Family Case of Murder Read Online Free PDF Page A

look good even though I just rolled out of bed?”
    Vigorous nodding.
    He stared at a spot over her head, scraping his bottom teeth over his upper lip. “I’ll go with you on one condition.”
    Lacy scanned the room. “I’m sorry, did I walk into a live taping of Let’s Make a Deal ?”
    He ignored her. “Have dinner with me tomorrow night, and I’ll do it.”
    “You want me to have dinner with you? That’s it?”
    “Not just dinner. A nice, sit down, go to a restaurant dinner. Like—dare I say it—a real live date.”
    Now it was her turn to think it over. “I’ll have dinner with you on one condition.”
    “Here it comes,” he said.
    “You have to go to the Stakely building with me and help me pick out some clothes.”
    He blinked at her a few times. “See, now I’m beginning to understand why we can’t ever get it together; it’s because you’ve been under the delusion that I’m a woman.” He shook his head. “I don’t do fashion shows.”
    She clutched at his shirt and stood on her toes to try and shake him a little. “If that is your attempt at teasing me out of my nervousness, then it is a horrible failure. I need advice.”
    He scanned her up and down, his gaze resting on her hair. “Lose the bun. It’s hideous.” She frowned and he touched his index finger to her lip. “Keep the pout—it’s cute.” He leaned in to kiss her, but she dodged him.
    “I’m serious. I really need you to help me pick out what to wear.”
    “In what universe would I know that information?” he asked. “I own exactly five shirts and they’re all gray.”
    They were more of a charcoal, really, and they went perfectly with his dark hair and kaleidoscope eyes, a fact of which he was probably well aware. “I need to know what looks good from a man’s point of view.”
    “Why?”
    “Because Robert will be there and I want to look good,” she practically yelled. “Not just good, but eat-your-heart-out good. And that is why I’m going to the Stakely building, because I’m breaking out the big guns. I’m going to wear my grandmother’s clothes.”
    “I didn’t think you and Mrs. Craig were the same size, but you could probably borrow that purple muumuu thing she was wearing at the hospital the other night. Redheads look good in purple.”
    “Wow, what a time for you to turn into Mr. Hilarious. I’m talking about my biological grandmother’s clothes, the one that cost the same as the gross domestic product of several small European countries combined. Now will you please put me out of my misery and say you’ll come with me?”
    “But I’m hungry,” he said.
    “I’ll buy you some tacos from the Italian place,” she promised.
    “Only in our town would a statement like that make sense. Okay.” He stumbled back a step when she threw her arms around him and hugged.
    “Thank you,” she said.
    He wrapped his arms around her and pressed his palm to her back. “Or we could stay here. I could throw some steaks on the grill. I don’t know, surely we could think of some way to pass the time.”
    She pulled back to look at him. “If you think steaks trump designer clothes, then you don’t know women at all.”
    “If you think I was actually talking about steak, then you don’t know men at all,” he said, but he allowed her to lead him from the house after grabbing his keys, wallet, and shoes on the way out the door.
     

Chapter 5
     
     
    “Whoa, this place is awesome.”
    Jason was standing in the middle of the fourth floor of the Stakely building, turning in a slow circle, the bag of tacos in his hand temporarily forgotten.
    “Why do you make it sound like you’ve never been here before?” she asked. “I gave you the tour.”
    “We couldn’t come up here because of the giant detective-induced hole in the roof.”
    “Oh, that’s right,” she said, shuddering as she stared at the ceiling where the repair had been made.
    Her grandmother’s clothes were in the middle of the room. They