Don't Go Home by Carolyn Hart Read Free Book Online

she imagined Max’s response when she told him he was now officially known as the food gendarme. Served him right for his raised eyebrow when she ordered her usual fried oyster sandwich or chose fried flounder instead of grilled. But tonight she had little appetite. She fixed cold smoked salmon with cream cheese on a bagel with onions and capers, added potato chips and coleslaw, and carried a paper plate onto the screened-in porch. As she ate, the sun sank behind tall pines and shadows stretched across the backyard.
    She tried to think of other things—the drought that threatened the Southwest, the fetching video on YouTube of a sleeping Great Dane with a bright-eyed kitten jumping back and forth over its recumbent form, a reprise of the famous tennis match between Billie Jean King and Bobby Riggs—but remembered voices sounded over and over in her mind, one amused and taunting, the other despairing. Marian had been her friend and Max’s for years, cocky, funny, bright, quick, always lively, never bitter or angry or despairing.
    Annie pulled her cell from her pocket. Marian was in her Favorites list. She swiped the name and listened as the phone rang and rang. When voice mail came on, she hesitated, then said uncertainly, “Marian, you know if I can help, I will.”
    She put the cell back in her pocket. Had Marian seen caller ID and chosen not to answer? Was Marian on her way to the Seaside Inn?
    Annie looked out at the thickening shadows. Was there anything she could do? Would it help or hurt if she asked Alex for the sake of decency to leave people in peace? Annie jumped to her feet. She couldn’t sit here, listening to the cicadas and the frogs, and do nothing to help Marian. At least, whatever happened, Annie could be there forMarian.

3
    T he parking lot on the west side of the inn was almost full. Annie found an empty space at the end of the third row. She could easily have walked over to the inn. Their house was only a half mile distant on a path that wound through a thick forest of live oaks, slash pine, bayberry, ferns, and saw palmettos. The night forest was cheerful, crickets and cicadas serenading, greenery rustling in a slight breeze, birds chattering in the treetops, but the night also hosted foxes, raccoons, cotton rats, possibly even a wild boar. Most fearsome to Annie was the possibility of stumbling over an alligator. A lagoon, home to several of the huge creatures, lay midway between their house and the inn. Alligators might look like logs with legs but they could outrun humans, and mama alligators didn’t take kindly to any perceived threat to their babies.
    Annie crossed the parking lot in deepening shadows as the sun continued to slip behind majestic pines. At the back of the inn, she made a slow circuit of the terrace, looking for Marian. She spottedher in the shadows of the gazebo. Even dimly seen, the stiffness of her posture was evident; it said,
Don’t come near, leave me alone.
    A great majority of seats were taken but people still streamed toward the rows of white folding chairs. There was a festive air. Free entertainment was always a hit. That afternoon’s
Gazette
had carried a half-page ad apparently placed by Rae. Either it had been too late for Rae to cancel the ad or she didn’t mind leaving Death on Demand on the hook as a sponsor. There was nothing Annie could do about that.
    DEATH ON DEMAND
Presents
    ALEX GRIFFITH
    Famous Southern Author
    GRIFFITH’S Promise:
You Won’t Be Bored
    True Facts Behind Double-Dealing,
Freewheeling, Scandalous Lives
8 P.M. Wednesday, Free Admission,
Seaside Inn Gazebo
    Annie stopped and scanned the crowd. She knew many of those attending. She watched as guests found seats, turned to talk to friends. Convivial groups clustered near two cash bars. Laughter rose on the night air amid the light high sound of women talking and the deeper rumble of men’s voices.
    She looked for particular faces, found them. Her