Read Online The Diva Digs up the Dirt by Krista Davis - Free Book Online Page A

screamed. She slapped a hand over her mouth and whispered, “This can’t be happening. I can’t believe it. I was completely convinced that Wolf was innocent.” She gasped and looked toward his house. “Where is he? What if he finds us here?”
    “Relax. He’s at work.”
    She took a deep breath. “What are you going to do?”
    “I think
we
have to turn it in to the police.”
    “Yes. It would be wrong to re-bury it and pretend it never happened.” She looked at me in all earnestness. “Right?”
    “I don’t
want
to turn it in!”
    Nina held up her hands, palms toward me. She bit her upper lip. “Let’s think this through. Are you willing to
ever
be alone with Wolf again now that you’ve found the purse?”
    It was a valid question, no matter how much I hated hearing it. “Maybe.” That was partly a lie. Alone with Wolf? I didn’t know how I would react. I feared it would never be the same.
    “When he kisses you—what will you be thinking?”
    I frowned at her.
    “When he wraps his arms around you for a hug, will you be afraid his hands might creep up to your neck and strangle you?”
    “Stop that!”
    “Well?” She wobbled her head around and gestured aimlessly. “I don’t want Wolf to have killed his wife, either. Soph, we don’t have the power to change his past. If he did it, then I don’t want you going out with him anymore. And I don’t want any other women to suffer his wife’s fate.”
    My voice came out much smaller than I’d have liked. “I couldn’t live with the guilt. But what if we’re wrong?”
    She opened her mouth and shut it again like a fish out of water.
    “Turning the handbag over to the police doesn’t mean we’re accusing him of murder,” I said.
    “Right.
You’re
not even suggesting that Wolf planted the purse there.”
    “Exactly. It just happened to be there.”
    “No one is making any accusations.”
    Daisy barked and we swung around to look at Wolf’s house. Had he come home?
    No. But Mona, who had invaded my yard only the daybefore, chugged toward us, her gait odd and unsteady. “I knew you would find her.” She stared at the bag on the grass. “That’s her purse,” she cried. “I would know it anywhere!” She fell to her knees and hugged the handbag like it was her baby.
    “No!” I screeched. “You’re contaminating it. It doesn’t belong to your daughter.”
    Mona held it at arm’s length. “Yes, it does. She saved for this bag. Wolf thought it was too expensive, but I came through with a little cash. It’s definitely her purse.”
    “Wolf?” The kaleidoscope in my head swirled again. I still held the wallet and looked at the driver’s license photo again. Anne Fleishman had been very attractive, with rich cinnamon hair, and a frightening resemblance to Mona. I knew the answer, but I asked anyway. “I thought you said your daughter’s name was Linda.”
    “I couldn’t exactly tell you that I’m Wolf’s mother-in-law, now, could I? I had to lie.”
    I stared at her kneeling on the ground with the handbag clutched to her breast. “What if I had agreed to look for her? I would have been chasing after someone who didn’t exist.”
    Mona tightened her grip on the handbag. “I was going to wing it. The important thing was that you could get me inside Wolf’s house to search around.”
    Her plan made no sense to me. Either she was delusional or, more likely, so desperate that she hadn’t thought anything through.
    “What’s that? Anne’s wallet?” Mona’s eyes blazed with fury. She thrust her hand toward me. “Give it!”
    Against my better judgment, I handed it over.
    Mona whimpered and cried out like a wounded animal. “My baby! He killed my baby!”
    Tucking the wallet inside the bag, Mona staggered to her feet. “He’s not home. This is our chance to go inside and look for clues.”
    “I think we can officially scrap the business about no accusations,” said Nina.
    My heart sank. We were kidding ourselves to wish