Janine Marie - Rigging a Murder 01 - The Single Shoe Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

and Steph continues to blog, but now she is writing to increase awareness of Third World countries.
    The conversation then flowed to the global recession, the euro crisis, the U.S. “fiscal cliff” and debt ceiling, and the Affordable Care Act. We had just launched into a debate about corporate spying—in particular, about Huawei, a Chinese company that the House of Representatives’ Intelligence Committee had asked American companies to stop doing business with, warning that China could use equipment made by the company to spy on certain communications and threaten vital systems through computerized links—when the dessert arrived. It was tiramisu, a generous portion of mascarpone cheese topping espresso-soaked ladyfingers, with a heavy covering of fine cocoa blanketing the top. John noticed that Catherine and Wiffy looked bored so he moved the conversation to Pinterest, an online pin board that appeals to women. This started a lively discussion as the men wanted to know what made it so interesting. I had to admit to spending many hours surfing around Pinterest.
    ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
    “Mom, I’m tired.” Katie had come up behind me. Nancy the cook had fed her dinner in the kitchen and she had finished watching a movie in the media room.
    Looking at my watch, I saw that it was already 11 pm. “Thank you for the WONDERFUL dinner and the great conversation, but I’m afraid it’s well past Katie’s bedtime, so I’ll take my leave,” I said, excusing myself and taking Katie’s hand.
    “What do you say?” I whispered to her.
    She turned and said a very pretty  “Thank you” to Lorenzo.
    Thomas, Greg, and Steph had also decided to call it a night so we all left together.
    It was only as I left that I realized that Katie hadn’t said thank you to Lorenzo’s wife… what was her name anyway? Too much wine, I guess. Tomorrow we would make up a nice thank-you card and drop it off on their boat early, before everyone left.

Chapter Four
     

    Then Came the Rain
     
    “Mom, I’m hungry,” Katie whined the following morning.
    “There is fruit and cereal… you know where the galley is. I’m still sleeping,” I whined back at her. Actually my head hurt from all the wine last night and I could hear the rain falling on the deck above me. I couldn’t find any good reason to get out of my warm bed until—
    “Coffee?” said Thomas, who had managed to sneak out to check the lines on this rainy and windy morning and had returned with a thermos full of coffee from Steph and Greg. Now, this was the one thing that could get me out of bed!
    “Yes, PLEASE,” I replied thankfully. After 15 years of marriage I well knew that I wouldn’t be getting the coffee in bed. Taking that fragrant beverage in hand, I asked, “What were you doing up so early?”
    “The rain and wind woke me up, so I thought I would check the lines and go for a walk… but there is nowhere to walk to.”
    I gave him that “Really?” look.
    “Okay I admit it, I was trying to see if I could get any cell coverage to download the New York Times on my iPad. No go… I even tried to stand under Lorenzo’s boat in hopes that he might have WiFi.”
    Laughing, I said, “Being out of touch is killing you, isn’t it? But I’m sure they must have WiFi on that boat; why don’t you just ask?”
    “Well, Lorenzo did promise us a tour…perhaps I’ll just bring my iPad along,” Thomas replied, looking at that item as if he could conjure up the Internet.
    “Why is there a wet shoe on the table?” I asked, finally noticing—as the coffee started to work its magic and clear my brain—there was a very wet white shoe sitting on a paper towel right in the middle of the table.
    “I found it floating by the dock,” chimed in Katie, looking up from the book she was reading.
    “What? You went out in the rain, too?” I asked.
    “Yup.”
    “Found one wet shoe and decided to bring it back to our boat?”
    “Yup,” came the infuriating monosyllabic