Read Online Death by Chocolate by G. A. McKevett - Free Book Online Page A

not to mention my rebirthing therapy and my herbal
detoxing wraps and acupuncture remedies. She made me sick; she can pick up the
tab while I’m healing from her years of abuse.”
    Savannah said nothing for a
moment, just stood there, quietly observing and absorbing. “Okay,” she finally
said, ‘Whatever. But if you actually knew who was threatening your mother’s
life, you’d let me know, right? I mean.... if she croaked, who’d pay all those
bills?”
    Louise’s eyes narrowed,
accenting the squint lines. “I don’t think I like you very much,” she said.
‘You’ve got a smart mouth and a lousy attitude.”
    Savannah chuckled. ‘You
aren’t the first to express that sentiment. And you probably won’t be the last.
But, then, I don’t really give a fiddler’s fart, because I’m not here to make
friends. My job is to keep your mom safe, and I intend to do that.” Turning
away, she added, “Good luck with your assorted therapies. I hope you heal soon,
for your sake and for Gilly’s.”
    As she walked across the
driveway toward the house, she heard Louise muttering behind her back.
Savannah?was pretty sure it was something like, “Good luck to you, too, bitch.
You’ll need it.”
    Fine, she said to herself. Fine and
dandy. You, lady— and I use the term loosely—-just got moved to the top of my
shit list.
     
     
    Savannah walked in the front door and
through the house without seeing a soul. The pile of dirty dishes in the
kitchen sink gave her a clue that it might be Marie’s, day off. The door
leading to the ocean side of the house, was open, and she thought she could
hear voices on the lawn.
    She shuddered at the thought of
watching Eleanor Maxwell gobbling her breakfast again. But sooner or later, she
would have to face the lady of the house, grisly, as that prospect might be. So
she headed in that direction.
    Just before she reached the door, she
heard a sound coming from the library, a small but cozy room off the dining
room. She recalled hearing Marie refer to it as. the “office.” Perhaps Eleanor
was attending to business and would be more amenable to being interrupted than
when she was eating.
    She walked to the door of the library
and looked inside. Standing at the desk in the far corner of the room was a
fiftyish white-haired man in a pinstriped suit with a bright blue paisley tie
and a pink shirt. The last guy she had seen who was dressed that badly was
trying to sell her steak knives at a county fair.
    But she was less concerned
about his fashion blunders than by the fact that he was reading a letter that
he was holding. By the tan color of the paper, she was pretty sure she
recognized it as one of the threatening messages Eleanor had received. 
    So engrossed was he in what
he was reading that he didn’t notice her until she cleared her throat and said,
“Hello.”
    He jumped as if someone had
shoved a hotwire down the back of his ugly pink shirt. Fumbling with the paper,
he shoved it first behind him, then dropped it onto the desk. “Yeah,” he said.
“Who are you?”
    Quickly Savannah walked
across the room, her hand outstretched. “Savannah Reid. I’m working for Mrs.
Maxwell. And you are....?”
    “Martin Streck, her manager
and accountant. If you’re working for her, why haven’t I heard of you?”
    A certain arrogant gleam in
his close-set gray eyes told Savannah that Martin Streck was a man who prided
himself on knowing just about everything and anything worth knowing.
    She gave him a saccharine
smile and batted her eyelashes. “Well, I don’t know, Mr. Streck. Maybe little
ol’ me wasn’t worth botherin’ you with. I’m sure Eleanor would have gotten
around to telling you about me sooner or later.”
    He looked her up and down
with eyes that took in every detail. “What sort of work do you do for Eleanor?”
Again, she gave him the eyelash routine. “Why, sir.... I believe that’s
confidential. In fact, maybe that’s why you didn’t know about me. Maybe