Never Say Dye (A Sibyl Potts Cozy Mystery, Book 3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

I asked. “I’d love to know what is.”
    “I sent it in for testing.” A grin so massive spread across Mr. Buttons’ face that I could count every one of his white teeth.
    “You sent it in for testing? Where? Who?”
    “Let’s get down to your place,” he said, waving his hand at me. “The walls have ears, and all of that.”
    “But,” I started, but he was already half out the door. I had no choice but to follow.
    We went down the staircase together and out the front door. I waited until the path toward my house curved to the left, and the boarding house was lost behind a row of delightfully scented, lemon eucalyptus trees that blended into a variety of wattle trees, before I turned to Mr. Buttons.
    “So what now?” I asked. It annoyed me a little to see that Mr. Buttons was just as pleased with himself as he had been in his room.
    “I sent it to be tested.”
    “Tested?” I parroted.
    “To see what exactly it was.”
    I was a little frustrated. “Yes, I realize that, but who exactly did you send it to?”
    Mr. Buttons threw up his hands. “Oh I don’t know, some company I found on the internet. You send them something, and pay a fee, and they tell you what it is.”
    I tried to process the information. “Okay, so you sent the poison to be tested. When do you get the results?”
    “I paid a rush fee, so it should only be a few days.”
    We had reached my cottage. Mr. Buttons sat on the couch patting Sandy, while I went into my kitchen to make a pot of tea. After I put the tea on, I took Sandy into the back yard, while inadvertently letting in my foul-mouthed, sulfur-crested cockatoo, Max.
    “Hello, idiots,” he squawked, landing on the sofa behind Mr. Buttons and pecking at his hair. “Oh look, it’s dumb and dumber.”
    “Max!” I scolded.
    “*^&$%#” was Max’s reply, so I caught him and put him out the back door, too.
    When I returned, I poured the tea, handed Mr. Buttons his cup and saucer. and then sat next to him on the couch. We both took a moment to take a sip of tea and then we looked at one another.
    “You do realize that Blake will have the poisonous hair dye tested, don’t you?”
    Mr. Buttons nodded. “Yes, but Blake is away in Sydney in court, and nothing’s happening right now.”
    I agreed. “You do have a point.” I was about to say more, when I heard a shout from outside.
    Mr. Buttons heard it as well. “What was that?”
    I set my cup on the coffee table and stood up. We both walked to the front door. I pulled it open a crack. I saw nothing amiss, but then we heard the angry voice again, off to the right, toward the boarding house. Mr. Buttons and I hurried outside, and skirted behind the row of wattle trees.
    Mr. Buttons caught my arm and I stopped in my tracks. From our vantage point behind the wattle trees, we could see Dorothy, the new cook, and her son, Frank. Frank had visited Dorothy at the boarding house once or twice.
    Dorothy had been the one yelling. I peered through the bushes, and saw she was wearing a white coat and bright orange plastic shoes as she stood on the side of the path with her son. They had come from the boarding house no doubt, and I wondered if they were simply talking a walk, or whether they were coming to see me. I had no idea why they would come to see me; I hadn’t said more than five words to either of them in the month since Dorothy had started the job.
    “You idiot!” Dorothy screamed. She was holding a big, wooden spoon in her hand, and she pulled it back and then whacked her thirty year old son on the arm with it.
    “Momma,” Frank yelled, rubbing his arm with his hand. “I’m sorry.”
    “I worked hard to get this job. And I’m too old to be working at all, much less working hard, and here you are making it worse for me.”
    “I didn’t know,” Frank whimpered.
    “Of course you didn’t,” Dorothy yelled. “You never do. How could you be so stupid as to tip off James about the boarding house! Why would you tell them