Stranded by Lorena McCourtney Read Free Book Online Page A

planning to marry again this spring. I suppose Ben told you that too?”
    I nodded. I glanced around, wondering how a new wife would react to all this. “Hiram was an optimistic sort of man, then.”
    Kelli surprised me by laughing with delight. “I hadn’t thought of it in exactly that way, but yes, that’s true. Uncle Hiram was an optimistic man. He always had big, sometimes grandiose ideas, and he never gave up on marriage. And I think he had a right to be optimistic in this case. The next wife was to be Lucinda O’Mallory. She’s the widow of a man whose early family established the first bank in Hello.”
    “Not as young as the others?”
    “She’s about Uncle Hiram’s age, late sixties. By far his best choice in wives, I think. Actually, it’s quite a romantic story.”
    “Oh?”
    “Lucinda was his old flame way back in their high school days here in Hello. I don’t know what happened, but something did, and she married the banker and Hiram married someone else. She stayed married to the banker all these years, but he died a few years ago, and she and Hiram got together again not long ago. I sometimes wonder if the reason none of Hiram’s marriages worked was because, deep down . . .” Kelli smiled self-consciously as if embarrassed to be caught romanticizing about the endurance of lost love. “Maybe I should be trying to write syrupy romances instead of a legal thriller.”
    “You’re a writer?”
    “I’ve had a considerable amount of free time since coming to Hello. I figured I might as well try to use it constructively.” Her tone was wry, but her smile unexpectedly mischievous, perhaps a trait that ran in the family. “Also a perfect opportunity to fictionally skewer a few local personalities.”
    Hastily she jumped back to the story of the upcoming marriage that was not to be. “Lucinda has a beautiful home on the other side of town, a Victorian like this, only much better kept up. They were planning to live there.”
    Wise Lucinda , I thought. “What did Hiram intend to do with this place?”
    “He talked about selling it after they were married, though I’m not sure he’d ever actually have done it. He had a sentimental streak.”
    “You approved of the marriage?”
    “Oh yes. Lucinda’s a wonderful woman. Very upbeat and cheerful. Active in local charitable and civic affairs, and very health minded too. I’ve seen her working out at the local health club. She’s in incredible shape for someone her age. She’d have taken good care of Hiram.”
    “Too bad, then, the way things worked out.”
    Kelli nodded. “I know he must have had enemies from business dealings or personal differences over the years. He was a shrewd businessman. But it’s hard to believe someone could have hated him enough to kill him. He was so generous to the town. To me too. He bought my little cabin for me. And then to have people think I murdered him . . .” She swallowed hard.
    “Does Lucinda think that?”
    “No. She says anyone who claims I killed him should be forced to write ‘Kelli Keifer is not a killer’ 349 times. She’s always been wonderfully kind and nice to me, both before and after Uncle Hiram’s death. We worked together on his funeral arrangements.” She gave an unladylike snort. “Their upcoming marriage was another reason people think I murdered him, of course. I had to kill him before he and Lucinda married, otherwise I might lose out on some or all of the inheritance.”
    “There’s a lot to inherit?”
    She hesitated slightly. “I’ll be working on that for some time yet.”
    “Hiram was still mentally okay?”
    “Oh yes. He had an excellent memory. He could tell wonderful stories from when he was a small boy and spent time with his father out at the mine. Like when his father shot an attacking bear out there. And another time when he was playing in a creek and found a gold nugget as big as his thumb.”
    Abilene, always quiet, hadn’t said anything all this time, but I