Morning Glory Circle Read Online Free PDF

charges?”
    “I don’t know if she even remembers the accident; I haven’t been able to talk to her. As soon as she was released from the hospital he whisked her off on this vacation.”
    “I wouldn’t stand too close to the railing on that cruise ship if I were her.”
    Scott snagged another doughnut and left the office. He turned right and crossed the alley where Theo’s murderer had followed him the night he died, and passed the new antique store that was slated to open later in the spring. The new owners had poured tons of money into renovating the place but had been strangely absent so far. There was a narrow walkway between that building and the next, where newspaper carrier Tommy had hidden the night of Theo’s murder, and had seen almost everything that happened. He had been too afraid to tell anyone for fear of the killer harming him and his mother. He kept that horrible secret until the day he was almost run over in the alley as the murderer fled town.
    Tony Delvecchio was on the phone when Scott entered the agency, which was on the ground floor. The floors above the office held apartments most often rented to Eldridge College students. Tony was a few years older than Scott, and had been a basketball star at Rose Hill High School. He was one of Sal Delvecchio’s sons, all of whom owned businesses in the town. His oldest brother Sonny owned the hardware store, his older brother Matt owned the IGA grocery, and his younger brother Paul and wife Julie owned PJ’s Pizza. Their father Sal was a very small, unattractive man married to a very tall, Sophia Loren-like beauty named Antonia. All the sons had inherited their mother’s height, but only Tony had been lucky enough to inherit her beautiful features as well. He was the only unmarried brother and still lived at home with his parents.
    “Hey Scott,” Tony said, as soon as he got off the phone. “How are you?”
    “I’m doing well, Tony, how about yourself?”
    “I can’t complain,” Tony said, and then gestured to a chair. “Have a seat.”
    Scott sat down and told Tony what was going on with Enid and Margie, and what he had heard from Ed.
    “So, is that pretty much what happened, or is there more?” Scott asked when he was finished.
    “That’s about it,” Tony said. “It’s pretty late in the game for her to be looking for life insurance, and no one would underwrite the policy, considering her mother’s age and medical condition.”
    “Margie is known to do some strange things. I didn’t know until a few weeks ago that she was tampering with the mail.”
    “I had mail go missing, so much so that I got a post office box in Pendleton several years ago. A lot of Rose Hill folks have Pendleton P.O. boxes on account of Margie.”
    “I feel awful about that,” Scott said. “Sarah Albright, from the sheriff’s office, is always telling me I need to listen to gossip if I want to find out what’s really going on in this town. I hate that Margie proved her right.”
    “I think it would be hard to sift the truth from the lies around here,” Tony said. “Margie likes to embellish quite a bit, from what I understand.”
    “How did she seem the day she was in here?”
    “This may sound weird, but I want to say she seemed smug. Like she had a secret and was enjoying it.”
    “Other than the policy business, did she say anything else?”
    Tony hesitated before he spoke.
    “She did make some odd remarks. At the time I didn’t think it meant anything, but since then I’ve heard some of the gossip going ‘round about her, and it makes what she said seem more sinister.”
    Scott listened patiently, which was something he did better than most. He had a high tolerance for the long silences that allowed people to decide to disclose information.
    “She was angry that I wouldn’t write the policy. Even though I told her I just brokered policies, I didn’t personally underwrite them, she seemed to think I would personally put up the money for her