Murder on Amsterdam Avenue by Victoria Thompson Read Free Book Online Page B

said. “The army food was pretty bad.”
    â€œBut you’re home and not wounded. That’s all that matters. Maeve! Catherine!” she called, “Gino is here.”
    But Catherine was already running through the front room, having heard Sarah greeting him. Maeve, she noticed, was close behind, coming as fast as her youthful dignity allowed.
    Catherine skidded to a stop when she reached him and frowned up at him, probably as confused as Sarah at seeing him in something other than his patrolman’s uniform.
    â€œDon’t I get a hug?” he asked, bending down to pick her up.
    â€œAre you really Officer Donatelli?” she asked.
    â€œOf course I am,” he said, making her smile again. She giggled and threw her slender arms around his neck.
    By then Maeve had reached him, too, and although her smile wasn’t nearly as wide as Catherine’s, her eyes were shining. “Welcome home,” she said as he set Catherine down.
    â€œIt’s good to be home,” he replied.
    Now they were both blushing, and Sarah let them stareat each other for a minute or two before rescuing them. “Please come in, Gino, and I hope you can stay for supper. It’s nothing fancy since we weren’t expecting you, but you have to stay and tell us all about your adventures in Cuba.”
    â€œI’d be happy to, but Mr. Malloy actually sent me to tell you what the coroner discovered.”
    â€œHow did you happen to be assigned that duty?” Sarah asked in surprise.
    â€œI called on him this morning at your new house—which looks like it will be very nice when it’s finished—and he hired me to help him on the case.”
    â€œAren’t you going back to the police department?”
    â€œNo, not . . . not right away, at least.”
    â€œThat sounds like something else we’ll need to discuss when we’ve finished supper.” Sarah glanced meaningfully at Catherine. “Meanwhile, give me your hat and come into the kitchen while we fix us all something to eat.”
    When Gino had taken a seat at the kitchen table, Catherine snuggled up in his lap. Sarah and Maeve started pulling things out of the pantry and the icebox to see what they could put together. Sarah peeled potatoes while Maeve sliced some cold ham.
    â€œWe read all about the Rough Riders in the newspapers,” Maeve said.
    â€œNot everything they said in the newspapers was true,” he replied. He proceeded to tell them all about the charge up the hill that wasn’t really San Juan Hill and how Theodore Roosevelt had carried several spare pairs of spectacles with him in case one got broken because he couldn’t see a blessed thing without them. By the time he was finished, the girls were laughing, although Sarah suspected no one had thought the battle was humorous at the time. At some point in the story, Maeve had abandoned her cooking andtaken a seat across the table from him so she could hang on his every word.
    Sarah chopped up some onions and fried them with the potatoes as Gino continued with his tales of the wonders he’d seen in Cuba, such as crabs as big as dinner plates that ate anything left unattended, and the incompetence of the army, which had supplied the soldiers with shoes that fell apart the instant they got wet.
    By the time they’d finished eating, Gino had convinced the girls that the brief war with Spain had been little more than a lark.
    When they’d cleared the dishes away, Maeve said, “I’ll take Catherine upstairs now so you can talk. It’s very nice to have you home again, Officer Donatelli.”
    Sarah didn’t miss the disappointment on Gino’s face, so she said, “I’ll call you back down when we’re finished, Maeve, so you can say good night.”
    Maeve hurried Catherine away before Sarah could judge Maeve’s opinion of this plan, but at least she hadn’t objected. Sarah noted that Gino