Read Online Murder in a Basket (An India Hayes Mystery) by Amanda Flower - Free Book Online Page A

Tess was still here. She hadn’t even started packing up her booth. I should have stopped her and asked what was going on, but I was in a hurry to get home to my kids.” She bit her lip. “I remember thinking she looked like she was waiting for someone.”
    “ Her son did mention that she planned to meet someone after the festival,” I said.
    Jendy nodded. “I thought that, too, when I left. I guess if the police find out who that was, they’ll find out who did it.”
    As if it were that easy, I thought.
    “ Well, hello, ladies,” Bobby greeted us in his most charming voice. “Those are gorgeous creations.”
    The three women fluttered under his gaze and compliment. Erin stood behind Bobby and rolled her eyes at me. She was a tall, lithe, natural redhead, who had the body of a prima ballerina, but she wanted to be a college professor. Go figure.
    I introduced them to the group. Jendy in particular took a shine to Bobby. She asked him if he could open one of her jars of glass beads for her, saying it was on too tight. I nearly snorted.
    Erin peered at me. “Do you have time to take a break? We need to talk.”
    I looked at my watch. It was after three, and I still hadn’t eaten anything besides a pack of questionable cracker sandwiches I’d found at the bottom of my shoulder bag. There was a sizable crowd on the grounds, but no one seemed interested in getting their face painted.
    I put up a cardstock be back in ten minutes sign. “Let’s go over to the food vendors. I’m starved.”
    I gravitated toward the elephant ears. “Extra powdered sugar, please,” I told the vendor.
    “ No problem,” he said with a plastic straw clenched in his teeth.
    Erin wrinkled her pretty little nose. “Do you have any idea how many calories are in that?”
    This concern must be why she was a size two, and I was, well, not. “Nope,” I said. “What did you want to talk about?”
    She waved her hand vaguely. “Oh, just that you found a dead body. Nothing major.”
    “ Oh, that.” The vendor handed me my heavenly elephant ear, and I paid him. “How’d you hear?”
    “ I have friend who lives in Derek’s dorm.”
    I took a bite of my snack and noticed the elephant ear vendor was leaning toward us, straining to hear our conversation. I led Erin out of his earshot.
    “ I can’t believe you are so calm about this,” she said.
    “ I’m not, trust me. Does Bobby know?”
    “ Oh, yeah. He found out when that lady police officer brought sniffling Derek into the library. The officer told Bobby you said he’d take care of Derek.”
    “ How’d that go over?”
    She gave me a look.
    “Just great. Does your friend know Derek well?”
    Erin shook her head. It was like watching a shampoo commercial as her red-gold hair glistened in the fall sunlight. “No, he says no one in the dorm knows Derek that well. Not even his roommate. He’s a shy kid. A loner.”
    “ You make him sound like the Unabomber.”
    She shrugged. “Maybe he is.”
    “ He’s not.” I paused. “He asked me to help him.”
    “ Help him how?”
    “ To find out who killed his mother.”
    “ You’re kidding.”
    “ Nope.”
    “ All I have to say is you might want to update your résumé, because Provost Lepcheck is not going to stand for you snooping around another mystery on campus.”
    “ There’s something else. Derek is Lepcheck’s nephew. Tess Ross was his sister.”
    Erin eyes widened. “Whoa!”
    “ Yeah. Well, we’d better get back.”
    Back at the booth, Jendy was showing Bobby her jewelry, and he oohed and aahed at all the appropriate times. When he saw me, he nodded his head to the right. I followed him to the other side of my booth. “I got your special delivery.”
    “ Derek. Erin told me. Did you call him a pest?”
    “ Well, that’s what he is. I can’t believe you sent him over to me to babysit.”
    “ His mother was just murdered. He had nowhere else to go.”
    “ Speaking of the murder, you could have called or