A Catered Birthday Party Read Online Free PDF Page B

reflection, Bernie thought it was interesting that no one rushed in to help. It was Libby who rushed over and picked Annabel’s head up so she wouldn’t drown.
    Unfortunately, Annabel Colbert had nothing to say about anything. She was unconscious and she remained so until the moment of her death two days later.

Chapter 4
    T he day after Annabel’s death Bernie, Libby, and their dad were sitting around the kitchen table having a late breakfast. The noise from the shop, A Little Taste of Heaven, bubbled up from below, making a faint reassuring hum.
    Sean was tucking into his pancakes and drinking his third cup of coffee of the morning, even though, according to his daughters, he wasn’t supposed to have anything with caffeine. It was bad for his condition, they said. But then so was a lack of caffeine. He’d been drinking the stuff since he was ten years old and had no intention of quitting now, despite what anyone said. As far as he was concerned, when you got to his age you should be able to do anything you gosh darn pleased.
    “Well,” he said as he pushed the Longely Bugle , the local morning paper, off to the side and turned to survey his oldest daughter. “Libby, you asked my opinion and I’m telling you. Yes. You have to investigate. A promise is a promise.”
    “But…” Libby objected.
    “See,” Bernie said. “I told you.”
    Sean turned his attention back to his pancakes for a moment. The trick was to have the proper ratio of butter to syrup in every bite, which was harder to do than it sounded. “Seriously,” he said to Libby when he was done configuring. “If you don’t like the answer I gave you, why bother asking the question?”
    Ever since the girls were little they seemed to feel that if they kept on asking a question, eventually he would give them a different answer. And it wasn’t as if he didn’t want to in this case. He wasn’t exactly thrilled with the idea of his daughters getting involved in yet another murder investigation, especially one involving the Colberts. Not that he’d ever say it, but they didn’t seem worth the bother. On the other hand, the case did sound interesting. And given the circumstances, what was the choice?
    “It’s not that,” Libby said after she reread the article about Annabel Colbert’s death out loud for the third time.
    Sean poured a little more maple syrup on his last two buckwheat pancakes. “Then what is it?”
    “The article doesn’t say she was murdered. It says she died under suspicious circumstances and an autopsy has been conducted, although the results have not been released yet.”
    Bernie reached for the homemade strawberry preserves. “Duh. Same thing,” she observed as she spread some on her pancake and took a bite. Delicious. They definitely had to make some more preserves next spring.
    Libby put the paper down. “Don’t duh me. That’s just rude. They’ll probably find she died of an arrhythmia….”
    “Brought on by whatever was in the wine,” Bernie added.
    “Hey, girls,” Sean said in an effort to change the subject. “Did you see that Annabel was going to buy up that big tract of land down by Forrester’s Way and make it into Puggables’ Paradise, a charitable camp for disabled boys and girls? She was supposed to sign the final papers today. Guess that’s not happening now.”
    “Sorry, Libby,” Bernie said, putting the top back on the preserves. “But you’re being willfully stupid.”
    “That is so unfair. She was having a heart attack,” Libby persisted.
    Sean dabbed at his mouth with his napkin before he took another sip of his coffee. As far as he was concerned his daughters made the best brew in the world.
    “Doubtful,” Bernie said. “You were there. You saw.”
    “You’re not a doctor,” Libby pointed out. “You don’t know.”
    Sean put down his coffee cup. “People who have heart attacks don’t clutch at their throats.” As the ex–police chief of Longely he’d seen more than enough