A Masquerade of Muertos (Wisteria Tearoom Mysteries Book 5) Read Online Free PDF Page A

spotlight. I don’t expect it to last. Gabriel’s...not a long-term kind of guy, I think.”
    “Kris, you and I need to sit down together and have a nice long chat.”
    “Sure. Maybe tomorrow, after the wedding.”
    Oh, right. The wedding. I suddenly felt very tired.
    “Ah. Yes,” I said. “Well, we’ll see.”
    “Would you like me to come early?” she offered. “I could help set things up.”
    “No, no. It’s all under control. You’re a guest, just come and enjoy the party.”
    She did not ask, at that late date, to bring Gabriel, for which I was grateful. Not that we couldn’t have accommodated an extra guest, but it reassured me that she wasn’t rushing into this new relationship completely without caution.
    I myself had a date for the wedding: Tony. As Nat’s maid of honor I’d be busy, but I hoped to get in a dance or two.
    If Tony danced. I realized I didn’t know.
    There were a lot of things I didn’t know about Detective Tony Aragón. Sometimes that worried me a little, but the man had saved my life. And he was a great kisser.
    “I brought some black cloth to drape around Vi’s portrait,” Kris said, taking a length of georgette out of her coat pocket. “Is that all right with you?”
    “Of course.”
    We went downstairs, and I ducked into the pantry to fetch a sandstone coaster before following Kris to the Violet alcove tucked behind the gift shop. She stood on a small footstool, carefully draping the sheer black cloth around the edges of the portrait’s frame. When she stepped down, I slipped the coaster under the votive on the mantel.
    Kris moved the footstool back to its place in front of a chair and stood gazing at Vi’s portrait. “I wonder if Captain Dusenberry was there to meet her when she died.”
    The comment surprised me, but I treated it seriously. “I didn’t know you believed in the afterlife.”
    She glanced at me. “Of course. Don’t you?”
    “I...hadn’t thought about it lately.”
    “Ellen, you live in a haunted house!”
    “True.”
    I glanced at Vi’s portrait, disturbed by the idea that she might decide to hang around with the Captain. The last thing I needed was for the tearoom to become Ghost Central.
    Of course, the Bird Woman would love that. So would Willow Lane, no doubt.
    “Vi didn’t die here,” I said. “Probably someone she knew met her.”
    If you believed that the dead are met by a loved one. I wasn’t sure, myself. Part of me (trying to be very practical) believed only what I could see, hear, or touch. But since the tearoom had opened, I had seen and heard a lot of inexplicable things.
    I had carefully avoided thinking about whether the two women who had died in the tearoom recently were haunting it. For comfort, I reminded myself that I hadn’t seen or heard anything to indicate they were. No new noises, no new mysteries. Only the occasional turning on of lights or music, and dancing chandelier crystals, that were Captain Dusenberry’s trademarks.
    “You’re probably right,” Kris said. “She was the sort of person everyone loved. I bet she had plenty of people to meet her.” She stepped up to the mantel and adjusted the drape of the georgette. “Miss you, Vi.”
    The candle’s flame flickered as she stepped back. It could have been the movement of the air.
    I followed Kris to the back door, said goodnight, and watched through the window as she got into her car and drove away. The kitchen was dark; everyone else had left. I headed upstairs and into my office, turning on lights as I went.
    My list of things to do for the wedding was on my desk. I glanced over it, checked my phone for messages, then retired to my private suite across the hall for a hot bath, a book, and bed.
    A gust of wind swept something—rain, or more likely leaves—against the west windows as I crossed the hall. I glanced that way in time to see a large, pale bird flying past in the moonlight.
    An owl? It was gone before I could be sure.
    Owls symbolized