Danger Comes Home (Kelly O'Connell Mystery) by Judy Alter Read Free Book Online

suffocate. Spring was here, and it would maybe go down into the sixties tonight. I kept my mouth shut, even as I watched him tuck his service revolver into his waistband and slip a sheathed knife into his sock. Still, my heart was pounding. I had hated the days after the accident disabled him but the one good thing, when he first went back to work, was that he was at a desk and in no danger. Now I would worry until he came home.
    “Mike, you won’t do more than watch, will you?”
    “No, sweetheart. I’ll be in a car and probably bored to death, drinking too much coffee, most of the evening. No need to worry.”
    But of course worry I did after he left. I swear I hadn’t dozed when Mike came home at three in the morning. To my inquiry, he said, “I’ll tell you in the morning. But, yes, Jenny and her mother are in danger. And our girls are to stay as far away as possible. I sort of wish you hadn’t invited Jenny and her mother Sunday night.”
    “Mike!” I said indignantly.
    “I know,” he soothed, “and I want to do everything I can to protect Jenny, but I don’t want to put my family in danger by association.”
    “I think that cat was out of the bag the minute we took Jenny home.”
    “I don’t know. I think the father, if that’s who he is, might be so disinterested he never asked where she was.”
    “Maybe he won’t ask where they go Sunday night.” I was sort of clinging to straws.
    Mike had one more thing on his mind. “Kelly, I know I’ve asked you to say out of police business, and I am sort of leery about having Jenny’s mom here Sunday, but I could use your help. See if you can get anything out of her, any information at all.
    “Does that make me undercover?” I asked.
    He crawled into bed, took me in his arms, and didn’t answer the question.
    ****
    Sunday night’s supper was neither as joyful as some previous evenings had been nor as glum as I predicted. My mother was in one of her expansive moods, pleased to have Otto following her every move. She laughed at his stories—did the man never run out of new material or was she listening to reruns?—and fussed over him, bringing beer, fixing him a plate as though he were a child. He loved the attention, and never once complained.
    Claire was glad to be back in the fold. She didn’t know about Jenny, and that had to be explained quickly before Jenny and her mom arrived. She didn’t know about Theresa’s concern about Joe either but I wasn’t going to share that this night. Maybe later. Liz trailed in behind her mom, and Claire explained that Megan and Brandon Waggoner would be along soon. I was pleased because Brandon had fit right in the few times we’d seen him. If he was as wealthy as Claire claimed, it didn’t show, and he and Megan seemed to have a growing relationship.
    When Theresa and Joe came in, I studied them covertly. Joe brought the dips into the kitchen, and Theresa followed to unpack them and put them out. She’d brought tomato salsa and tomatillo salsa along with queso and two huge bags of tortilla chips, plus serving bowls and small napkins. As soon as she began unpacking, Joe melted away. They hadn’t exchanged a word, even a look. In fact, they avoided each other. Kelly, are you reading too much into this?
    Anthony hovered over Theresa every minute, even offering to get her a beer, although he still hadn’t quite accepted the fact that his daughter was a married woman, old enough to drink beer. He kept his arm around her, hugging her, asking if she was all right. “You look a little peaked. Joe, you taking good care of my girl?”
    Joe looked, if anything, resigned. But he nodded and said, “Best I can.” He and Anthony had made peace a while back, after a more than rocky start to their relationship, and I knew he didn’t like being questioned.
    Theresa knew what her dad was doing, but she was also suffocating. Finally, she gently pushed him away and said, “Dad, you go outside and drink beer with the other