More Bitter Than Death: An Emma Fielding Mystery - By Dana Cameron Page 0,14
said our I-love-yous and goodbyes and I returned to the table.
“Trouble in paradise?” said Brad.
I looked at him, surprised. “No. Why?”
“Little spat over domestic duties.” He smirked.
I shrugged, annoyed with him. “Please. That was a discussion. Brian and I are both lead dog–types, and sometimes, without anyone else around, we start both trying to lead at the same time. We know what’s up.”
“I’m surprised with your enlightened view of the world, you’d be so unsympathetic,” Carla said to Brad.
“Not at all,” he replied. “It’s just that we schedule everything out so there is no distraction from what’s important in life.”
“Well, if you all aren’t going to ask her, I am,” Lissa said to the table at large. “What the heck are you doing, wearing a jockstrap?”
“Like I said, it’s a female groin protector.”
“Groin protection. Breast shields.” Lissa chewed that over. “What are you and Brian up to? I’ll give you credit, you’re into some advanced stuff. Most of us just muddle along with nubbly condoms and vibrators.”
“Ha. Ha.” I looked over my cards. “It’s for my Krav Maga, to keep from getting kicked or punched somewhere fragile.”
“Krav Maga like Kama Sutra?”
“Do you always have to take the low road, Liss?” Carla asked. “It’s E’s fancy self-defense class, Israeli martial arts.”
Brad shuddered. “You’re going to ruin your joints with all that violent stuff. You should try yoga. More yin, less yang.”
“Right.” I made a face. “In my abundant spare time.”
Brad was insistent. “It would help with your stress. And by the way, you were late tonight, Emma. It’s not like you to keep us waiting.”
I wasn’t about to tell him what I’d actually been up to; Carla and I had a thing about playing practical jokes on each other. “I ran into a student of mine,” I said as casually as I could; it was true anyway. I just made a detour after that. “She wanted to ask me something before her paper. Besides, Jay was here only a minute before me and Sue’s later than both of us.”
Carla was eyeing me hard, and I worried she smelled a rat. She made a rude noise. “And Jay? Where were you?”
“Oh, I was talking with our illustrious guest of honor,” he said, stacking his chips. “Garrison had some questions for me. More like demands.”
“Ha!” Carla snorted. “I hear that.”
Jay continued. “But where’s Sue anyway? She trying to save money by not showing up to let me take it?”
A knock at the door answered her before we could, and I got up to find it was the woman herself. Her eyes were red, her fair skin was blotchy under the freckles, and while nothing could shift her fan of strawberry-blond hair—shellacked into looking permanently windblown—her clothes were rumpled.
“Where’ve you been?” I said. “You ducked out of there pretty quick.” When she didn’t say anything, I tried to joke. “And you missed me trouncing Jay. It was beautiful.”
Jay glared at me. “Evening’s young yet. Not even near over.”
“After I got done in the ladies’ room, I got caught in the bar,” Sue explained. “Took me a while to get free. Lots of sympathy to deal with.”
“I’m sorry.” I handed her a beer. “Everyone knew that Garrison was talking about your project.”
“And he’s two seconds away from permanently retiring!” Her words came in a rush. “It all comes down to a difference of opinion, and he’s got to screw five years worth of work. Bastard.”
“You had to know it was coming,” Chris said.
“Yeah, well, as far as I knew, it was a go until he got tapped for the advisory board. They all suck up to him. Then…phhht.”
The news I’d heard about the project didn’t give me exactly the same vibe, and I thought that Sue was working toward an extreme long shot, but I wouldn’t have said so for the world.
She sat down, put her head down between her knees.
“You okay, hon?” Lissa asked, patting her on the back.
“Yeah,” came the muffled reply. A long shuddering sigh followed. “Just give me a minute, okay?”
We exchanged looks; there was nothing more we could do. I opened my mouth to say we didn’t need to play cards tonight, this was too important, but with a determined shake, Sue sat up and immediately changed the subject.
“Gimme some damned cards. Did you know this place is haunted?”
“Get out of here,” Chris said, dealing.
“Yes,” said the rest of us. We all looked at him. He stopped dealing.
“Well, clearly I didn’t get the chance to study up on the hotel,