Read Online Cookies and Scream (A Cookie Cutter Shop Mystery) by Virginia Lowell - Free Book Online Page B

know she was hurt when Martin wouldn’t postpone the trip until the boys were well.”
    “I’d do more than feel hurt if Lucas did that to me,” Maddie said. “I’d punch him in the nose. Hey, do you suppose Martin decided to go to Europe alone because he was already carrying on with Greta? Maybe they’d been writing each other and planning how to get together.”
    “Maddie, my friend, you’re making my head hurt,” Olivia said. “I doubt Martin would have planned to take Clarisse with him if he intended to meet up with Greta once he got there. Anyway, I’m fairly sure Martin couldn’t have predicted his sons would get chicken pox.”
    Maddie’s green eyes sparkled like emeralds, a sure sign her imagination had burst its constraints. “Maybe he knew chicken pox was going around. Or maybe . . . you know, Clarisse and Martin’s biggest company dealt with medical supplies, plus they had all those drugstores. What if Martin got his hands on some chicken pox serum or something, and then he—”
    “Maddie, please stop, I beg of you.” Olivia nodded toward the abandoned stand mixer. “Don’t you have dough to mix, roll, cut, and bake?”
    “You never let me have any fun.” Maddie tried to pout but started laughing instead.
    “Oh, you two,” Bertha said. “I never know when you’re joking around.”
    Maddie turned her back on the mixer. “I am now shifting into serious mode. If Martin had an affair with Greta, even a brief one, it isn’t really very funny. So did he confess and all was forgiven?”
    “If you want my opinion,” Bertha said, “there’s a type that strays, and then there’s men like Martin. He adored Clarisse and loved his boys, but he lived to build up those businesses. Couldn’t be bothered with the rest. I believe Martin went off to Europe because it was about business to him, plain and simple.” With a sad smile, Bertha said, “I remember when Martin and Clarisse would throw parties to entertain buyers and such like. Clarisse was a charming hostess. She kept everything going smoothly, while Martin . . . well, he didn’t like to socialize. He’d smoke like a bale of hay on fire and talk business all evening. Never talked to the wives or girlfriends, didn’t even look at them. When the conversation turned more personal, Martin would excuse himself and go to his study. Just like that. Clarisse would carry on until the party ended.”
    “Didn’t Clarisse resent having to do all the people work?” Maddie asked. “Not that it would feel like work to me, except for the talking business part.”
    “Oh my, no.” Bertha sighed. “Clarisse loved it all.”
    “Well, I’m convinced,” Maddie said. “Greta must have initiated the affair. Martin probably didn’t have a clue until it was too late.”
    Olivia smiled to herself. Clarisse had been her friend, older and wiser, but she’d also provided a strong mentoring presence. Olivia was convinced that everything she had accomplished since her return to Chatterley Heights wouldn’t have happened if she and Clarisse had never become friends. Would Martin have risked losing her? On the other hand, Olivia knew from painful experience that marriage was far more complex than a business partnership . . . or even a good friendship.
    Olivia glanced at the clock over the kitchen sink. “We’ll probably never know what really happened all those years ago. Clarisse and Martin are gone, while Greta has reappeared, bought a house, and intends to settle in Chatterley Heights. I’d like to start out on the right foot with her, especially given she has asked me to handle the sale of her cookie cutter collection. I’m thinking it would be a good idea to keep the story of Martin and Greta to ourselves.”
    With a dramatic sigh, Maddie said, “Oh, I suppose you’re right. I’m amazed it isn’t common knowledge already.”
    “I haven’t thought about that episode in years,” Bertha said. “I’m not one to gossip. It’s so