Read Online Killer Cousins by June Shaw - Free Book Online Page A

Nature’s Strawberry Highlights.”
    “Let’s go eat,” she said.
    “Already? Are you sure you want to eat again so soon?”
    She grabbed her purse.
    * * *
    Stevie knew where to locate Cajun Delights restaurant. She wound her Jeep down the road, this time slowly enough for me to enjoy watching the water trickle along the mountain’s rocky side. We traveled near a bubbly tree-lined creek. I opened my window to hear water lapping against rocks, deciding tranquility tapes must have been made from such a place.
    If I hadn’t found a dead person and if we weren’t headed to my former lover’s restaurant, I would have experienced perfect peace. My driver, annoying as she’d been, kept her thoughts to herself.
    She turned onto a street with lush trees at the base of a mountain. The few commercial buildings blended with nature. My heart struck harder when Stevie pulled into a parking lot filled with cars and trucks. The tall wooden sign out front said Cajun Delights , its cayenne-red letters on a worn green finish unmistakable. The cypress exterior was gray. “Seems like lots of people heard about this place opening,” she said, “or the food is extra good.”
    “It is,” I replied. Stevie glanced at me, and I had to think of a different response. “I mean, I like Cajun cooking. Cajuns prepare good food.”
    She parked. I didn’t think she guessed I’d eaten in similar restaurants that Gil opened in other cities. No need for her to know about what had once been between us.
    “Attractive,” she said. We walked near the aerated pond holding fish and ducks. People watched them from a wooden bridge. “This place has a comfortable feel.”
    I didn’t trust my voice, so I said nothing. We stepped onto the porch where families sat on swings. Some strolled beneath the roof’s tin overhang. Welcome to Cajun Delights. We’re glad you’re here. Those words on a small sign posted on the leaded glass door sent my pulse into overdrive.
    Gil might be inside.
    Maybe he wasn’t.
    Who knew where he might be at this moment? I struggled to get my ideas straight, but hormones raced. Darn, I wasn’t a teenager. Gil had probably stayed back around Chicago. Of course, he’d told me he was flying out this way soon. How soon? I fought with my thoughts in an attempt to straighten them out, but couldn’t. “Dammit,” I blurted.
    Stevie glanced at me. I almost fibbed and said I’d stubbed my toe. Instead I tightened my lips and gave her a half smirk.
    A man entering ahead of us peered back. I felt I should apologize for my language once I saw he wore a minister’s white-banded collar with a black shirt. He looked at me but not Stevie, and turned around to follow a pair of sultry young women through the doorway. He walked with a limp.
    “He looks familiar,” I told Stevie, and then remembered. “Isn’t he Father Paul Edward from your stop-smoking group?”
    She pulled back and spoke softly, “I hope he doesn’t spot me. I’ll want to see how he does without smoking after he eats.”
    “Is that a difficult time to do without a smoke?” I asked, having forgotten Stevie and those others must be going through withdrawal pains.
    “It’s when you want a cigarette the worst. After eating—and sex.” At my startled expression, she said, “At least that’s what people tell me, you know, about sex. They say a smoke’s especially good then.”
    I’d never known Stevie to have sexual encounters. It surprised me to hear her mention them.
    What surprised me most were those shapely young women Father Paul Edward seemed to be with. And his walk. One of his legs dragged and its foot dipped. He used a three-pronged cane.
    “Does he really have trouble walking?” I asked Stevie.
    “Mmm, smell that,” she said.
    The food did smell scrumptious as we entered Gil’s restaurant. Tantalizing scents of fried seafood mingled with the smell of tangy crab boil used to pepper up the large red-shelled crabs I spied on waiters’ trays.