Read Online Terror in Taffeta by Marla Cooper - Free Book Online

out a wobbly “Thank God you’re here” before completely bursting into tears.
    Maybe it was a mistake to have left her here with her mother. There’s no telling what Mrs. Abernathy had said to put her in this state. I knew it had to be stressful for the young couple, being cooped up when they should have been off somewhere consummating their marriage. From the looks of it, Mrs. Abernathy had badgered the poor girl to the breaking point.
    â€œWhat’s up?” I asked, self-consciously wiping at my mouth in case my lipstick was smeared.
    Nicole had yet to regain her composure, and my eyes met Evan’s over Nicole’s shoulder.
    â€œSorry,” I mouthed silently, to which Evan shrugged good-naturedly. I was eager to finish my good-night kiss in private, but that seemed unlikely, especially when Mrs. Abernathy joined us on the sidewalk.
    â€œKelsey, you mustn’t leave without telling us. We’ve been looking for you for hours. Now come inside, girls, so we can stop making spectacles of ourselves for all of San Miguel.”
    I felt peevish. I wasn’t on the clock. “Evan and I were just catching up.”
    â€œCatch up on your own time,” said Mrs. Abernathy. “Zoe has been arrested.”

 
    CHAPTER 7
    After being snatched from Evan’s arms, I bid him a hasty good night and followed the Abernathys into our walled compound. Fernando, the chef who had kept us well fed throughout our stay at the villa, had thoughtfully laid out a midnight snack to fuel our middle-of-the-night summit, and the family filled me in on the events of the evening. It was starting to feel increasingly like a hostage situation, except with really good snacks.
    It was hard to follow what had happened, since everyone was trying to talk at once. Their garbled cross talk came out sounding something like: “Kelsey Zoe police tonight Nicole interrogated because Dana and Zoe was accused and handcuffs jail … do something!”
    I couldn’t follow any given sentence, but all the words were there. Zoe was in jail, which was very, very bad.
    â€œThat’s terrible!” I said when the hubbub had finally died down long enough for me to speak. “I can’t believe they think she did this. What I don’t understand—and if you can talk one at a time, that would be super helpful—is why?”
    Unsurprisingly, Mrs. Abernathy was the first to jump in. “They wouldn’t tell us! Can you imagine?”
    Actually, I found it pretty easy to imagine, but Mrs. Abernathy wasn’t used to dealing with people who didn’t have to do her bidding.
    Mrs. Abernathy, Nicole, and Vince all stared at me, waiting for my response, but I was at a loss for words. On what grounds could they have possibly arrested Zoe? “Did they tell you anything ?”
    Nicole shook her head. “It all happened so quickly. The policemen—those two who were here earlier—came by while we were having dinner. They said Zoe had to go down to the station with them. We told them there had to be some mistake, but they wouldn’t listen.”
    Mrs. Abernathy nodded in agreement with her daughter’s description of the events. “It was like they were entirely unconcerned with our feelings.”
    I leaned over the table and put my head in my hands, rubbing my eyes, trying desperately to come up with some response. I wanted to go to bed so badly. Why had I let Mrs. Abernathy bully me into staying at the villa instead of in my own private hotel room? And how had Brody managed not to get roped into all of this? He was probably hiding in his room, the traitor.
    â€œI’ve called the consulate,” Mrs. Abernathy continued, “but no one will be in till ten o’clock tomorrow morning.”
    â€œDo you need me to get you the name of a lawyer?”
    â€œWe have a lawyer, Kelsey.” Silly me. Of course they had a lawyer. He was probably part of the house