The Unkindest Cut - By Honor Hartman Page 0,47

Trowbridge. Then I recognized the other, her son, Will. This could be rather interesting.

‘‘Emma, come and join us,’’ Sophie said when she saw me. ‘‘Pull up one of those chairs.’’ She pointed to an empty table nearby.

I brought a chair over to their table and placed it near Sophie. Sitting down, I greeted Marylou, Lorraine, and Will. Frankly I was a bit surprised to find them playing bridge. Surely they knew by now Avery had been murdered. I ventured a covert glance at Will.

He knew all right, and he was doing his best to appear calm. I could tell, though, that he was upset and probably wished he were somewhere else.

His mother, on the other hand, appeared perfectly serene and untroubled.

Sophie cut her eyes at me, and I braced myself.

‘‘Emma,’’ she said, ‘‘Lorraine’s been telling us the most fascinating things about her ex-husband’s will.’’

I winced. Sophie was never this tactless unless she meant to be. What was she trying to do?

‘‘I don’t feel like playing anymore,’’ Will Trowbridge said. He stood up and dropped his cards face-down on the table. ‘‘Excuse me.’’ He stared at his mother for a moment, with something close to loathing on his face. Then he left, almost running from the room.

Chapter 17

I stared after the fleeing Will, half tempted to go after him. He looked very upset, and it quickly became obvious that his mother wasn’t too concerned about him.

Sophie caught my eye and grimaced slightly. I could tell she regretted upsetting Will, but evidently she had a good reason for the remark.

‘‘He’ll be perfectly fine,’’ Lorraine Trowbridge said, offering a wintry smile to Sophie, Marylou, and me. ‘‘Naturally he’s upset, although he and his father have never been very close. I would go after him, but I know he’d rather be on his own for a while.’’ She gestured with one hand. ‘‘Why don’t you take Will’s place?’’

I supposed, in this case, mother knew best, but I still thought the woman was being extremely casual about her son’s distress. I forbore saying anything, however. I moved from my chair to the one Will had vacated, and picked up his cards.

Sophie and I were partners, and Marylou had the dummy hand.

‘‘What are we playing?’’ I asked.

‘‘The contract is three spades,’’ Sophie replied. ‘‘We’ve gone only one round in this game.’’ She picked up the cards in front of her and showed them to me—the ace, king, jack, and three of hearts. ‘‘I led with the jack. Lorraine played the king from the board. Your hand took the trick with the ace of hearts.’’

Now it was my lead. I took a moment to examine my hand. I had two hearts left, the queen and the ten—two potentially good tricks. In addition I held four small spades, three loser diamonds, and three clubs, including the ace. I wondered whether Lorraine would follow up on Sophie’s provocative remark about Avery’s will. For the moment, though, Lorraine seemed intent on the game. Maybe she would talk once play was under way. If not, I was sure Sophie would try to goad her into it again.

I returned my partner’s lead by playing the queen of hearts. Lorraine played the four from her hand, Sophie dumped a loser club, and Lorraine pulled the six from dummy’s hand. Sophie collected the trick while I pondered my lead. Should I play my ten of hearts? Seven hearts had dropped so far, and my ten made eight. That meant there were still five out. There were three on the board.

Pulling the ten of hearts from my hand, I dropped it on the table. Once that round was done, Lorraine held the high heart in her hand. If I’d had another heart to lead back for Sophie to trump, we would have had another easy trick.

So far Lorraine hadn’t said a word, instead concentrating on the game. One of us would have to get her to talking, I supposed, but I decided not to say anything until the hand was done.

Remembering that Sophie had sloughed a club on my queen of hearts, I played my ace. Everyone followed suit, but Sophie played the ten. I led with my remaining club, and Sophie played the king. Since both Lorraine and dummy followed suit, we won that trick, giving us five. Lorraine and Marylou were already down one.

That was the last trick we took, however. Lorraine got in with the next round, when Sophie led the queen of clubs. I played my remaining club, and dummy contributed