping into her tennis shoes after she’s dead.” Not as bad as dancing on her grave, but close. “Are you listening to me?”
    Her cousin gave no sign of it. She jerked the sliding door open. “What’s he doing here?”

Chapter 5
    Val joined Monique on the patio outside the family room. Nothing moved in the backyard thick with vegetation. “I don’t see anyone out here.”
    “Maverick’s tying up at the dock.”
    Through the bushes in the backyard, Val glimpsed Monique’s husband on his way from the dock to the garden shed. “I thought he’d taken the children to visit his parents.”
    Monique pursed her lips. “He did. He must have left Mike and Mandy with his folks. He knows I hate that. They ply the kids with candy and let them stay up late. If he’s there, at least the kids go to bed on time.”
    Her husband emerged from the shed, tossed a canvas bag into his boat, and walked up the path to the house. Lean and compact, with wavy hair falling over his forehead and curling down his neck, Maverick Mott looked more like a playboy than a family man pushing forty . . . usually. Today, though, lines of tension surrounded his mouth and eyes.
    He greeted Val and his wife with a nod, the battery that powered his ever-ready smile out of juice. He must have heard about Nadia.
    Monique