Mom Zone Mysteries 02 Staying Home Is a Killer Read Online Free PDF Page B

reach you when you were in the vault. All cell phones went off and no one left. He wasn’t a suspect.
    The phone rang and he closed his eyes. For a minute I thought he would cover his ears with both hands like Livvy having a tantrum, but the machine came on and a clipped, masculine voice with a British accent asked that Will return the call as soon as possible.
    Will dropped his hands and said, “That’s Victor. About the exhibit. Can’t they give me a friggin’ day? Why can’t they give it a rest?”
    “Will, I don’t mind returning his calls to see what he needs. I met him once when Penny and I were having lunch.”
    Will nodded. “Now, her archivist stuff, that stuff.” He shook his head as if he couldn’t understand it. “Man, she was passionate about it.”
    I realized he didn’t want to deal with today’s phone calls. He wanted to think about Penny. My respect for him, about at zero to begin with, went up a little. He seemed genuinely grieved.
    His words reminded me of when I’d asked Penny why she became an archivist when the job market was so tight. She’d said, “Artifacts are so much easier to deal with than people. They never yell. Never criticize. And they never let you down.” With the husband and mother she had, it sounded like Penny had made a brilliant career choice.
    Will absently pushed the floor with his toe, rocking the recliner. He stared at the ceiling.
    “Umm, Will, I’ll take down the messages and figure out what everyone needs.”
    He nodded, concentrating on the ceiling. “I think she picked up some stuff for the exhibit. Not sure where it is. Maybe the computer room? You can find out what everyone needs and give them their stuff. Let them in while I’m gone. You’ve got a key?”
    “Yes. Penny gave me one when she locked herself out that time. I’ll take care of it.”
    I went to the kitchen and made notes on the fourteen calls on the machine. Most were condolence calls, but a few, like Victor Roth, were beginning to sound impatient.
    A page of grid paper held on the refrigerator with magnets caught my eye. I read one of the clues written in small cursive script on plain paper beside the grid paper. Wild Goose ____. Squared-off letters filled the blank squares beside the number 1 on the grid with chase , and then commented on the side Too easy. Give me a hard one next time . The square handwriting continued with a clue that read pelt . The cursive writing spelled out hide, using the h in the word chase . A note in the margin read Here’s a literary one. The next clue read Hills Like White _____. The blanks for this clue began with the letter e in chase , but they weren’t filled in. A note printed beside it said Another clue? This must be some sort of crossword game Penny and Will played, leaving each other clues and notes. I was surprised that Will had any interest in it. It didn’t seem his type of thing.
    I checked my watch and went back to the living room. “I need to get back home. I’ll follow up on these for you,” I said.
    He rocked and nodded some more. I made a mental note to send Mitch down here to make sure Will was packed and had a ride to the airport.
    I perched on the edge of the sofa. In my mind, I’d been going over and over my last meeting with Penny.
    “Will, I saw Penny on Monday morning. She seemed happy.”
    “Yeah. We were gonna have a baby.” Another tear leaked out of his eye and he didn’t bother to wipe it away. “She thought that would make everything better.”
    I didn’t disagree out loud with him, but when Penny confided that she wanted to have a baby, I’d tried to tactfully ask her if she thought that was the best thing to do, especially since Will wasn’t very supportive.
    “Ellie,” she’d said, “I’ve always wanted a baby, someone I can love. And that little baby will love me back. If there’s any way I can have a baby, I’m going to do it. He’ll come around when the baby’s born. You’ll see.”
    I focused on