Plantation Shudders Read Online Free PDF Page B

Maggie thought, then snapped out of it and handed the bottles to Beverly. The woman’s hands shook as she tried to open them.
    “Here, let me help.” Maggie opened the bottles, and Beverly grabbed them from her. She quickly choked down several pills.
    “Wait, you need water.” Maggie, guided by her flashlight, found a water carafe on the bar and poured a tall glass. “Here, Mrs. Clabber.”
    Beverly grabbed the glass with one hand. Then she clutched her chest with the other.
    “My heart,” she gasped. Then Beverly made an awful choking noise, frothed at the mouth, and collapsed onto the floor next to the late Mr. Clabber. The EMTs instantly switchedtheir focus to her, but it was obvious that the task was equally hopeless. Mrs. Clabber was as dead as her husband. As the EMTs notified the coroner’s office, a dazed Maggie realized something.
    Beverly Clabber had finally stopped smiling.

Chapter Four
    Given Police Chief Rufus Durand’s usual slothful gait, it was surprising how fast he and a few of his officers showed up at Crozat.
    “Probably to revel in our bad luck,” Maggie muttered to Gran’ as Tug filled Ru in on the Clabbers’ deaths. After discovering that the main house’s blackout had been caused by bad fuses and not the storm, Tug restored power. Meanwhile, Ninette tended to the guests in the kitchen. Liquor calmed all of them fairly quickly, helped by the fact that no one really knew or liked the Clabbers, so the general emotion was a surface shock rather than deep sorrow. The Butlers, who’d come downstairs to get flashlights, joined the others around the kitchen’s large oak table and were filled in on the night’s startling events, as were Carrie and Lachlan Ryker. The Clabbers’ simultaneous demise was rapidly turning into the kind of bizarre story that would elevate each guest’s vacation anecdotes way above a friend’s routine stories.
    “Tape off this room and the one where the Clabbers were staying,” Ru instructed a rookie officer, as the couple was bagged and loaded onto the coroner’s gurneys. “I don’t want anyone touching anything until the coroner’s report comes back.”
    “Good heavens, you’re being rather dramatic, Ru,” Gran’ said. “It’s tragic those poor people died, but do you really need to turn this into some television episode?”
    “Just doing my job, ma’am. Two people dying within minutes of each other could be some kind of crazy coincidence. Or it could be something else.”
    “What, like murder?” Maggie scoffed. Ru didn’t say no and Maggie got a sick feeling in her stomach.
    “Stop it, Magnolia,” Gran’ reprimanded her. “You’re being as ridiculous as he is.”
    “Man, I am working up a powerful thirst here,” Ru said as he leaned against a wall and watched his underlings scurry around Crozat.
    “Tug, why don’t you mix Rufus a Sazerac?” Grand-mère said.
    Tug didn’t respond, but he fixed a drink for Rufus and handed it to him without a word. Rufus took a swig, closed his eyes, and nodded. “Yeah, that’s right good. You keep mixing Sazzies like this and Crozat might come back from the Katrina dead.”
    Maggie resisted the urge to grab Ru’s drink and dump it on his head. She noticed her father clenching and unclenching his fists and hastened to change the subject before either he or she exploded. “Are your guys going to take much longer, Ru? It’s been a rough night for all of us.”
    Rufus held out his glass for a refill. Tug mixed him a fresh drink, and then the police chief motioned for Gran’, Tug, and Maggie to follow him out of the room and onto the veranda. The worst of the storm had passed, but a light rain still fell.
    “Now, Maggie here happened to mention murder,” Ru said as he chomped on an ice cube. Maggie winced. She could never understand how people enjoyed chewing up something that cold and hard. Rufus addressed Gran’. “You may be right, Mrs. Crozat. Me and Maggie may be making a big deal over