Read Online A Catered Mother's Day by Isis Crawford - Free Book Online

“I was just asking.”
    She and Bernie exchanged a glance. Their dad was talking a little, but he wasn’t eating. What did that mean? This was a new one on Bernie and Libby. He’d never, ever said no to something they’d made.
    The atmosphere in the room was glacial. No one said anything. Five minutes went by. Libby watched the second hand of the clock on the wall going round. She listened to its ticking and the occasional car going by outside. She could hear Bernie shifting around, trying to get comfortable, and her father tapping his fingers on the arm of his easy chair. Finally, she couldn’t stand it anymore. She leaned forward.
    â€œDad,” she began. “We’re sorry—”
    Which was as far as she got before Sean cut her off.
    â€œYou’re sorry?” he asked, each word encased in a block of ice. “You’re sorry?”
    Libby and Bernie looked down at the floor. They felt as if they were ten again.
    â€œYou could be sitting in jail right now. You could still be sitting in jail. That’s a real possibility because you’re not out of the woods on this yet. Not by a long shot.”
    Bernie looked up. “It’s my fault.”
    Sean shook his finger at Bernie and then at Libby. “No. It’s both of your faults. I expected better from both of you. Neither one of you should have touched anything. You know not to. You should have called the police as soon as you walked into the room and saw that man lying on the bed. Then you should have gone outside and waited for them to arrive.”
    â€œWhat about Ellen?” Bernie asked.
    â€œWhat about her?” Sean threw back. “You should have dragged her out with you.”
    â€œHey, you haven’t always followed the straight and narrow,” Bernie pointed out indignantly.
    Sean glared at her. It was a glare that in Sean’s day had reduced the men under his command to quivering lumps of Jell-O.
    â€œOkay,” Sean said slowly. “If that’s the tack you’re taking, we don’t have to talk about this at all. Good luck. Let me know how it all turns out. I’m going to bed.” And he started to get up.
    â€œNo, no,” Bernie said quickly. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have said that.”
    â€œWe’re sorry,” Libby amended. “For everything.”
    Sean’s expression softened. “As well you should be.” He lowered himself back down.
    Bernie bit her lip. “We were wrong. We shouldn’t have done what we did.”
    â€œSo why did you?”
    â€œI just . . .” Bernie waved her hand around while she thought about how she was going to frame her next sentence. “I guess . . . things got away from me.”
    Sean raised an eyebrow. “Really?” His tone was not congenial.
    â€œWe were surprised,” Bernie explained.
    â€œStunned really,” amplified Libby.
    â€œEverything happened so fast. We got Ellen’s phone call and ran over there. . . .”
    â€œAnd then we saw the body on the bed,” Libby added. “It was the first thing we saw and then Ellen was crouched down by the bed, half hidden. We didn’t see her immediately, and when we did, we thought she’d been hurt.”
    Bernie shifted the package of frozen peas on her ankle. “We didn’t know what to think.”
    â€œI see,” Sean said. But he didn’t. Not really. By the time he’d gotten to the Riverview, the man’s body had been bagged and tagged and in the ambulance and the CID squad was working the room. “You’re talking about the body Ellen claims to know nothing about, correct?”
    Bernie nodded. “Correct. And Ellen was hysterical.”
    â€œShe really was, Dad,” Libby reaffirmed. “We couldn’t get anything out of her.”
    â€œShe’s always hysterical.”
    Bernie left off with the peas. “That’s exaggerating a little, don’t