Mourning Moon (A Guinan Jones Paranormal Mystery #2) by Callista Foley Read Free Book Online

make Desmond sick or kill him, my tone was clinical and careful. I succeeded in separating fact from emotion. I had to. I was afraid my anger over what happened to Desmond might boil over and cause me to start making accusations.
    Beside me, Luke hadn't said a word.
    "It's undeniable," I said. "Someone tampered with that canola oil bottle."
    Embry leaned forward and placed his arms on the table. "Aren't the police going to discount this? Luke admitted touching the evidence. Won't they figure he's trying to set Brennan up?"
    "I didn't set her up," Luke said calmly. "I just wanted to make sure I got something before they took it."
    "But why?" Sinder said, removing her dark glasses. "The police know how to do their jobs."
    When I looked into her eyes, my detachment faltered. They were red and swollen. "Sinder, I'm so sorry—"
    "I wanted to satisfy my own curiosity, okay?" Luke said, cutting across me. "I knew Drake's parents had the allergy testing kit, and I did my own investigating."
    A vein throbbed in Embry's forehead. "But you might have compromised whatever—"
    "Look," Luke said, holding up his hands, "I'll call that cop who questioned us, okay?"
    No one said anything for several seconds.
    "Maybe Desmond wasn't the target," Ione said. She was the only one at the table who seemed cold. She'd zipped her jacket up to her neck and leaned into Embry's warmth. "It could have been meant for someone else at the school." She picked up her cup with a shaky hand.
    "That still leaves us with a problem," I said. "Whoever did it tried to hurt or kill someone."
    "I think Desmond was the target," Sinder said. "Somebody meant to kill him."
    An irritable expression crossed Ione's face just for a instant. "How do you know?"
    Sinder peered around the group. "His EpiPens were nowhere to be found. Besides, he did a lot of bad stuff back in the day." She looked at Embry. His cheeks reddened.
    "Like what?" I said .
    Sinder's eyes lingered on Embry. " He was just...mean. He'd bully people for the heck of it."
    Luke cleared his throat. It got everyone's attention. We waited to see if he'd speak, as if his words carried great importance. "Sully was one of Drake's favorite targets."
    All eyes shifted to Embry, who let out a sigh of impatience. "It wasn't that big a deal. I certainly wouldn't kill him over it."
    Ione gasped. "Nobody is accusing you of that."
    "Sully used to be a runt," Luke continued as if Embry hadn't spoken. "And Drake would come up behind him in the hallway and shove him."
    "Like I said, no big deal. I was skinny and awkward looking until I was a sophomore. I grew four inches and put on about fifteen pounds, and Desmond left me alone after that."
    The only person I knew who might qualify as a bully was Adam Carver back in Ridge Grove. He was the leader of the "Guinan is a witch" pack.
    "I'd never defend what Drake used to do," Luke said. "But he'd done a one-eighty almost overnight. He started making amends, defended bullied kids, and stopped flirting with other guys' girlfriends."
    Other guys' girlfriends . I looked at Ione. "You and Desmond dated, right?"
    She s hrugged. "Everybody knows that. The summer between sophomore and junior year."
    "Is that why you spent your junior year abroad?" I said, ignoring her discomfort. "Bad break-up?"
    She squared her shoulders. "People seemed to think so. But the break-up had nothing to do with it. I'd always wanted to study in France. An opportunity presented itself, and I took it."
    "Moving on to relevant matters," Embry said, "Anybody Desmond picked on or screwed over could have killed him."
    " Not necessarily," I said, thinking like the granddaughter of a cop. "It's theoretically true, but anybody investigating the case would start with us, not a random person bullied years ago."
    "Investigating what?" Embry said. " I still think it was an accident."
    "Despite traces of peanuts in a bottle of canola oil?" Luke said, his voice rising.
    Embry scoffed. "That's just your word."
    "I t doesn't