Darlene Franklin - Dressed for Death 03 - Paint Me a Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

Jenna’s pretty upset, and she can be very persuasive.”
    “The Wilde Sisters ride again.” Audie muttered under his breath so his mother couldn’t hear. From the warmth radiating from his eyes, I knew he didn’t mind.
    We finished the pizza without any further discussion of the murder. Audie devoured half of it by himself. The way he chased every crumb on the plate, Gilda must have thought I never fed him anything. Everybody loves their mother’s cooking best . Loneliness hit close to home. I couldn’t remember my mother’s cooking, except for a fabulous macaroni and cheese casserole. I had grown up on Dad’s meat-and-potatoes meals.
    Gilda waved away my half-hearted offer to wash the dishes. She really is sweet. I decided to retire to bed early. Audie followed me up the stairs. In what had become a nightly routine, he removed my shoes and rubbed my feet.
    “Ah.” I relaxed as my husband’s strong fingers massaged deep into the sore pads of my feet.
    “Did you mean what you said? That you won’t investigate?”
    I shrugged. “I don’t plan on it.”
    Audie didn’t say anything while he prepared a pan of sweet-smelling foot soak. I submerged my feet in the warm liquid and sighed.
    “I suppose Brad’s an obvious suspect.” Audie changed into his pajamas for bed.
    “Mm-hmm.” Warmth undid the damage of a day on my feet.
    Audie crossed his legs and sat at my feet. “Brad didn’t strike me as a likely murderer. He told me some pretty personal stuff during his interview about the mural.”
    “That’s a bit unusual, isn’t it?” People usually concentrated on business qualifications during the hiring process.
    “I asked him why he was interested in Grace Gulch. It was a reasonable question, since he was going to paint a mural about our history.”
    Our history . I liked the way Audie laid claim to Grace Gulch. I wiggled my toes in the water and created a small ripple. “And that opened the door?”
    “He told me that he was going to take a page from Larry Grace’s book and make restitution. I didn’t press any further, but it sounded like he was talking about unresolved personal matters.”
    Jenna? Unlikely; he hadn’t contacted her since his arrival in town. “Larry Grace, huh?”
    Audie lifted one foot out of the water and scrubbed it with an exfoliating sponge. Heaven.
    “From what I’ve heard about Larry Grace, he was a scoundrel. So what he was saying didn’t make much sense.” Audie dried my foot and tugged on a pink hospital sock. “I might ask Dina to research it for the play.” Plans for the premier of the mural included a play about our town history, also titled Grace Gulch Gold . He had asked Dina to write the script.
    A thought struck me. “Since Brad is Dina’s father—that means she’s a Grace! Can you imagine that? Since Larry Grace is her great-great grandfather, I’m sure she’d be interested.”
    Audie finished with my feet. He helped me take off my jumper. Pretty soon, all thoughts of murder and mayhem fell away from our minds.
     

5
     
    On the morning of August 6, 1920, Larry Grace entered the First Golden Bank of Tulsa only moments before Lincoln Oil Company would bring by its monthly deposit. With the oil business booming, they handled large amounts of money. Larry’s appearance didn’t raise any suspicions. He was a regular customer of the bank, and dropped by often. On that morning, he entertained the teller with his oft-told tale of escaping the hanging judge. In his version, the verdict was unjust, of course. Outside the door, two men stopped the oil company truck, stole the deposit money, getting clean away. That much is verified fact.
    From A History of Grace Gulch
     
    Wednesday, September 13
    In the middle of the night Junior woke me up by treating my womb like a jumping gym. I ran to the bathroom and then crept downstairs for a cup of warm milk. If I could settle us both down, maybe I could snag a few more hours sleep. Junior could sleep all day if he