Elizabeth C. Main - Jane Serrano 01 - Murder of the Month Read Online Free PDF

we’re back to learning about life’s truths as revealed by those famous philosophers, Bipsy and Mr. Potts.”
    “ Now, Alix,” Minnie cautioned in her Sunday school teacher’s voice, trying as always to be fair and to make sure that everyone was playing well together. “Bianca is right that we haven’t even tried to read one of the books she likes.”
    “ And with good reason,” Alix said. “Or maybe if Vanessa had read the doggy detective books, instead of listening to the twaddle dished out at your silly Women’s Empowerment Group, she’d have learned that your canine detectives could sniff out an unfaithful husband at fifty yards.”
    “ It’s not a silly group. You have no right to call it that.” Bianca paused dramatically before delivering her trump card. “In fact, it was after the last WEG meeting that Wendell growled at Gil!” She folded her arms and waited for their reaction.
    “I’m afraid I don’t understand,” Minnie said.
    “ Wendell growled,” Alix said slowly, nodding her head. “Well, I understand perfectly. Wendell growled. That proves what? … that Wendell disapproves of infidelity? That’s some unusual dog!”
    Minnie gave a small groan and turned a beet-red face to Tyler, who seemed to be hunching himself even further into the corner of the couch. “Tyler, I’m sorry you have to listen to this. It is all so very unseemly. Some day, when you’re older, you’ll understand that married people have their little problems, but, with love, they can work them out.”
    “ I don’t know about that,” Alix said, “but when you grow up, Tyler, please at least have the good sense to choose reading matter that doesn’t depend on some fictional dogs’ insight into human nature.”
    Now it was my turn to groan. I knew enough about teens to guarantee that telling a boy that he’d understand something when he grew up was a sure-fire way to slam his mind shut to whatever you were saying. Tyler’s expression didn’t change, but I surmised that he had leapt—without moving a muscle—from neutral observer to Bianca’s side of the argument.
    “ If you can stop making fun of me long enough to listen,” Bianca said, “I started to tell you about a book—”
    “ Here we go,” said Alix. “The dogs, wearing little Sherlock Holmes hats, got confused and chased the distraught wife of a philanderer over the cliff, right?”
    Resolutely ignoring Alix, Bianca continued. “The book I read had a situation that was a lot like this one—”
“I’m sure that Gil and Vanessa were very happy in their marriage,” insisted Minnie mechanically, still responding to Alix’s comments.
    “ You don’t understand, Minnie. Some dog in a neat book that Bianca read growled at a character in that book,” Alix said. “That’s very significant. I can hardly wait to find out why.”
    “ I really don’t think we need to go into this any more tonight,” I said desperately. “Let’s go home. Maybe next time we can talk about Tyler’s book and—”
    Bianca raised her voice once more. “In the book I’m talking about, the whole thing is laid out step by step. If you’d read it for yourselves, you could see that everything is right there in front of you.”
    “ What?” Tyler asked, sitting up straight at last. “What’s right in front of us?”
    I’d been right. He was rooting for Bianca now.
    “Thank you.” Bianca spaced her words to lend each one weight. “The dog growled. The dog knew. There was no other evidence, but the growling dog was enough to point Bipsy and Mr. Potts toward the truth. It’s the same situation here.”
    “ And the truth was …?” Minnie asked faintly.
    “ … that Gil pushed Vanessa off that cliff. He murdered her!”
    The ensuing silence was broken by only one sound. Under the table, Wendell demolished a piece of bran bar that he had somehow missed before.

 
Chapter 4
     
     
    “Gil, a murderer? “ Alix doubled over, whooping with laughter. “That’s