Read Online Plaster and Poison by Jennie Bentley - Free Book Online Page A

could avoid being a snitch. I liked Shannon, and didn’t want to rat her out to her mother. But I liked Kate, too, and I knew she’d want to know what Shannon was up to. Shannon might be grown, but Kate was still her mother.
Kate shook her head. “She’s still spending most of her time at Barnham. And I’ve been so busy lately that I haven’t had time to pin her down.” She was watching the men, her face scrunched up against the bright sun and a blue stocking cap on her head.
“Derek and I saw her a couple of times over Thanksgiving weekend,” I offered.
“Did you?”
“She was here on Thanksgiving night, right?”
Kate nodded. “Paige had asked her to have dinner with the Thompsons, and Shannon didn’t feel she could say no. Paige and her dad have kind of a strained relationship, and Paige needed the moral support.”
“I see,” I said. “Paige’s dad . . . what does he look like? What kind of car does he drive?”
Kate looked at me like I had lost my mind. “He looks like Paige. Short and fair, around fifty. And he doesn’t have a car. Or a license. Wayne took it away after the second or third DUI. Why?”
“Derek and I saw Shannon get out of a gray Lexus on Thanksgiving night. Right across the street.” I gestured over my shoulder with a gloved thumb. “It was around seven, I guess.”
Kate nodded. “That’s about when she got here. She said she’d had dinner with Paige and the Thompsons.”
I shrugged. “Maybe the guy was an uncle or something.”
“Maybe,” Kate said.
“Except . . .”
She squinted at me. “Except what? ”
I squirmed. “We saw them again the next night. At the Waymouth Tavern.”
“You’re kidding.”
“Unfortunately not. Shannon begged us not to tell you that we’d seen her, that she’d tell you herself. But I guess she hasn’t, has she?”
“Not a word,” Kate said between her teeth. I watched as emotions chased one another across her face. Anger, worry, suspicion. “This guy she was with. What did he look like?”
I did my best to describe the man I’d only seen twice, both times at a distance. The dark hair, turning gray at the temples. The dark eyes and swarthy skin. The protuberant nose and thin cheeks. The nice clothes and expensive car with out-of-state license plates. The self-satisfied smirk. As I talked, I watched Kate’s expression change from suspicion to dawning certainty, and her eyes turned narrow and flinty.
“Excuse me,” she said while I was still in the middle of a sentence.
I stuttered to a stop and watched as she turned on her heel and stalked to the back door of the B&B. It slammed behind her with what was undoubtedly a very satisfying bang.
“What was that all about?” Derek wanted to know when he came up to me a minute later. “I saw you through the window. What were you talking about?”
“I told her about Shannon and the guy at the Waymouth Tavern. She wasn’t happy.”
“I’d say. She looked ready to chew nails. I’ve only seen her look like that once before, and that was when her dad called to let her know that her grandmother had died, and they’d had the funeral without inviting her. I don’t envy the guy when she catches up with him.”
I shook my head. “Me either. Excuse me.” My cell phone had gone off. It was my mom, no doubt calling to tell me she and Noel had left for the airport. “Hi. Mom?”
“Hello, darling,” my mom’s voice answered, far away and staticky. “I just wanted to let you know we’re on our way.”
“Where are you calling from?”
She was sitting at the airport in Santa Barbara. “The flight out is delayed, of course. They always seem to be. But we’ll be in Boston this evening.”
“That’s great!” I said enthusiastically.
“I don’t think we’ll be driving up to Waterfield tonight, though, Avery. It’s a long flight, with a stopover in San Francisco on the way, and once we touch down, we’ll be tired, and we still have to pick up a car.”
“OK.” It was hard to tell with the static, but her voice sounded strange. Still, it was a reasonable excuse. My mother isn’t as