Deadly Notions - By Elizabeth Lynn Casey Page 0,36
the sidewalk that bordered the town square on the east. “You don’t mind being questioned in Ashley’s murder?”
Leona shrugged, her surprisingly toned arms rising and falling beneath the pale pink Donna Karan suit she wore. “Why should I? I didn’t do anything wrong.”
“You said some not-so-very-nice things about a woman who wound up dead less than twelve hours later.”
“She deserved them. She brought rude to a new level that night.” Leona’s heels clicked against the concrete. “My grandmammy used to say some people are so full of themselves, you’d like to buy them for what they’re worth and sell them for what they think they’re worth. A perfect description of that woman, don’t you think?”
“It is. I guess. Though she’s not the only one who seems—”
“Seemed,” Leona corrected.
“Seemed to be affected with that disorder.” She cast a sidelong look at her friend. “Is that better?”
“Yes.” Leona slowed as they neared a spot on the sidewalk that was buckled thanks to an exposed tree root. “Georgina would do well to have that removed before someone trips and sues.”
She stepped to the left to allow Leona to clear the spot then fell into step beside her once again. “Though I’m not sure Beth is like that with everyone.”
“Beth?”
“Milo’s college sweetheart.” The second the words were out of her mouth she couldn’t help but cringe at the tone in which she’d spoken them—the hint of hurt and fear as tangible as the gentle spring breeze that lifted their hair from their heads. “You know what? Scratch that. Can we pretend I didn’t bring her up just now?”
“We could, but we won’t.” Leona wrapped her fingers around Tori’s forearm and tugged her onto the Green, pointing her manicured finger toward a bench beside the town’s famed gazebo. “Let’s sit.”
“Don’t you have to inventory the antique shipment you just got?”
“It can wait, dear. Problems with men can’t. They need to be addressed and eliminated without delay.” When they reached the bench, Leona sat down primly, tugging Tori down beside her. “So tell me. What happened?”
That’s all it took for the floodgates to open.
“I decided to take your advice last night . . .”
Leona beamed. “Yes, dear?”
“I left a dinner invitation on the steering wheel of Milo’s car while he was still at work. Then I rushed home and made a beef brisket with all the trimmings.”
“Attacking through the stomach certainly does have potential . . .”
She winced. “I wasn’t trying to attack. Not really, anyway. It was more about trying to show him he’s special to me.”
“Semantics, dear.”
“So he came over and I lit some candles. Then I set the table with my best china. And made one of my best recipes.”
“And how did it go?”
She shrugged. “Fine. For all of about ten minutes. Tops.”
Leona turned to study Tori over the top of her stylish glasses. “Did you have a disagreement?”
She shook her head.
“Did you retire to the bedroom?”
She rolled her eyes and shook her head even harder.
“Perhaps that was the problem, dear.”
“No. It was the phone call he got after he’d taken no more than three bites.”
“Phone call?” Leona echoed.
This time she nodded, her words shoring up the gesture with the kind of answers her head couldn’t convey. “From Beth.”
“Oh.”
For a moment neither said a word, their visual focus distracted by a squirrel scampering across the Green. When she did speak, Leona’s words were hushed. “Did he at least keep the conversation short?”
“Relatively, yes.”
“Well, I suppose that’s a good sign. At least he wrapped up the call to continue your dinner together.”
She looked down at her hands as she twisted them inside her lap. “It would have been a good sign, if that’s what he’d done.”
Leona turned to her once again. “He didn’t?”
“No.”
“Don’t tell me he left.”
“He left.”
“To be with her?”
Tori switched back to nodding in an effort to keep her voice from breaking.
A gasp of disgust escaped Leona’s thinning lips. “Why?”
“She thought someone was after her.”
“After her?”
She nodded again.
“How?”
“In a dangerous way. She felt unsafe, prompting Milo to ride to the rescue.”
“Who would be after her?” Leona asked. “Other than, perhaps, me?”
Tori’s head snapped up and she turned to meet her friend’s gaze? “You?”
“You think I like what her presence is doing to you, dear?”
She sucked in her breath as Leona’s words took root in her thoughts. “Wait.”
“Wait, what?” Leona asked as she looked around at the empty Green. “What’s wrong?”
“Please tell me you weren’t trying to scare her in the parking lot of the Sweet Briar Inn the other night.”
“I wish I’d