Read Online In Plain Sight by Barbara Block - Free Book Online Page B

eleven.”
    â€œI’ll call tomorrow,” I said as I headed toward the bathroom. By now I was feeling nauseous.
    â€œWhat happened to you?” Tim asked as I got closer.
    â€œIt’s a long story.” Zsa Zsa jumped up and licked my hand.
    George walked out of the back room. “What’s a long story?” he asked. He stopped when he saw me and whistled. “You don’t look too good.”
    â€œI know.”
    I stumbled to the bathroom and promptly threw up. It didn’t make me feel any better. I turned the cold water on and splashed some on my face. Then I turned it off and inspected myself in the mirror. I had a streak of some sort of black stuff running down my hair and a bump the size of a goose egg growing on my forehead. I guess I must have hit the floor forehead first when I went down.
    â€œSo what happened?” George asked me when I came back out. He was leaning against the wall opposite the bathroom.
    I told him about Estrella.
    George shook his head in disgust at my stupidity. “Come on,” he said. “I’m taking you to the hospital to get checked out. “
    I didn’t argue. I didn’t have the strength.
    After two hours in the ER I was advised I had a mild concussion and was told to go home and go to bed. No kidding. My head was still throbbing when I woke up the next day, but it didn’t feel as bad as it had the night before. The resident who’d seen me in the ER had told me to stay in bed and rest for the next couple of days, but I got up anyway, took four aspirin, walked Zsa Zsa and went to work. Unless I’m really sick—as in dying—I don’t enjoy lying around.
    I opened the store, made myself some coffee, and fed Zsa Zsa and Pickles. Then around nine, after I’d disposed of Pickles’s latest kill, I called Wellington and told Garriques what had happened. He was in the middle of a meeting so he couldn’t really talk, but he made it clear from the few words he got out that he wasn’t too happy. But whether he was unhappy with me or Estrella I couldn’t tell, and frankly I was still feeling too lousy to care. I called Merlin next. He wasn’t in so I left a message on his machine regarding the dogs. He never called back. After I attended Marsha’s funeral I realized why.
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    The service took place the next day. I would have missed it if I hadn’t seen the notice in the morning paper Tim brought in.
    â€œThat’s interesting,” I mused as I read through Marsha’s obit.
    â€œWhat?” Tim looked up from the roll of nickels he was emptying into the cash drawer.
    â€œThat Marsha was Jewish.” I folded the paper and put it back down. Then I realized I should have known that. After all, her maiden name was Wise.
    Tim didn’t answer. He was too busy counting out the bills. Zsa Zsa came up and scratched at my leg with her front paws. I picked her up and rubbed her belly. She groaned in delight and licked the inside of my wrist. Then she spied Pickles coming around the corner, leapt out of my arms, and took off after the cat. I leaned against the counter and began constructing a rectangle with the day’s mail.
    â€œStill thinking about Marsha being Jewish?” Tim asked.
    â€œNo. I’m trying to decide whether or not I should go to the service.”
    He closed the drawer. “I thought you didn’t go to things like that.”
    I picked up a circular and tapped my chin with it. “I don’t,” I said slowly. “They upset me too much. But in this case I’m going to make an exception.”
    â€œWhy’s that?”
    â€œBecause I want to talk to Merlin, and I think that this is going to be a good time to do it.”
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    The Gottlieb Funeral Home was one of two Jewish funeral homes in the city of Syracuse. Originally located on Ashworth, the owner had recently moved his establishment to a large Victorian house near