Read Online Pushing Murder by Eleanor Boylan - Free Book Online

the hall,” said Kit.
    I said, “Will one or both of you please go down to the flower shop in the lobby? Janet Folsom is there buying flowers for the chapel.” They simply gazed at me. “There was a zinger in that letter she neglected to tell us about.”
    Dan was halfway to the door. “Better come with me, honey. I’m Captain Hook without the hook.”
    â€œAnd by the way”—I drank milk—“you’re both rehired—for Janet. But she lives in Connecticut. Can you handle that?”
    Dan said, “We could handle Nome, Alaska, for you.” Then he grinned and looked down at his cast. “And here’s some good advice from your grandson: ‘Next time don’t be a stupid dope/Look out for the curves and watch the slope.’”
    â€œFresh kid,” said Tina, but she was smiling as we all were.
    â€œQuite a subtle metaphor there,” chuckled Sadd. They left, and he added, “And by the way, Clara, budge out is redundant. The word budge stands alone as meaning—”
    â€œI can’t eat any more.” I pushed my tray away.
    â€œMay I have your roll?” he asked.
    â€œTake it.”
    â€œYou haven’t eaten three bites,” scolded Tina. “And you’ve lost weight already. I can see it in your face.”
    â€œReally?” Why is the thought of weight loss so cheering even in the midst of terror and tragedy? “Tina, how much of all this have you told Hen?”
    â€œNot everything. He knows you’re involved in a ‘situation,’ but he’s known about your ‘situations’ since babyhood. We don’t want him to know you’re in direct danger. He’s pretty fond of his gran.”
    â€œHe is also”—Sadd sipped his coffee—“showing sinister signs of inheriting qualities from both his paternal grandparents such as stubbornness, king-sized curiosity—”
    Henry and Hen walked in. Henry said, “Dr. Cullen will be here shortly. She wants to talk to us. I think you may be discharged.”
    â€œLovely!” I cried.
    â€œYou’ll be home for Christmas, Gran!”
    â€œI know! What are you giving me, by the way?”
    Hen considered. “How would you like a board I painted in camp with hooks on it for keys?”
    â€œYou gave me one of those last Christmas.”
    â€œAnd I made a rack that holds neckties.”
    â€œI don’t wear them a lot.”
    Hen started through his inventory, and Henry turned to Sadd and Tina. “What’s this I hear about Janet Folsom? She’s here? ”
    As they told him, I began to feel the tiniest kernel of dread forming inside me somewhere. How long since Dan and Kit had gone down? I asked the question aloud, and Tina looked at her watch and guessed fifteen minutes. Sadd closed his book.
    â€œâ€”and I made some place mats,” Hen was saying. “One of the kids brought this big book from his father’s store. It had pieces of wallpaper in it with—”
    â€œPlace mats will be fine, dear.” A reassuring thought had occurred to me. The chapel. Janet had probably insisted that they take her to the chapel with her flowers, in which case—
    Kit’s face, as she opened the door, was white as chalk, but she spoke calmly. “Hen, how would you like to go to the movies?”
    â€œYeah!”
    â€œI just talked to my mother on the phone.” Kit’s eyes went from one of us to the other, and she spoke very quietly. “She’s taking Danny, and she’d like to take you too. She’s coming down in a cab, and she’ll go to the side entrance on Tenth Street. Your folks can pick you up later at our house, okay?”
    â€œOkay?” Hen looked eagerly at his parents, and the poor things could only look at Kit, who said in a pleading near-whisper, “Please?”
    They nodded mutely.
    â€œNeat-o!” Hen darted to the door, and Sadd stood