Final Fondue (A Five-Ingredient Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the room she’d occupied for the last eight months and knocked softly on the door. No answer. She went down the hall and knocked on the first door to the right. No answer in the Rope room either.
    Sarina opened the door to the North by Northwest room a second after Val’s knock. She wore a zippered black caftan that could serve as either a robe or a costume for Morticia in The Addams Family . “What is it?”
    “There’s an emergency. Could you please go downstairs?”
    “What kind of emergency?”
    Val framed an answer that no one could call a lie. “I don’t know all the details. We have to vacate the second floor.” She knocked on the nearby door to the Birds room.
    Jennifer stuck her head out, her hair mussed and her face free of makeup. “What’s going on?”
    Sarina glared at Val. “She says we have to leave our rooms and go downstairs for some reason. This better not take long.” She banged her bedroom door closed and marched down the front staircase.
    Jennifer opened her door fractionally wider. “Is this really necessary? I was already in bed.” She wore what looked like a red silk scarf hanging from spaghetti straps and ending at her upper thigh. Her black satin pajama bottoms swept the floor.
    “I’m sorry. I wouldn’t have woken you if it weren’t important.”
    “Okay. Give me a minute to get dressed. Is Fawn downstairs already?”
    That would depend on the meaning of is . Val tried to come up with a better evasive answer. “I knocked on both doors down the hall and no one answered. I’ll try again. Which room was she in?”
    Jennifer pointed toward Val’s room. “Straight ahead at the end of the hall.” She closed her door.
    Val retraced her steps and paused outside the bedroom that was usually hers. Would she ever go into it again without thinking about Fawn’s death? She took the back stairs down to the kitchen and found Chief Yardley still there, putting his cell phone away.
    She pointed at the ceiling. “Fawn had the room right above here, my room except for this weekend. I’m staying at my cousin’s house for the next three nights.”
    “Your room here is off limits until we’ve had a chance to search it. Is everyone downstairs?”
    “All except Jennifer, the bride-to-be. She’ll be down shortly.” Val headed for the sitting room.
    Granddad was in his usual chair facing the fireplace and TV. Instead of leaning back in the recliner, he sat rigid. Val moved an ottoman she often used as a footstool from the study to the sitting room. She set it near Granddad’s chair and perched on it.
    Jennifer came into the room, wearing jeans and a turquoise T-shirt. At her current rate of wardrobe changes, she’d go through everything in her large suitcase before the weekend was over. She settled down on the sofa next to Sarina.
    Noah, in an armchair at a right angle to the sofa, frowned. “Why isn’t Fawn here?”
    Sarina folded her arms. “She’s probably one of those women who keep everyone waiting.”
    And Sarina was one of those women who belittle other women, Val decided. Fawn’s three friends had talked as if she were still alive. A smart murderer would do the same.
    “Did you folks wear those crab hats tonight?” Granddad asked with forced joviality.
    Jennifer smiled at him. “Fawn and I put them on as soon as we picked them up. Of course, I took mine off when I went to meet Payton for dinner and then put it back on when he left. It was easier than carrying it around.”
    Noah’s mouth turned down at the sides. “Payton left?”
    “He couldn’t stay for the fireworks,” Jennifer said through tight lips.
    “Did you pick up a hat, Sarina?” Granddad asked.
    “Yes, but I didn’t wear it. I’m giving it to my eight-year-old niece. She might want to be a crab for Halloween.”
    As far as Val could tell, the aunt didn’t need a hat to prove she was a crab.
    “I’m saving mine too,” Noah said, “as a gift for a neighbor’s son.”
    Val covered her mouth to hide a