Flourless to Stop Him Read Online Free PDF

years Mom had covered it with a variety of area rugs, so the center of the room was practically pristine flooring. Too nice to rip up and throw away just to update a room.
    “Fine, I suppose a little walk won’t kill me.” Grandma pushed Aubrey off her lap and grunted as she climbed off her Scootaround senior scooter. The scooter took up most of the room in the hallway and would not have fit through the door to the den anyway. If she really wanted to scoot into the den she would have to go around and enter through the front room, where the pocket doors were wider. I suspected that was Grandma’s real reason for giving in and walking.
    She ambled over to the brocade- and velvet-trimmed love seat. “What do you have to eat?” She sat down with a humph and I noted the dust that puffed out.
    “I have gluten-free lasagna I can heat up. I take it you didn’t eat dinner.”
    Grandma frowned at me and took off her fedora. “They were serving some kind of casserole at the senior center. It looked oddly gray.”
    “No worries, I’ll heat something up. Do you want salad?”
    “Have you ever known me to turn down food?” Grandma called after me. “Put it in front of me and I’ll eat it.”
    Which she did on a regular basis, thus adding to her ample size. I loved Grandma, but she had never been a small woman. Once when I was very young she had lost over 150 pounds and even gone so far as to have a face-lift to get rid of the loose skin that comes with such a large loss of weight.
    “They called it a face-lift.” Grandma would tell the story with a twinkle in her eye. “But they lifted everything from the belly button up.” Her orange eyebrows would wiggle. “I lost nearly thirty pounds of skin and got a boob lift in the process.”
    Grandma Ruth was an old flapper with a wicked sense of humor. Over the years she had gained back all the weight and more. She would tell you she was old, so what did size matter?
    “Is Bill coming?” I popped my head into the den. Bill was Grandma’s boyfriend. A taxidermist she had met in an art class.
    “No, his granddaughter had a play thing in Augusta,” Grandma said and settled into the couch. “My fingers are cold.”
    “I’ll turn on the fire.” I put the key in the floor and turned on the gas, lighting the fireplace. “Let me have your coat.”
    I took Grandma’s outer garments as the pup settled in her lap. “Aubrey, get down,” I commanded. The puppylooked from me to Grandma and back to me. “No dogs on the furniture.”
    “What kind of rule is that?” Grandma asked as she petted Aubrey.
    “A good rule to enforce now, when he’s little. Especially if he grows to be the hundred-and-ten-pound dog the vet thinks he’ll be.” I looked at Aubrey and snapped my fingers. “Down. Off.”
    Grandma pushed him and the pup reluctantly climbed down.
    “Good boy,” I said and turned on my heel. I hung Grandma’s coat and hat in the hall. Then I popped the lasagna into the oven to reheat. If it were just me I would have heated it in the microwave, but Grandma liked it reheated the old-fashioned way—in the oven.
    I don’t blame her. There was something about the microwave that dried out food. I fixed us both bowls of salad and poured Grandma a cup of coffee, placed it all on a tray, and took it into the den.
    Funny, but I swear Aubrey had heard me coming and climbed out of Grandma’s lap again. I narrowed my eyes at him. He did a turn and lay down at Grandma’s feet.
    “I can’t believe you gave Candy the scoop on the murder,” Grandma chided me when I reentered the den.
    “I didn’t give her the scoop.” I set the tray down and picked up a bowl of salad, sat down in a flowered wingback chair. “She listens to the police scanner.”
    “I saw her article on the front page of the afternoon
Oiltop Times
.” Grandma pouted. “She says you called the police when Maria found the body.”
    “I did.”
    “You could have called me right after.” Grandma gave me the