Carol Shenold - Tali Cates 02 - Bloody Murder Read Online Free PDF

rescue, which could have been dangerous to my health.
    I plastered a smile on my face. “Hi, Laurel. I’m glad you could drop by. Come on in. I have refreshment waiting.”
    “It’s not like this is a social call.” Laurel discharged each word as if it were a spent bullet.
    I ushered her into the dining room, poured her tea, and fixed another double shot latte and a cream cheese bagel for myself. To heck with the waistline, I needed all the fortification I could find. Laurel turned up her nose at the bagel and sipped her tea. I fully expected her to raise her little finger, but she didn’t.
    “Now, Laurel, what’s on your mind—besides the murders, which, I recall, we already discussed?”
    “Not enough for my taste. I need concrete actions to relate to the board and concerned citizens that will demonstrate our willingness and dedication to their safety.”
    “If you truly want to keep everyone safe, cancel the contest until we find out what’s going on. How important is a little trophy in contrast with people’s lives?”
    Laurel looked at me as if I’d grown two heads. “Don’t be ridiculous, Tali. We don’t know if the murder is connected to the contest at all. It could be a personal issue of some kind. You know as well as I do that most murders are committed by family members or close friends.”
    When I pictured what we had found, the condition the body was in, I couldn’t imagine it was simply a relationship gone bad. There was something more going on here. I took a bite of my bagel. “Precisely, so why are you asking me for solutions or actions that I have no authority to initiate? Some of the moms want metal detectors and guards. I can’t provide that.”
    “You do have a reputation for turning up dead bodies, for having—powers. I thought maybe you could help JT or influence him. He is not being cooperative.”
    I raised my eyebrows. “Imagine that, JT uncooperative. He’s a lovely man in a lot of ways, but he’s very determined to do things his own way. I’ve never been able to influence him.”
    “I guess we both have reason to know that about him. However, it still leaves us with the same dilemma. What are we going to do to convince everyone we are not hardhearted, we do care about the contestants—and still manage to pull off the contest? You know the screams we’ll have if we cancel, and that’s only from the contestant stage-mothers.”
    I was so happy to hear her use the term we , I grinned broadly, probably looked like a demented Cheshire cat.
    I took another bite of bagel, stopping to enjoy the contrast of crunchy bagel, creamy cheese. “Okay. Realistically, what can we provide? What about the volunteer officers, could they be available for a little extra security? Granted, we don’t know who might really be involved in the murder, but these guys would be out in the open and visible. They might act as a deterrent.”
    Laurel reached for a bagel without thinking and smeared it with cream cheese before taking a bite. The expression on her face when she realized what she’d done cracked me up, and I burst into peals of laughter.
    She tried to suppress the reaction, then joined me, hee-hawing as enthusiastically as I did. In between giggles, she gasped for air. “Oh my God. Did you see what I did? And JT wonders why I fuss about extra-rich stuff. It’s because I eat it if I have it around. Well, I don’t care. I’m going to finish it and be guilty later.”
    Damn. She was human after all and did have a sense of humor. She could laugh at herself. I’d better watch it, I could learn to like her.
    The next words out of her mouth pricked that little Pollyanna balloon.
    “Now, what are we going to do about you and your reputation? I could replace you, but I’d have to do it myself and I simply don’t have time. Any suggestions?”
    Yeah. You could go straight to hell. All my warm fuzzy feelings disintegrated into a puddle. “You’ll have to deal because you’re right, no one