Read Online The Body In the Belfry by Katherine Hall Page - Free Book Online

there.”
    Dave had started helping Patricia in the garden when he was a little boy and it had grown into a labor of love for the two of them.
    The door opened and thirteen-year-old Jenny Moore walked into the room. She looked a good deal worse than her parents, genuinely distraught. Either that or, Faith quickly conjectured, like a person with something to hide.
    â€œJenny, why don’t you show Mrs. Fairchild the garden while we finish up in here?” her mother asked.
    â€œSure,” muttered Jenny, a terse monosyllable from this normally bouncy kid.
    Definitely hiding something, Faith concluded.
    They walked out into the late afternoon sunshine. The garden was filled with mums—not stiffly in pots nor those funny football pompoms, but cascades of white, lavender, and gold—all sizes and shapes. Here and there a rosebush was still in bloom. Patricia was famous for her roses. Some were very old; varieties mostly vanished from the seed catalogs, with names like “Old Blush”
and “Rosa Mundi.” They filled the air with a sweet fragrance that mingled with the bitter smell of the mums. Someone was burning leaves. Maybe autumn in Aleford wasn’t so bad.
    Faith sat down on a bench under one of the rose trellises and stretched her legs out to the sun. Jenny sat next to her. Clearly the girl was miserable. Her eyes were filled with tears. Could Cindy and Jenny have been close? Somehow Faith automatically assumed that anyone she liked couldn’t like Cindy, but Jenny was virtually her sister and she had lived with her all these years.
    â€œJenny, is there anything you want to talk about with me? Anything you want to ask? I know this has been a terrible shock for you.”
    Faith put her arm around Jenny’s shoulders and Jenny began to sob.
    â€œIt’s Mom and Dad! This is so awful for them and it’s just like Cindy to do it. She caused them so much trouble when she was alive and now she’s dead and it’s worse than ever! The phone rings all the time and all the newspapers have stories about us. It’s even on TV! Robby called from college and some reporter had gotten into his dorm.” She stopped a moment and grinned through her tears.
    â€œHis buddies helped him throw the guy out the window.” She gave Faith a reassuring look. “Not a very high window.”
    So much for grief, Faith thought.
    â€œJenny, I know that at the moment things must be terrible for you and your parents, but they will calm down soon. The police will find the murderer and the public will find something else to talk about. You’ll see.”
    Here was a chance to practice. Was this what a minister’s wife would say? What would her mother say? Actually she found it impossible to imagine her mother in
this situation. The idea of one of her father’s parishioners getting murdered was just too crazy.
    The idea of one of Tom’s was as bizarre, but here they were.
    Jenny had stopped crying and, impelled by her promise to Dave and by native curiosity, Faith started to probe.
    â€œJenny, this may sound strange, but do you think Cindy was seeing anyone else besides Dave?”
    Faith was sure there was another man involved in this business somewhere. She was banking on sex. Tom thought it was money. They had bet each other a dinner at a restaurant of their own choosing once the mystery was solved. Faith had something like Le Cirque in mind and Tom, she was sure, would opt for Durgin Park. Remembering the giant slabs of beef hanging over thick china plates unceremoniously banged down on the table by a waitress whose surliness was supposed to be some kind of treasured Bostonian tradition, Faith felt she had to win. For Dave, for herself, and for la qualité de vie.
    â€œOne! Try twelve or thirteen,” snorted Jenny, “Cindy thought she was Scarlett O’Hara or something.”
    The movie had been on TV recently. Faith nodded sagely.
    â€œBut was there