Read Online A Corpse for Yew by Jim Lavene, Joyce - Free Book Online Page A

(she hoped) the mother of her future grandchildren. If she couldn’t cope with Dr. Ramsey, how would she cope with potty training a two-year-old?
    “I don’t even have any nails.” Mai sighed as she looked at her hands. “I’m surprised I have any hair. I think I was pulling it out this morning.”
    “How long has Harold been gone?”
    “Since this morning.” Mai sipped her tea and looked at Peggy. “Pretty pathetic, huh? He’s not even gone a whole day and I’m already falling apart. He’s not due back from that conference for two more days. I might as well put on a toe tag and crawl into the freezer.”
    Police humor was something Peggy had grown to understand as she lived with John and listened to him and his friends. Morgue humor was something she hadn’t yet learned to appreciate. She could handle being around the dead bodies, if she didn’t think about it too much. Talking about them, making jokes about them, seemed beyond what her Southern upbringing would allow.
    “You aren’t finished yet,” Peggy told Mai. Even if she wasn’t dating Paul, Peggy would like her anyway. She was sweet and sassy, a nice combination for a young woman. “Just take a few deep breaths and finish your tea. Then we’ll talk.”
    “What’s there to talk about? I can’t handle it. Dr. Ramsey was right.” Mai slumped facedown on the table.
    One of their coworkers came in with a pizza and nodded at Mai. “Is she faking it? That could be dangerous around here.”
    Mai groaned.
    Peggy discarded her notions of tea and a friendly chat as the tech, Bosco, sat down and started munching his pizza. “Maybe a walk would do you more good.”
    “I can’t.” Mai’s voice was muffled with her mouth on the plastic. “I have too much to do.”
    “It doesn’t look to me like you’re doing much of it right now.” Peggy tugged on her sleeve. “Don’t make me get a stretcher.”
    Mai knew Peggy’s determination too well. To avoid being physically dragged from the office, she got to her feet and walked outside with her. “There! We’re outside. Things don’t look all that different to me.”
    “Let’s walk. It’ll do you good.”
    Still in their lab coats despite strict protocol to remove them before leaving the lab, they strolled down the sidewalk past a dry fountain with beds of half-dead petunias surrounding it. Peggy tried to divert Mai’s attention by pointing to the crescent moon. Mai, however, couldn’t get past the dead flowers.
    “I don’t know what I’m doing wrong,” Mai lamented. “It’s not like I don’t know every protocol in the book, plus some. I know how to get the job done. It just seems to pile up on me. I guess I wasn’t expecting so much to go wrong so quickly. Couldn’t it have been peaceful while Ramsey was gone?”
    “Let’s see if we can develop a strategy to focus on one thing at a time.” Peggy put her hands into her pockets. “Let’s start with why you called me.”
    Mai’s smooth, almond-colored brow furrowed. “It’s that Mullis woman they found out at the dry lake.”
    “I found that Mullis woman. What seems to be the problem?”
    “She wasn’t exactly underwater, but there are all kinds of things in her orifices. I can’t tell what they are. So I called you.”
    “You think they’re plants?”
    “Maybe. Definitely some twigs and other stuff I’m not familiar with.” Mai shuddered. “Why do people feel the need to go out into nature in the first place?”
    Peggy laughed. “Nature’s not so bad if you keep it out of your orifices. So you want me to take a look at Mrs. Mullis and see if I can identify what you found.”
    “Exactly!” Mai turned to her. “Hey, this focus thing might be working. I can have George and Bosco work on the gang members. Pretty easy, since they still have the bullets in them. At least that makes sense to me. No twigs and worms and such.”
    “Do you think Mrs. Mullis died from something other than natural causes?”
    “I don’t think