Death in the Secret Garden by Richard; Forrest Read Free Book Online

about it in months.
    Lyon stopped with his cleaver poised in mid-air. ‘So did I. It came back to me while I was riding in Rocco’s cruiser.’
    â€˜I was at the Millrace Inn about to have lunch with Helena Rabnor when it hit me. We had other excitement at the inn, which I’ll tell you about next.’
    â€˜We’ve been married too long. That accounts for this mental similarity.’
    â€˜Do you believe it’s that?’
    â€˜Not completely,’ Lyon said. ‘I think it’s the same time of year combined with today’s weather and light …’ He mistakenly brought the cleaver down on a large tomato with a blow that splattered it across the room. ‘Any thoughts on it?’ he asked as he wiped juice and pulp from the cabinets.
    â€˜I have concern over my biological clock.’
    â€˜It’s been ten years,’ Lyon said. He returned to the chopping block to scrape carrots. ‘I applied to Big Buddy today.’
    She turned toward him in amazement. For her husband to volunteer to be a mentor to a young child was an astonishing step of recovery, considering the massive pain they both felt. ‘Can you handle it?’
    â€˜I think so. It’s a first step. They have a few kids on the waiting list in the Murphysville area. They’ll assign me to a child as soon as they check me out. They’re pretty careful about backgrounds nowadays. I’ve asked Rocco to vouch for me. If I’m properly vetted they match me with a single parent’s young boy.’
    â€˜Not a girl?’
    â€˜It doesn’t seem to work that way. Basically, they want an adult male to do things with the kid. We’re supposed to go places and do masculine activities. It comes down to mentor stuff while we act as a male role model.’ The phone rang and Lyon snicked it off its kitchen-wall stanchion. ‘Wentworth here.’
    â€˜I told them the truth about you,’ Rocco said without preamble. ‘I’m talking about the query I received from the Big Buddy organization. I vouched that you are a fine upstanding citizen at least fifty percent of the time. I did have to point out that in the fall, when the Canadian geese make their flyover, you are apt to leap from your parapet in an attempt to join them in flight.’
    â€˜Thanks, old buddy.’
    â€˜I have two male holding cells in my little lockup,’ Rocco said. ‘We have Spook in one and Lister Anderson in the other. Lister has been born again and is trying to bring Spook to Jesus. Spook is trying to recruit Lister for the First Cav’s motor pool.’
    After dinner they made espresso coffee in the machine that Rocco and his wife had given them last Christmas. As they sat on the patio and watched the sun brim the horizon, Bea told Lyon about the discovery of the congressman’s body at the inn. She described how the governor’s husband had been found dead in the inn’s Clara Barton suite with his red-haired friend.
    â€˜I suppose that, strictly speaking, what Mike Maresca and I did was illegal,’ Bea concluded. ‘But damn it all, Lyon. Margaret doesn’t need to be hurt any further by that guy.’
    â€˜Of course not,’ Lyon said. ‘But I hope that’s the end of it.’ He wondered how the governor could have remained ignorant of her husband’s peccadillos all these years. For at least the last half decade it had been well known on both sides of the aisle that Bill Tallman considered it perpetually open season on all women.
    â€˜You’d really like to consider having another child, wouldn’t you?’ Bea asked.
    â€˜For the first time in years, I’m able to consider the possibility of considering,’ Lyon replied. ‘It’s up to you, of course.’ He looked across the patio table to see tears in his usually pragmatic wife’s eyes. He was instantly remorseful. He never wanted to hurt her.
    â€˜God only