From the Grounds Up Read Online Free PDF

behind me. 'I had dust on my gloves.' She clapped the big yellow rubber gloves together again--once, twice, three times--and then held them up in front of her like a surgeon about to go into the operating room.
    'Christy is the piano teacher.' Jenada said. Behind her back, he pointed his finger at his head and made air circles, the universal sign for 'the woman's crazy as a bedbug'.
    'The woman's crazy as a bedbug,' he said, in case I hadn't caught his pantomime.
    Since knowing Sarah, I'd come to appreciate frankness. I wasn't sure Christy would feel the same.
    To my surprise, though, she didn't take offense. Instead, she shivered. 'Bedbugs are not a problem if you maintain proper hygiene. I sanitize my mattress and flip it once a week.' Christy was wringing her hands as she spoke, the yellow rubber of her gloves making squeak-squeak noises. 'Everyone should.'
    I was lucky to rotate my sheets that often, much less my mattress. 'Of course.'
    'Of course,' Sarah parroted. 'But only if you're a germ freak.'
    'I have to be.' Christy's green eyes widened. 'Not just at home, but at work, too.' She gestured toward the music studio. 'Do you have any idea how much bacteria even a small child can carry?'
    Twice his own body weight, if I correctly remembered my son Eric's early years.
    'Little buggers dirty up your piano?' Sarah was enjoying this now.
    'It's terrible. Parents will spend a hundred dollars for a pair of sneakers. What's wrong with investing pocket change in a good anti-bacterial hand-cleanser?' Christy tsk-tsked. 'I have to disinfect the piano after each student.'
    'Cotton swabs?' Sarah asked. 'To get between the keys?'
    'And toothpicks, for those truly hard to reach places.'
    I didn't want to ask how she made the disinfectant stick to the toothpick.
    'How does the disinfectant—' Sarah started.
    'Maggy.'
    I jumped as I had with Christy, then reluctantly turned. 'Pavlik. I mean, Sheriff.'
    He'd been 'Pavlik' to me ever since we met. Even during our most intimate moments, I had to sort through 'Pavlik' and 'Sheriff' to get to 'Jake.' I think it amused him.
    Though by the look on his face, amusement wasn't what he was feeling right now.
    'Just passing by?' he asked.
    'No. That . . .' I pointed to the ambulance, which was pulling away, no lights, no siren, no hurry. ' . . . is Sarah's uncle.'
    She said, 'Make that " was ".' Leave it to Sarah to quibble at a time like this. 'And at most he was my uncle-in-law,' she added. 'My aunt died last week, so Kornell and I haven't been related for some days now.'
    'Sorry,' Pavlik said, looking like he wasn't quite sure what to make of all that. Hell, I was familiar with the situation, and even I couldn't gauge Sarah's mood.
    The sheriff pulled a notebook from the pocket of his sports jacket. 'Were you with Mr Eisvogel before the accident?'
    'I guess you could say that.' Sarah sounded cautious.
    Pavlik looked in my direction.
    'Me, too,' I chirped. 'Together. All of us.' I'd found it best to put alibis front and center. Not that it should be important this time. The man had driven into the path of a long-haul train. 'Why do you ask? It was an accident, obviously.'
    Pavlik seemed surprised at the question. 'The death certainly involved a train. But that means everybody and their brother--State Department of Transportation, National Transportation Safety Board, Federal Railroad Administration--will all be here.'
    'Good. Let them come,' Art Jenada injected. 'I'll give them an ear-full. If this wasn't a "quiet zone", that man might not be dead. Another example of the government capitulating to the rich at the expense of the poor working man.'
    Power to the people. The guy did look like a regenerate hippie. 'What does he mean?' I asked.
    Christy smoothed her apron. 'A number of railroad crossings in Brookhills are in quiet zones. Municipalities have the right to designate that.'
    'Quiet? You mean they don't blow their horns?' I said. 'But this one did. I heard it.'
    'Sure,' Jenada said. 'When