Silenced by the Yams (A Barbara Marr Murder Mystery #3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

okay,” I said, pulling off the long blue rubber gloves. “I needed a bit of a break.”
    “Spring cleaning?” she asked.
    “It’s July.”
    “Summer cleaning?”
    “More like panic cleaning.”
    She nodded her head slowly and with instant understanding. “That’s right. I forgot Howard’s mother was coming—when does she get here?”
    I looked at my clock. “A little over an hour. Howard should be leaving for the airport soon.”
    “How long is she staying?”
    “A week. I think.” I pulled myself off the floor, every joint in my body screaming as I did so. “Actually, I forgot to ask.”
    Peggy shook her head and frowned. “That’s not smart. If I didn’t set a time limit for Mrs. Rubenstein, she’d never leave.”
    “You call your mother-in-law Mrs. Rubenstein?”
    “She won’t let me call her Mother. She says she wants to be certain this marriage is going to work out first.”
    “How long have you and Simon been married?”
    “Nineteen years.”
    “What’s she waiting for?”
    She shrugged. “My untimely death, I think. Anyway, I just stopped by for a minute. I promised Roz I would help her pack today.”
    Roz Walker was our friend and my next door neighbor. She had finally had too much of the “dangerous living” in Rustic Woods and convinced her husband, Peter, to ask for a transfer. His company was more than happy to send him to Oakland, California. When I showed her an internet article that listed Oakland as one of the Top 10 most dangerous cities in the U.S., she didn’t even blink before saying, “Yes, but you won’t be there, so it has to be safer for me.” She tried to back peddle and tell me that I shouldn’t take that statement personally, but truthfully, it was hard not to. And if she learned that not only was I in the same room as a dead man last night, but that my friend, Frankie, had been arrested for the man’s murder . . . well, that’d pretty much nail it for her. The fact of the matter was that I did seem to attract trouble the way the North Pole attracts toymakers with odd wardrobe choices.
    “Tell her I’d love to help too,” I said, “if I didn’t have Mama Marr coming.”
    “I’m sure she’ll understand. You’re coming to the farewell party, right? You can bring Howard’s mother.”
    “Of course we’ll be there. She’s my friend and I love her. I may never forgive her for moving, but I love her.”
    She nodded, but didn’t say anything else. An awkward silence set in. Peggy is never at a loss for words, so I jumped on it right away. “Spill the beans,” I said. “There’s something you’re not telling me.”
    “I was afraid of this.” Her expression was sympathetic. “You haven’t seen it. I wasn’t sure.” She took a deep breath and reached into her purse, pulling out a piece of newsprint that looked like it had been clipped from the morning paper. She handed it to me. “I’m sorry,” she winced.
    I took the paper with a terrible sense of dread. “So I guess I don’t have to tell you what happened to me last night, huh?” I asked, assuming she’d read the whole story with any half or full untruths included.
    When I unfolded the newsprint, I gasped at the headline, which was way worse than I ever could have imagined. Local Movie Reviewer, Barbara Marr, Linked to Mafia-Related Murder of Action Movie Director, Kurt Baugh .
    Boy, I thought. When Roz read this, she’d order Peter to seek a transfer to Mars.

Chapter Four
    I’d only finished reading the headline and taking my pulse when Howard appeared in the doorway. “Hi, Peg,” he said. “Barb, I’m heading to the airport.” He spotted the paper in my hands. “What’s that?”
    I folded it fast and slipped it into the pocket of my shorts. Howard would learn about the headline eventually, but I didn’t want him getting upset and being late to pick up his mother. “Just a recipe. Something Peggy thought I’d like to try.”
    What is it about men? They love to ask questions,