Murder Shoots the Bull Read Online Free PDF Page A

I was fifty-three and pleasingly plump when his girlfriend showed up, wanted to know what the hell he was doing.” She hesitated. “I assume it was his girlfriend. Unless it was his wife.”
    “Really? What did you do?”
    “Finished my salad. Then I had leg of lamb.”
    Sister’s answers frequently miss the bull’s-eye. You just have to help her aim again.
    “I mean about the girlfriend.”
    Sister looked at me as if I were the one missing the mark. “I didn’t do anything about the girlfriend. But Judson went chasing after her.” She finished her coffee and put it down. “I swear, Mouse, you’d never have known he couldn’t see. He didn’t bump into a thing.”
    “And he never came back?”
    “Nope. Sent a waiter with his apologies.”
    “Well, that’s terrible.”
    “No. It worked out fine. A real nice man at the next table asked if he could join me. He’s English. Visiting his daughter. And guess what, Mouse. He was at Dunkirk during the war.” Sister leaned back and smiled. “We had a wonderful evening. I’m seeing him again tonight.”
    I had to smile back. I swear this woman could swim a mile in Village Creek and come out smelling like a rose.
    “She was ugly as sin, too,” she giggled.
    “Who was?”
    “The girlfriend. Little beady eyes.”
    We were both laughing when the phone rang.
    “I saw Mary Alice’s car over there,” Mitzi said when I answered, “and I just talked to Connie and she said they want to have the first investment club meeting Wednesday morning at the Homewood Library. Does that suit y’all?”
    I turned to Mary Alice. “Wednesday morning for the investment club?”
    “Sure.”
    “Sure,” I said into the phone.
    “Good. Connie said to tell you there’s room for a couple of more people if there’s somebody else you think might be interested. I’ll call you back and tell you for sure if it’s Wednesday and what time.”
    “Mouse, ask Mitzi if she wants to have lunch with us,” Sister said.
    I relayed the message.
    “Thanks, but I’ve got a lot to do today. I’ll talk to you later.”
    I hung up the phone. “We’re having lunch?”
    “You need to get out more often. There’s a lot more to life than cleaning house.”
    I couldn’t argue with that. “Let me grab a shower,” I said. “How about Chinese?”
    “I’ll call Bonnie Blue and see if she wants to go. I need to look for a new outfit, anyway.”
    Bonnie Blue Butler is the manager of the Big, Bold, and Beautiful Shoppe. She came into our lives when Sister made the mistake of buying the Skoot ‘n’ Boot, a country-western night spot out Highway 78 where Bonnie Blue was working.
    “Good, clean fun,” Sister had said. “Line dancing, sweet country music, good company.”
    The band’s name was The Swamp Creatures which should have clued her in on how sweet the country music was going to be. But she and her then boyfriend, Bill Adams, were into line dancing, the place was for sale, and she’s got more money than she has sense. What she bought was a passel of trouble.
    We met Bonnie Blue, though, and she is a delight. She’s as large as Sister with skin like smooth milk chocolate. I love to see the two of them together because they have many of the same mannerisms. I remember the first time I saw Bonnie Blue I thought it was like seeing Sister’s negative.
    Except there’s nothing negative about Bonnie Blue.
    “Girl,” she said to Mary Alice an hour later when we walked into the Big, Bold, and Beautiful, “I don’t know why in the world you come in here. You ought to go to New York and buy you some of those Versaces.” She hugged the two of us. “I mean it.”
    I watch Style on CNN. There’s a whole lot more to wearing a Versace than being able to pay for it. Let’s face it. My sister is not a runway model.
    “Put the shovel down, Bonnie Blue,” Mary Alice said. “I think I’d like a nice pants suit. Something I can just throw on.”
    “And off.” I thought it was funny, but the