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

room.
    He didn’t immediately answer my knock, and I started to feel silly standing outside in my hastily assembled attire. I knocked again. Nothing. What if I ran into someone out here? It wasn’t likely, but it would sure be embarrassing. I tried the door. It was unlocked, so I stepped inside the dark room.
    â€œBrody? You in here?” I whispered.
    â€œWho’s there?” he demanded, fumbling at his bedside lamp.
    â€œIt’s me, Kelsey.” I padded across the room toward the sound of his voice.
    He clicked the light on and glared at me. “What the hell?”
    â€œYou shouldn’t leave your door unlocked,” I said. “Anyone could come in.”
    â€œSo I see. What are you doing? What time is it?”
    â€œScooch over,” I said, climbing into bed next to him. “We have to talk.”
    â€œYou could have at least brought me some coffee,” he said, yawning as he spoke.
    â€œWhat? Don’t be silly. It’s the middle of the night. Anyway, did you hear about Zoe?” Somehow he’d managed to miss the whole drama, having weaseled his way out of joining the family for dinner, so I recounted my earlier conversation with Mrs. Abernathy, throwing in occasional nudges to keep him awake. “Brody, are you listening? This is important!”
    Brody sat up and rubbed his eyes.
    â€œSorry, I just had the weirdest dream that a crazy woman broke into my room and woke me up at four in the morning. Oh, and look: here you are!”
    â€œOkay, I’m sorry I had to wake you up, but this is important. You wanna go get coffee?”
    â€œNo, I want to go back to sleep.”
    â€œYeah, me too. Anyway, Mrs. Abernathy expects me to march into the police station in a few hours and, I don’t know, slip Zoe a file in a cake or sweet-talk the police into letting her go.”
    â€œI’m sure you’ll do great at that,” he said, burrowing farther into his bedding. “Good night.”
    â€œBrody!” I pulled away the pillow he had strategically put over his head to drown me out. “C’mon, how am I going to get the police to listen to me if I can’t even get you to listen to me?”
    â€œOkay, okay,” he said, sitting up and yawning. “I’m listening. Now, what’s your problem?”
    â€œMrs. Abernathy thinks it’s my job to fix this, but I don’t know the first thing about getting someone out of jail.”
    He sighed as he leaned up on one elbow. “Did it ever occur to you that you’re going to have a lot better luck getting through to the police than Mrs. Abernathy would?”
    â€œTrue. But what am I going to say to them? Zoe looks great in taffeta? She carried those flowers like a champ?”
    â€œI don’t know, but at least you can say you tried.”
    â€œBut then what? Mrs. Abernathy isn’t going to be content with ‘I tried.’ And I don’t have time to stick around until this gets sorted out. I have to get back to San Francisco. The Richardson wedding is in two weeks, and I’ve still got a ton of work to do.”
    â€œThen we’ll have to go with Plan B.”
    â€œPlan B? We have a Plan B? What is it?”
    â€œI don’t know. You wedding planners always have a Plan B, don’t you?”
    I sank back into the spare pillow. Dang it. I was Plan B. I at least had to try.
    â€œOkay, I guess I’ll sleep on it and maybe in the morning I’ll know what to say.”
    â€œSoundslieaplahn,” he replied, his face smushed back down in the pillow.
    â€œBrody?” He shook his head and buried his face deeper in the poly-down mix. “Brody, can I stay in here with you?”
    I took his snoring as a yes.
    *   *   *
    I got myself to the police station relatively early, which I considered an impressive feat on three hours’ sleep. The jovial officer I talked to was a lot nicer than the detectives