COZY MYSTERY: Murder At The Festival: A Cozy Mystery in the Mountains (Book 4) by Liz Turner Read Free Book Online Page B

the Better Business Bureau in Edmonton next month,” Karen said with a big grin. “I’ll give you three guesses, and all three better be me.”
    “Oh, Karen that’s beautiful!” Victoria smiled.
    “It is kind of awesome,” Karen said with a big smile. “I should be a bit more humble, I know,b but this just makes me so proud. My program to give away excess inventory to organizations that needed it has been a hit. There’s even talk about me holding a lecture series.”
    “I’m very proud,” Victoria said, rising up to give her a hug. “You’ve been working long hours, and it’s good to see that it’s paying off.”
    “Come see the outfit I’m planning to wear? I just received news today, but I’m already planning it all out.”
    Leaving the kids to do the dishes, the two wandered upstairs to Karen’s room.
    The second floor was Karen’s workshop, where she made wild, fascinating jewelry out of colored glass. Some of it had been featured in local magazines, and a lot of the pieces were in the center of display stands at Larch’s boutiques. Karen’s room, however, was further upstairs, on the third floor, where their father had once lived.
    Her room was decorated in sea-green and white, with large modern art canvases showing silhouetted men in anonymous cities covering each wall. The bed had a pile of clothes on it that she apparently hadn’t bothered to put away after doing her laundry.
    Karen put these aside and brought out a few outfits, including a navy blue dress that Victoria thought would suit the occasion best.
    “I saw Jay Cutler leaving the house when I was coming home,” Karen said as she wiggled into the dress. “Did he have any news about Margie?”
    “No news about her yet.” Victoria sighed. “He’d come to talk to Byron.”
    “Ah. Well, the bruises on his face matched the cuts on Byron’s knuckles. Anything serious between those two?”
    “I hope not,” Victoria said. “Byron’s never been one to get into fights.”
    “Not over Margie I hope,” Karen said. “I never liked her much.”
    “She worked for you, right?”
    “She did until I fired her,” Karen said. “She was terribly unreliable. We were lucky if she came in on time two days a week. I’d still be ok with it if she weren't also terribly clumsy. By the time she somehow managed to break yet another case of soda and get coke all over my floors, I’d had enough. I lost my temper a little bit. Anyway, I’m sad she chose to run away, but to be honest, I wasn’t surprised.”
    “But Byron was,” Victoria said. “So was Jay. They both thought she had reason to stay.”
    “Kids aren’t very good at figuring out the difference between people who are mysterious and profound, and those who are just flaky.” Karen laughed. “Especially when they’re interested in that person romantically.”
    “Maybe so.”
    “In any case, if Byron was becoming interested in her, it’s a good thing she’s gone,” Karen said.
    “Karen!” Victoria turned to her sister, shocked. Typically so sensitive, every once in awhile, Karen could say something that actually made Victoria wonder how much she knew her sister. After all, once upon a time, she had thought she knew her father… before, that is, he had found out some of his secrets.
    “I mean… I’m sorry for her, and she’s clearly going through some stuff if she’s chosen to run away.” Karen amended. “But I’m glad that she’s out of Byron’s life. Girls like that are a bad influence, and he’s at a stage where he ought to be focussing on his studies.”
    “I still don’t...”
    “It’s the mother, you know,” Karen said. “The mother’s fault. She knew Margie never liked Jonas, and he made no great secret about disliking her too. It was a recipe for disaster, really, with Michelle being away all the time.”
    A little resentfully, Victoria said, “She’s a working mother. She can’t always be there for the kid, especially when that kid is now