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to open the paper. We
bypassed the news and went straight to the obituaries, scanning the list of two
names.
    “Do you recognize either of them?” I
asked.
    Mom nodded, her face pale under her
makeup. “Dotty Baker.”
    “Dead or alive?”
    “Very much alive. We just sold her a book
on quilts.” Mom raced out the front of the store, returning within ten minutes
with a fuming Dotty in tow.
    Dotty’s pink-tinted hair
quivered with rage, reminding me of cotton candy on the end of a paper cone.
“Have you gone completely crazy, Gertie ? You should
never drag a woman away from her date, much less a senior discount dinner at Wanda’s.”
    “You weren’t there yet.” Mom tapped the
paper. “Read.”
    “So? It’s obviously a mistake.” Her brow
furrowed.
    “Don’t you follow the news?” I asked.
“Mae Campbell and Nina Worth both had their names in the obituaries before
dying in a gas leak explosion at their house thirty days later.”
    “I don’t have gas in my house,” Dotty
explained. “All of the retirement units are run by electricity. Now, Marsha, Gertie , I know the two of you fancy yourselves amateur
sleuths, but this time you’ve gone too far. I have a perfectly fine gentleman
waiting for me at the diner.” She glanced at her watch. “Thanks to you, I’m
late.”
    “You’ll be permanently late if you’re
dead!” Gertie poked her in the chest with her
forefinger. “Do you think we’ve put your name in there on purpose? You
ungrateful old biddy.”
    What exactly was going on here?
“Ladies—”
    “I wouldn’t put it past you, you
man-stealing—” Dottie’s hair shook harder.
    “Excuse me?” Mom stepped forward until
their noses almost touched. “You can’t take something from someone that never
belonged to them.”
    Hmmm. Had Mom stolen Dad
from Dotty? I thought of Stacy and Duane. How history did tend to repeat itself.
    “Mom, Mrs. Baker, now is not the time or
the place to rehash old arguments.” I folded the paper. “This needs to be taken
seriously.”
    “I don’t have time right now,” Dotty
said. “I’ve got a good thing going with my present boyfriend, and I don’t
intend to let Nancy Drew and Miss Marple ruin it.”
She took a deep breath and fumbled in her purse, bringing out a tube of lipstick
the same shade of pink as her hair. “Now, if you’ll excuse me, according to the
two of you, I only have thirty days to bring this man to the altar.”
    “Sarcasm doesn’t become you, Dottie,
dear.” Mom tilted her chin. “Only the Lord suffers a fool.”
    “Leave me alone, Gertie .
After dinner, I’m reporting you two to Officer Barnett. What an evil game
you’re playing just to get noticed in the River Valley News. Again.” With those
words, she flounced out of the store.
    Mom and I glanced at each other, then shrugged. “We did what we could,” Mom said. “She’s
never been the shiniest button in the jar.”
    “You know as well as I do, that she’s
going to be killed next.” I rattled the paper. “We can’t let that happen.”
    “I’ll talk to her again, when she’s
calmed down.” Mom smirked. “I probably didn’t present things to her in the best
way possible.”
    “What did you say?”
    “Come with me if you want to live.”

 
 
    Chapter Five
    I mixed a salad for supper and kept glancing at
the front door, waiting—hoping—for Duane to arrive. I’d taken his
thumbs up as assurance he wasn’t angry with me for my childish actions in the
coffee shop. Maybe I’d interpreted the gesture wrong. Maybe it was only a sign
that we would be talking, with me doing most of the listening. Sighing, I
chopped through a red bell pepper until I had nothing but a diced pile on the
chopping board.
    “Foolish woman.” Mom came inside from the
back porch and slammed the phone handset on the receiver. “I tried again to
explain to Dotty about her impending danger, but she hung up on me.” Mom
crossed her arms and glared at the phone. “Says we’re