Murder for a Rainy Day (Pecan Bayou Book 6) Read Online Free PDF Page B

was the ultimate pregnant book informing you month by month what the heck that kid was doing to your body. This late in the book I wondered if they started omitting the scary stuff. There would be nothing about the panicky drive to the hospital and the eventual hours of requesting more painkillers. Nobody would buy the book if they knew the real truth. My eyelids were starting to become heavy, and I set my reading on my belly. Maybe the baby would enjoy it.
    "They’re all waiting." I heard a voice that came in on the wind. Then, I noticed the corners of the room. They were softer and less in focus.
    "Who’s waiting?" I asked.
    "They are, of course." Standing next to the box that contained the pieces of our changing table I recognized Martha Hoffman, the town librarian. As usual, she looked impatient with me. She was also dead.
    "Martha? I mean Ms. Hoffman?"
    "Is there something wrong with your eyes?"
    "No. It’s just that, well, you’re dead. How can you be talking to me if you’re dead?"
    "So many questions. I always hated questions. What’s the capital of Brazil? Where do I find Shakespeare’s plays? What is electricity? Questions! Questions! Questions! Who freakin’ cares? Good grief, can’t people look things up?"
    I don’t recall having had this long of a conversation when Martha was living. I also never would’ve predicted that if a ghost were going to visit me it would be the angry librarian. She wore her functional cardigan sweater over wool tweed skirt, accompanied by her sensible shoes with thick heels. She adjusted her red framed glasses on her nose.
    "Bootsy Lindeman, did you get my message?"
    As she had in life, she screwed up my name. In her final days she created all kinds of names for me, none of them correct. She knew my name all along, and we both knew it. By making me so unimportant that remembering my name was a chore, she kept me in my place, like a book on the shelf.
    "Oh. Yes. They’re all waiting. The thing is you never told me who was waiting."
    "You’re a policeman’s daughter. I think you can figure this out. For some reason these idiots think it’s important that they talk to you."
    "Who? Who needs to talk to me? Is this some crazy pregnant dream?"
    "No. But it’s important for you to listen, Bootsy. Listen and follow what they say, and don’t let the dreams swirl around in that empty head too much. You’re dizzy enough. When it’s time to take action, you need to blow on out of there. Step out of the frame."
    "Huh?" She was beginning to sound like Leo talking in weather patterns. Maybe this woman was my subconscious so inundated with meteorology talk that now these terms were creeping into my nightmares. Characters in my dreams were even talking about the weather.
    I never told Leo that I rarely watched The Weather Channel until I started dating him. He would be heartbroken to know that. In my mind, either it rains or it doesn’t. It never really concerned me before. I had The Weather Channel bookmarked on my cable now, that was for sure.
    "Goodbye Bootsy. Don’t screw this up." Martha Hoffman started dissolving in the corner. She was there, and then she was gone.
    "Betsy?" I felt Leo getting into bed next to me. "Are you okay Bets?" His hands slipped around me.
    "Sure. I was asleep." I said, looking at him through half-open eyes.
    "You were having a full-fledged conversation. Did you know you were talking in your sleep?"
    "Yeah? What was I saying?"
    "Something about the Weather Channel."
    "It’s so silly what comes out of your mouth when you’re dreaming," I said.
     

     
     
     
     
     

CHAPTER SEVEN
     
     
     
    The next morning I sipped my coffee, feeling groggy—the effects of working my way through an entire quart of Ben & Jerry's Chunky Monkey after Leo came to bed. I couldn’t get dead Martha Hoffman out of my head, and the best activity I could think of to eradicate her creepy visit was to consume massive amounts of ice cream.
    Leo was up and in the shower,