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

Memorial. I’ll be on a bench wearing a red baseball hat. Password is Casablanca.” CLICK.
    The dial tone buzzed in my ear.
    Flim Flam!
    I slammed the phone into its cradle. Great balls of fire. Howard would kill me if I even considered meeting this Clarence person. He could be a serial killer. Or a lunatic.
    But Frankie needed help, and this Clarence guy might be for real. Of course, I was about to have a guest in my home—was I just supposed to take off tomorrow and forget about Mama Marr? This would all take some serious thinking, and that required serious thinking food.
    Donuts would have been the junk food of choice, but ravenous, overworked young women had consumed the full dozen. Instead, I grabbed three Oreos from the cupboard, pulled the newspaper article out of my pocket and sat at the table for a snack and a dose of masochism.
    The article, flanked by a head shot of Kurt Baugh, was short: “Movie director, Kurt Baugh, died last night at the local reviewer screening of Hell Hath No Fury , a new action adventure directed by his brother, Andy Baugh. While police have not revealed details of his death, they have announced the arrest of the mafia boss, Frankie Romano. Sources say that Romano was hired by the American Cinema League (ACL) to cater the pre-screening dinner at the request of web movie reviewer, Barbara Marr. Witnesses on the scene tell DC Daily that Romano and Marr fought violently with Baugh prior to his suspicious death. A hearing will be held this week to seek Romano’s indictment. Meanwhile, he’s being held without bond. The Baugh family did not wish to comment on the circumstances of Kurt’s death at this time.”
    I banged my head on the table three times. It didn’t help. The article was still there. Could this nightmare get any worse?
    And of course, the author got the facts all wrong. Frankie was never a Mafia boss. He was just a soldier. And we didn’t fight violently. Frankie was a gentleman defending my honor. I looked at the byline—Gina King. I felt like picking up the phone and giving Gina a piece of my frazzled mind. Right. I could only imagine the subsequent headline: Suburban Soccer Mom with Friends in Mafia and Personal, Inside Understanding of Crime Syndicate Structure, Threatens Local Washington DC Reporter.
    I was beginning to wonder when Howard would return when the phone rang. Howard’s cell number showed on the caller ID.
    I took a deep breath and put on a happy voice. “Hello, Handsome. Do we have a Mama Marr yet?”
    “She wasn’t on the plane!” Howard yelled into the phone. Howard never yells. He’s an FBI agent and they’re trained to be cool under pressure.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Her name wasn’t even on the passenger list.”
    “You mean she didn’t have a ticket?”
    “Not for that flight she didn’t. I’m heading to National Airport right now. There’s another American flight from Philly coming in at 2:35. Maybe she gave me the wrong information.”
    And just because my life can’t ever be easy, a crash from upstairs was followed by Bethany’s shrill scream. “Mommy! Come quick! Amber’s hurt! There’s blood everywhere!”
    *****
    After picking my heart up from of the floor and flying up the stairs, I quickly determined that Amber was injured, but not dying of blood loss. She was, however, losing a good amount of it from a cut on her lip. Through sobs, she explained that she had been pulling a box of Barbies from a high shelf in her closet when a plastic Barney toy on top of the box slipped off and cracked her in the mouth. A closer inspection with my finger told me Barney had not only cut her lip, but had also broken two teeth.
    “Thtupid Barney,” she said, her tears drying.
    We cleaned up the blood, put an ice pack on her lip, and I called Dr. Horner’s office. They told us to come right away and they’d slip her in between patients. I thanked my lucky stars I’d worked so hard to be extra nice to her all these years.
    I had Amber