Death at the Day Lily Cafe Read Online Free PDF Page B

their doors on the Eastern Shore.” I frowned. “Doris, does Lori have any children?”
    â€œYeah. Just one. But Jamie couldn’t have done it. He works in Delaware. He’s a police officer. And a good one at that.”
    â€œI wasn’t accusing him, either. Just asking questions.” I tucked my arm through Doris’s and started for the door. “The key to conducting an investigation is not jumping to conclusions. First you have to gather evidence. And then you let the evidence point you in the right direction.” We stepped out into the sunlight, and I fished my sunglasses out of my bag. “And the missing shotgun could be significant.” I let go of her arm so she could walk around to the other side of the car. “If someone took that shotgun, maybe they had a vendetta against Lori.” I slid into the car. “We’ll have to find out if the sheriff has the murder weapon.”
    As Doris and I drove away, the dogs chasing us most of the way down the lane, I said, “Tell me about your family, Doris. Did you have other siblings?”
    â€œNo. It was just me and Lori.” The seat belt signal was almost finished. “After me, my mama had trouble getting pregnant. It took her a while before she could conceive again, plus a miscarriage in between. And Lori was always small. My daddy used to call her his little runt.”
    â€œDo you mind if I ask what kind of childhood you and Lori had?”
    Doris thought for a moment. “We had a good mama, but she was always tired. She worked hard cleaning houses, and then she had to come home and take care of us. I think plain old living just pooped her out.”
    â€œWhat about your father?”
    â€œLet me tell you this: The way I see it, when women get hitched at a young age they either marry their fathers or the opposite of their fathers. And Lori married our father. I loved my daddy, but he was a lot like CJ, thinking he got the short end of the stick.” She looked over at me. “When you think like that, no one can ever make you happy no matter how hard they try.”
    â€œThat’s some truth.” I eased off the gas as we entered the town limits. “What about you? Did you marry your father?”
    â€œOpposite.” She nodded stiffly and stared ahead. “I’ve always had an independent nature. So I got out of that house as fast as I could and started working. I married my Charlie after I opened the store. He helped me out some, but he was just as happy sitting in a chair behind the counter talking with folks. He was a gentle, good man.” She smiled. “He could always find something to be happy about, even if it was as simple as sharing a cold beer.” She clutched her hands together. “We had a good run at marriage. I sure do miss him now that he’s gone.”
    When I stopped in front of Doris’s house, I turned in my seat to face her. “Lori mentioned Butch Wells. Is he related to Tyler? Distant cousin, maybe?”
    She gripped her purse with one hand, the other on the door handle. “Butch is Tyler’s older brother.”
    *   *   *
    As I at last headed home, I wondered … who had I married? My father or the opposite of him? He was a farmer, which was very unlike Ed, and led a simple life, preferring quiet and certainty over excitement and surprises. He expected his coffee to be strong, his food piping hot, and my mother to deliver a frosty Budweiser to him every evening before supper. The only change he welcomed was that of the seasons because, after all, in rural Virginia, that was certain, too.
    But my father never seemed to know what to do with me. Sometimes I wondered if he wished they’d stopped having children after my brother. Oliver would have been enough for him, I think. I was certainly the opposite of my father. I loved surprise parties and fairy tales and skipping. And I had never been comfortable