Defending the Dead (Relatively Dead Mysteries Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

sooner than expected . And it was Ellie who was forcing it? That was interesting.
    George went on, “She mentioned it one day—something like, ‘When am I going to see Abby again?’ And Leslie kind of blew her off. I think we both hoped she’d just forget about it—about you. But she didn’t. She’s stubborn. And persistent. It’s been, what, a month since she saw you?”
    “About that,” Abby agreed.
    “She brings it up maybe once or twice a week. Leslie’s all but tearing her hair out—I think she’d rather Ellie never saw you again, Abby. But I don’t think that’s going to work.”
    “Probably not.” She stood up quickly. “I’m going to make some tea.” She wanted something to do with her hands—and time to think.
    Which left the two men alone at the table. Abby wasn’t sure where she fit in this discussion. She was the one who had uncovered this ability, and had opened Ned up to it, and had found that Ellie shared it. But Ned was Ellie’s biological father, and had apparently passed on whatever genetic element was involved to his daughter. It certainly hadn’t come from pragmatic Leslie. Abby wasn’t sure how much Ellie knew—had Leslie explained the circumstances of her birth yet?—but Ellie might well have sensed her connection to Ned, without being able to put it into words. Abby was pretty sure Ellie had already picked up on Ned’s receptive ability, just from touching him. Ellie was one very self-possessed and observant child, Abby thought. She probably knew more than she let on. And now she wanted to bring everyone together? Was that a good idea?
    She puttered around with water, teapot, tea bags and the like, trying not to listen to the men’s conversation, not that there was much of it. No wonder most of the accused witches of 1692, as well as their accusers, had been female—they were more tuned in to feelings, more imaginative, more subtle. More hysterical? She tried to envision a group of men kicking around the idea of witchcraft on the home front, maybe over a mug of sour beer. Guy one: Hey, man, the wife’s been acting weird lately. Guy two: Yeah, mine too. What’s up with that? Guy one: Got me. Maybe she’s pregnant again. One of my milk cows died. Guy two: Three of my hens stopped laying. How’s the roof coming along? It was much harder to imagine the same guys saying, “Perchance she has been plagued by an evil spirit?”
    Abby filled three mugs and carried them to the table, along with spoons, then fetched milk and sugar. After she had sat down, she said, “Okay, George, how soon do you have to be home tonight?”
    “You mean, if I don’t want Leslie to know I stopped here on the way? You know when she usually leaves work, and the kids are in after-school care—she’s picking them up today. So I’ve got an hour, at least.”
    “How much did she tell you, after we talked to her about Ellie?”
    “Just the bare outlines, I guess. To be fair, she didn’t slam either of you, and she finished up by saying that she couldn’t deal with this right away, all at once, and she needed time to think. The trouble is, she hasn’t said anything else since. I didn’t want to bring it up because I don’t know much about it, and I didn’t want to tick her off.”
    “I get it,” Abby said. “How about I lay out what we think we know, how we found out, what we’ve learned since? And then we can figure out how to deal with Leslie. And Ellie.”
    “Okay,” George said.
    This may take more than an hour, Abby thought. “Why don’t I tell it, and you can fill in the blanks, Ned?” He nodded.
    So Abby launched into her move to Massachusetts, and how she had met Ned, and how he’d encouraged her to explore what was happening to her, and how he’d finally admitted that he might have some of the same ability. And then she segued into what they understood about the genealogy of it, and whether it applied to non-relatives, and if Ned could find a scientific explanation for