Read Online Mahjonged (An Alex Harris Mystery) by Elaine Macko - Free Book Online

books we purchase at various second-hand stores in the area.
    “You two,” my mother said with exasperation. “You,” she said looking at her mother, “have always encouraged Alex in these crazy schemes. And you,” she said now boring down on me, “you shouldn’t be getting your grandmother mixed up in this kind of stuff. Not at her age.”
    Meme and I just looked at each other and then burst out laughing. We couldn’t help it. We were truly like two peas in a pod.
    “Oh, calm down, Mable,” Meme said to my mother. “You’ve always been too serious for your own good. Besides, this isn’t a game. We’re helping the police.”
    “Maybe I should call John and tell him what his wife is up to.”
    I didn’t know if my mom was serious or not so just to be sure I jumped up and grabbed the phone off the counter.
    “Like I don’t have him on speed dial on my cell,” my mother said to me with a smirk. She put her hands palm down on the kitchen table. “Okay. I understand you want to find the person who killed Penelope. We all do, but I’m counting on you, Samantha, to look out for your little sister.”
    “Me?”
    Sam turned to me and we locked eyes. We could read each other’s thoughts and right now I beamed her a message that said if you want to be on the inside track of everything I hear, you had better keep your mouth shut .
    My grandmother turned her ample body toward me, totally dismissing my mother for the moment. “So? You have an idea, don’t you?”
    I smiled. “One of us killed her. That’s a given. And no one plunges a knife into the back of another person over a lost tile.”
    “And?” my mother asked, obviously forgetting her admonishments of a moment ago and getting as caught up in the mystery as the rest of us.
    “And,” I began as every person at my kitchen table leaned in closer so as not to miss one word, “we all spent time with her, we all talked with her, and somewhere in all the talk is the key. Somewhere, locked away in our subconscious, in a muddle of gossip and idle banter is the clue that will tell us why Penelope Radamaker was killed in my library on a dark and stormy night.”

 
     
     

CHAPTER SIXTEEN
     
     
    Our plan hatched, an hour later we busily worked to get my kitchen back in order, each of us lost in her own thoughts. Phone calls had been made, and everyone agreed to meet at my mother’s house at six. Meme wanted to know if I planned to reenact the murder and had kindly volunteered to play the part of Penelope. Geesh.
    My sister called her husband with instructions he take the kids along with our father to the movies this evening, and from her tone, I could tell she wasn’t leaving him any room to argue. When I called, Mary-Beth volunteered to bake her famous cheesecake, and my mother and I would put out savory treats.
    With my house back in somewhat order except for the library, everyone left, leaving me alone in the murder house. For the next hour I successfully managed to keep my eyes off the door of the library, but it really didn’t matter. And how pretentious is it to have a library? I needed to find another name for the room but deep inside I knew what it would be for the rest of my life—the murder room. My eyes momentarily went to the door of the library/second den/murder room and even though it was closed I knew what lingered on the other side and I didn’t want to spend another minute alone in this house. John wouldn’t be back for a couple more days and it was no use to try his cell. Out in the middle of nowhere, he warned me he would be out of cellular reach. No worries, I had assured him with a wave of my hand. I was having the girls over for mahjong, so what could go wrong? Ha!
    Thirty minutes later, I arrived at my health club, slowly jogging on the treadmill and keeping my eyes peeled for Connie.
    “Hi, Tina,” I said to one of the club managers who just finished showing a prospective new client around. “You haven’t seen Connie today,