Hell Hath No Curry Read Online Free PDF Page A

never been to the Big Apple.”
    “All the same, he wouldn’t have looked twice at a girl like me.”
    I’m sure Gabe would have looked several times, but I wasn’t about to point that out. “Tell me, Priscilla, if Cornelius was a lothario, why did you agree to marry him?”
    “Because he was rich, handsome, and single. Sounds shallow, doesn’t it? I don’t care. I’m forty-three, Magdalena; my eggs are getting old. I want to have babies, lots of them. I only need two more procedures; then I’m through. After that Cornelius would have had eyes only for me.”
    “I didn’t realize Dr. Skinner did brain transplants.”
    “What? Was that a dig?”
    It was. And I should have been ashamed of myself. But what woman in her right mind would put herself under the knife so 24 Tamar
    Myers
    many times? Why couldn’t she just suffer in silence like I did all these years?
    I cleared my throat. “What I meant to say is, I wouldn’t think Dr. Skinner would agree to do so many surgeries on the same patient. Is there a code of some sort?”
    “You mean the Hypocrite’s oath. Yeah, well, Dr. Matthews is going to do it, not Dr. Skinner. But I still get my twenty percent discount, because they have this Episcopal thing.”
    This one took me a minute. “Ah, reciprocal.”
    “That’s what I said. Now, are we done here?”
    “Almost. Where were you when you learned that Cornelius had passed?”
    “Passed on what? I told him to sell that ’67 Mustang convert-ible of his and buy an SUV like everyone else. I can’t have my babies riding around without a roof over their heads.”
    “Indeed. But I’m speaking of his death. Where were you when you learned that he’d had a heart attack?”
    “At my house, sleeping in my own bed. Cornelius said he had a killer multigrain and was just going to lie low for the evening.”
    “Now, that’s what I call a cereal killer.”
    “Huh?”
    “Never mind. Who called you?”
    “That cute young police sergeant, what’s-his-name.”
    “Chris Ackerman.”
    “Yeah. He said Cornelius had suffered a heart attack, and that I should meet him at Bedford County Memorial Hospital. I didn’t even take time to get dressed; I just put on a robe. I got to the hospital the same time the ambulance did, but Cornelius was already dead. It doesn’t surprise me that Cornelius hadn’t called for help when the attack began; he was such a stubborn man. He thought he could tough out anything, but you can’t tough out a heart attack.”
    That was interesting. Priscilla had unwittingly exposed a cover-up. Chief Hornsby-Anderson and her protégé had con-HELL HATH NO CURRY
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    spired to make it look as though Cornelius had called 911 himself, and died on the way to the hospital. When I agreed to keep secret the fact that the Grim Reaper had caught Cornelius and the chief in flagrante delicto, I hadn’t fully realized the ramifications of such a problem. It was one thing not to mention the chief’s presence at the house, but quite another to be party to a story that had Cornelius dying someplace else altogether. What was I thinking?
    “Magdalena,” Priscilla said, waving her hand in front of my eyes, “you’ve zoned out on me. Have you been hitting the sauté again?”
    “Excuse me?”
    “The bottle. You know, drinking.”
    “I most certainly have not! And for your information, I don’t hit the sauce on a regular basis, not unless it’s au jus. The three times I did partake of the funny juice were all by accident.”
    “Whatever. So, then we’re through here?”
    “One last question. Are you on the drug Elavil?”
    “Just because you drink, doesn’t mean I take drugs.”
    “Indeed it doesn’t. This is a prescription drug.”
    “For your information, I don’t take any drugs, not even an aspirin, unless I’ve just had a procedure. Then the doctor gives me pain pills, but I get off them as soon as I can.”
    “Did Cornelius take Elavil?”
    “Not that I know of. But I never snooped in his