A Deadly Encounter (A Seagrove Cozy Mystery Book 3) Read Online Free PDF

about to start the car when she saw the professor named Millie walking up the path from the cafeteria. She was still crying and Sadie couldn’t bring herself to leave her. She told Mr. B to stay and got out of the car.
     
    “Millie,” she asked as she approached, “are you all right?”
     
    Millie hurriedly dashed the tears from her face with the back of her hand and pulled out a tissue to wipe her nose. “I’m sorry,” she said. “I don’t know what’s come over me.”
     
    “Don’t apologize,” Sadie said. “What does it matter if someone sees you cry? You’ve lost a companion today.”
     
    “I know,” Millie sniffed. “And the others are arguing over it like it’s something that can be debated. He wasn’t as bad as some of them say.” She paused a moment, rubbing her hands in worry. “I mean, yes, he was full of himself. But he deserved to be. He was incredibly intelligent and so knowledgeable on his subject. He loved to share his knowledge.”
     
    “And couldn’t people see that?” Sadie asked.
     
    “His colleagues could if his students couldn’t. But they couldn’t get past what they saw as bad manners. They couldn’t see that he was obnoxious because he had to deal with mere mortals all day long. And students that hated history but were there because it was required. I don’t know that he ever met a person who had his ability to concentrate. He just got worn out from it. We all get crabby when we are worn out. He was exceptional and now he’s gone.”
     
    Tears spilled over her lashes and ran down her face.
     
    Sadie took her hand. “I’m so sorry,” she said and squeezed Millie’s hand. “This is an awful thing to ask, but could one of your group have killed Victor? Did anyone hate him enough?”
     
    “We are academics,” Millie said. “We debate people, we don’t kill them. We use our intellect to humiliate them. That is far more satisfying that killing them. Dead is dead, but you can’t beat seeing your opponent realize that you are right, or that you’ve out argued them.”
     
    She shrugged and wiped at her face again. “Of course with Victor, he almost always won. It was a rare day when someone got the upper hand on him.”
     
    “I can see why he was unpopular,” Sadie said. “Everybody wants to win once in a while.”
     
    “Just because you want to win doesn’t mean you deserve to,” Millie said. “Wins against Victor are—were rare. That made them all the more sweet when they happened.”
     
    Sadie thought about Lucy and what it would be like to constantly be trying to one-up her. What a sad friendship that would be. She was glad she didn’t hang out with people who were that competitive. It would be miserable to be constantly trying to win. No amount of prestige was worth the stress and hard feelings.
     
    “I hope you find some peace,” she said to Millie. “And for your sake I hope you are able to let the competition go. Life doesn’t need to be that fraught.”
     
    She parted ways with Millie and walked back to the car where Mr. B was waiting for her. He scrambled into her lap and gave her a slobbery kiss on the cheek. “Good dog, Mr. Bradshaw,” she said and started the car.
     
    Lance Brownside hurried out of his office as Sadie entered the Seagrove Funeral Home.
     
    “Sadie, what brings you in? I hope there hasn’t been a death?” He reached out and took her hand.
     
    “Oh, no. No one has died.” She squeezed his hand and let it go. “I have some questions about what happened between you and Victor Rumsfeld.”
     
    His face fell into a frown. “Victor Rumsfeld.” He practically spat the name. “I wouldn’t take him as a client if he begged me. I was glad when he told me he was going to use the Hyattsville Funeral Home. The scene he made at his wife’s funeral! It was a disgrace.”
     
    “What happened?” Sadie asked. This was the easiest line of questioning she’d ever pursued. He was practically answering before she