Read Online The Ghost and the Femme Fatale by Alice Kimberly - Free Book Online Page A

are you looking for?”
    “A lot of things . . .”
    Yeah, said Jack in my head, like whether Hedda actually had a motive to set up Irving Vreen for the big knife. Or was it Pierce Armstrong setting Hedda up?”
    “Or was the whole thing simply a tragic accident,” I silently reminded the ghost. “Just like last night’s falling speaker. Maybe Hedda really is just accident- prone.”
    Brrring!
    The store’s front doorbell interrupted us. I glanced at the locked glass door and saw Dr. Irene Lilly waving at me from the other side.
    “What’s she doing here so early?” Aunt Sadie asked. “Her book signing isn’t scheduled until noon.”
    “She’s probably worried about that overnight shipment of her new book arriving from the publisher. Remember? The first shipment never got here.” I grabbed the key from behind the counter and hurried to open the door.
    “Good morning, Mrs. McClure. Ready for another big day?”
    Once again, Dr. Lilly looked very West Coast in a sunshine yellow ankle- length cotton dress and leather sandals. Her tanned complexion contrasted attractively with her straight, dark blonde hair. Despite the early hour, she was brimming with energy as she entered the store. Laugh lines deepened around her eyes when she greeted my aunt.
    “Sadie and I were just about to set up while we waited for the delivery of your books,” I told her, closing and locking the door again.
    “Good,” said Dr. Lilly. “I just know your shop’s going to get a big crowd today. I wanted to bring you both coffee and pastry, but the line at your town’s wonderful bakery is running halfway down the block!”
    “Uh- oh,” I murmured, glancing at my aunt. “I hope Linda Cooper remembers the order I placed.” I’d requested four dozen of their lighter-than- air doughnuts and two giant thermal containers of coffee to be ready by nine this morning. “I’d better get over there and pick them up.”
    Dr. Lilly slipped the suede purse off her shoulder and set it down on the counter. “Go,” she commanded. “Your aunt Sadie and I can get the event room set up.”
    “Thank you so much, Dr. Lilly—”
    “Please, it’s Irene.”
    “I’ll be back with coffee and donuts in no time,” I promised, snatching up my keys and purse.
    I SHOULD HAVE known this day would be a disaster when I turned the ignition key on my battered Saturn and nothing happened.
    “Not now,” I groaned. “How am I ever going to get everything back to the store without a car?”
    I can’t help you solve every mystery, doll , Jack replied.
    “It was a rhetorical question,” I pointed out. “Beside which, you don’t have a body, so how could you help?”
    Low blow, baby.
    “Sorry. I’m not mad at you, it’s just—”
    It’s just that sometimes a dame needs a real man aro und the house, not just some spook. Well, open your peepers or you’ll miss your pal, Charlie Big Suds —
    “Huh?”
    Jack the Biscuit. The pie- eater who featherbeds for the mail ser vice —
    “Seymour!” I cried out the window.
    Seymour turned on the sidewalk and waved. Then he slung his mailbag over one shoulder and sauntered up to my window.
    “Car trouble, Pen?” he asked.
    I nodded.
    “It’s probably a lost cause, but if you unlock the hood, I’ll be glad to take a look.”
    I popped the hood and Seymour lifted it. He tinkered around for about a minute and told me to turn the key again. I did, and we both heard the sound of silence.
    Seymour closed the hood. “It’s your battery.”
    “What’s wrong with it?”
    “You’re kidding, right? The thing’s deader than a Kennedy. When I roll out my ice cream truck later, I’ll give you a jump and you should be good to go.”
    When Seymour wasn’t delivering mail, he was moonlighting as an ice- cream truck vendor. That was all well and good: “But I need a car now —this minute!” I told him. “I have to bring a bunch of goodies from Cooper’s back to the store.”
    Seymour eyes brightened.