Grave Surprise by Charlaine Harris Read Free Book Online Page A

Morgenstern was the kind of man who focused on the person to whom he was speaking, which might have been the secret of the magnetism he exuded. To Joel’s credit, he didn’t seem to be aware of this; or maybe he took it so for granted that he didn’t even think of the effect he had on women.
    In Nashville, even under the circumstances I’d noticed how the female representatives of the media clustered around him. Maybe they’d been thinking the father is always a likely suspect, maybe they’d been trying to pick holes in his story, but they’d hovered around him like hummingbirds at a big red blossom. Not too surprisingly, the police had checked over and over to see if Joel was having an affair. They hadn’t found a trace of such a thing; in fact,everyone who knew Joel commented on how devoted he was to Diane. For that matter, it was universal knowledge how caring he’d been during his first wife’s terminal illness.
    Maybe because lightning had fried my brain, maybe because my standards of judgment were completely different, Joel just didn’t affect me like he did most women.
    Felicia Hart, whose sister had been Joel’s first wife, trailed in after Diane and Joel. I remembered Felicia from my first encounter with the family. She had been trying hard to be a good aunt to Victor, the son that first marriage had produced. She’d been aware that Victor was a suspect in Tabitha’s disappearance, and she’d been at the house constantly, perhaps imagining that the loss of their daughter had meant that Diane and Joel would not be able to focus on Victor’s needs and on his legal position.
    â€œYou found her,” Joel said, taking my hand and pumping it ferociously. “God bless you, you found her. The medical examiner says there’s a long way to go before an official identification, but the dental charts do match. We have to keep this to ourselves, but Dr. Frierson was kind enough to let us know in person. Thank God, we can have some peace.”
    This was such a different reaction from the one I’d expected that I was unable to respond. Luckily, Tolliver was more collected.
    â€œPlease, Diane, Joel, sit down,” he said. Tolliver is very reverent toward pregnant women.
    Diane had always seemed the frailer partner in the couple, even when she wasn’t so obviously carrying a child.
    â€œLet me hug you first,” she said in her soft voice, and shewrapped her arms around me. I felt her distended belly pressing against my flat one, and I felt something wiggle while she was hugging me. After a second, I realized it was the baby, kicking against her stomach. Something deep inside me clenched in a mixture of horror and longing. I let Diane go and backed away, trying to smile at her.
    Felicia Hart was no hugger, to my relief. She gave me a firm handshake, though she did put her arms around Tolliver. In fact, she muttered something in his ear. I blinked at that. “Glad to see you,” she said a bit loudly, addressing an area somewhere between us. Felicia was a single woman. I placed her in her early thirties. She had jaw-length glossy brown hair that curved forward, and her expertly cut bangs stayed where they were supposed to be. As a professional woman on her own, she could spend all her money on herself, and her clothes and makeup showed it. If I remembered correctly, Felicia was a financial adviser employed by a national company. Though I hadn’t talked to her at any length, I knew Felicia would have to be both intelligent and bold to hold down so responsible a job with such success.
    When we were all seated, Joel and Diane on the love seat, Felicia perched on one arm of it by Diane, and Tolliver and I in wing chairs on the other side of the coffee table, with Art settled uncomfortably on a chair set a bit aside, I realized I had to somehow proceed with a conversation.
    â€œI’m so sorry,” I said finally, since that was the