Proof of Murder (Beyond the Page Bookstore Mystery #4) - Lauren Elliott Page 0,29

best friend. Nothing she could say would take away the betrayal Serena felt right now by her one and only brother, a brother she idolized.

A knock on the tearoom door jerked both of them from their thoughts.

Serena hopped from the desktop, wiped a tear from her cheek, and opened the door a crack. “What is it?”

Her part-time shop assistant, Elli Hollingsworth leaned into the slight opening of the door. “Marc and another detective are here,” she whispered. “They want to speak to you.”

“Tell him I’ll be out in a minute. I have to put the cash back in the safe.” Serena closed the door and turned the deadbolt.

Addie leapt to her feet. “Don’t tell him I’m here.”

“I won’t. That’s why I said I was counting cash. I knew he wouldn’t come in if he thought there was cash all over the desk. He wouldn’t risk a customer seeing it.”

“Thank you.” Addie rested her hand over her chest to still her heaving heart.

“But you’d better give a condensed version of what happened this morning in case he asks me anything I should know about.”

“Maybe he just wants to introduce you to her.”

“The time to have done that sailed two days ago when he got back in town after being gone for three months,” Serena hissed.

Addie hated seeing her friend like this, and it made her pretty darn close to hating Marc and the FBI hussy he dragged around with him. Addie refocused and poured out a condensed version of the morning’s events.

By the time Addie was done with her tale, Serena stood taller, and with shoulders back she stepped out into her teashop, leaving the door open just a slight crack.

Addie took the cracked door as an invitation. She peered through the small opening. Even though she couldn’t see much, there was no mistaking Marc’s voice as he greeted his sister.

Serena gave a frosty “Yeah, it’s good to see you, too.”

Addie turned her ear to the voices. Eavesdropping wasn’t beyond her. After all, in the past it had been a good source of vital information about a murder case she was looking into—unofficially, of course.

“Serena, I’d like to introduce my friend, Ryley Brookes.” Marc’s words were met with Serena’s silence.

“I’m so happy to meet you at last,” Ryley’s voice chimed in. There was something in her voice Addie hadn’t detected earlier. It had a soft Southern California intonation. “Marc talks about you all the time. Just yesterday he told—”

“Elli said you wanted to talk to me. I’m here now, so talk, Marc.” Serena’s voice wielded an edge.

“Serena.”

“Sorry, but I’m pretty miffed with you.”

“What have I done?”

“According to Mom and Dad, you got back to town two days ago, and you didn’t even call. I had to hear you were back from Mom when she called to ask me if your friend here got settled okay.”

“That’s my fault, I’m afraid,” Ryley’s silvery voice faltered. “I suggested we take a couple of days to reaccli-matize being back in the States after our holiday in Italy before . . . before he went back to work.”

“You went to Italy with Marc?”

It appeared Addie’s first instinct was right after all.

Serena gasped. “You’re more than friends, then? That’s interesting, Marc, when only a few months ago you proposed to Addie.”

Addie clamped her hand over her mouth to keep a snort from escaping. Judging by the silence in the room, Serena’s words had hit like a bombshell. What she wouldn’t have given to see the looks on everyone’s faces at that moment.

“Enough.” Marc’s voice sliced open the silence. “You and I will talk later. Right now, we’re here on police business.”

“What police business could you possibly have with me?”

“Just a few questions.” Brookes’s interrogator’s voice replaced the laid-back girl from Southern California tone. “You are friends with a Miss Addison Greyborne, is that correct?”

“She’s my best friend,” Serena snapped. “Really, Marc, you know the answer to that so is all this necessary?”

“Just answer her questions, honestly, please, for me?”

Serena groaned.

“And it’s also true that you live on the same property as Miss Greyborne?”

“Yes.” Serena replied curtly, clearly. She was frustrated by Ryley’s inane line of questioning, but it didn’t stop there.

“And you own and operate this teashop?”

“Yes, I plead guilty to all that.” Her tone cut the air like a knife. “What’s it got to do with anything?”

“You also blend your own teas that do not come prepackaged from a distributor for customers.”

“Yes, sometimes.” Addie could imagine her friend’s red blotches rising to meet the grinding tone