Read Online Current Affairs (Tiara Investigations Mysteries) by Lane Stone - Free Book Online Page A

do some media work. A media specialist called him to talk about it. She said all he needed to do was show his personality. Want to know what he told her? He said, ‘I don’t have one, let’s leave it at that.’” I know this is crazy, but even as I was saying it, my heart was absolutely swelling with pride and love. Pathetic, huh? And the Tiara girls could tell.
    “But what about the political part of the job?” Victoria asked.
    “He doesn’t do it. He says you can’t be a good general and political.” I thought it was time I changed the subject. “Dr. Paul’s very nice.”
    Tara nodded and smiled. “How’s Shorty, Victoria?” Her husband is six feet, seven inches, so what else could his nickname be?
      Her answer was a shoulder shrug. “What’s this for anyway?” She ran her finger along the inside of the mixing bowl.
    “Fellowship Hour at church. We serve refreshments after the eleven o’clock service. You can bring either a dessert or a heavy hors d'oeuvre.”  
    Victoria retrieved a slip of paper from the side pocket of her handbag. “Heavy hors d'oeuvre? What’s that, a fifty-pound cheese ball?” I cracked up, but Tara sighed because there’s nothing about church that isn’t serious to her.
    While Tara finished the brownies, I dialed star 59 and the number Victoria read off to me. “Kerry Lee,” I said when I hung up.
    “Is that a man or a woman?” The buzzer on the oven told Tara it had preheated.
    “It was an automated voice.”
    “So an affair is still a possibility,” Victoria said. “You know, justifiable homicide.”
    “Yeah, an affair which may or may not be related to his murder. We can find out if Kerry Lee is a man or woman when we pay a visit to The Peachtree Group on Monday morning before the service.”
    Tara looked at me, then at Victoria, “Why?”
    “Are we getting in over our heads?” Victoria asked.
    “Probably. Maybe it’s time to do more with the agency than just who-did-he-want-and-when-did-he-want-her, or in industry jargon, matrimonial work.” I didn’t want to get into a long discussion before we met with Detective Kent, and we were going to have to leave soon. So I asked, “Hey, what's the best thing ever to come out of a penis?"
    Just then the air in the room changed. Shorty was standing in the doorway.
    “Hi,” Victoria walked over and stood in front of him.
    “I’m picking Paul up to go play golf.”
    “I left a message for you by the kitchen telephone. Did you see it? It seemed important, at least the guy said he was impatient.”
    “He said he was an in-patient. He’s a patient in the hospital and got my home phone number.” I don’t know which annoyed me more, his tone or that my phone number rather than our phone number.
    “Sorry, I was on two phones at once.” Here she glanced at Tara and me. That didn’t sound like the kind of mistake Victoria would make. It had to be Freudian. “Did you call Aidan?” Aidan is their son and the soon-to-be father of twins.
    One eye crinkled. “No, I’ll do it later,” but it was too late. The beat it took him to answer said it all. It said he had to think about who Aidan was, and it told me why the couple had waited until she was four months pregnant to tell Victoria and Shorty.
    He grumbled, “They can’t afford to have a baby, much less twins.”
    Victoria walked behind Tara and me to put a plate in the sink. “Oh, yes they caaaaan ,” she whispered.  
    In the nick of time Dr. Paul joined us. He walked over to Tara and kissed her goodbye.
    “Ready to head out, Shorty?”
    “Sure.” Then to Victoria, “I accepted the Parkers’ invitation for Monday night.”
    “Okay, I’ll have dinner with the girls.”
    “I accepted for both of us.”
    As they started toward the door, Paul froze. “I can’t leave. I promised I would wait and take the brownies out of the oven for Tara.”
    “No, no, no, you go ahead. We’ll wait for them.” Tara shook her hand to shoo him out the door.
    “Are