Stranded Read Online Free PDF

you’d spot the worm in my apple.”
    “I’ve lived in a house where someone was murdered.” Two someones, actually.
    “You have?” Her head jerked back as if she were startled, and I wondered if she was reassessing her generous offer. Probably most inconspicuous little old ladies don’t come with murder in their resume.
    “Not anyone I murdered,” I assured her.
    “I wasn’t thinking that,” she protested. She smiled and made a gesture of putting forefinger and thumb together with a narrow space between them. “Well, maybe just one teensy little thought. I saw a rerun of Arsenic and Old Lace not long ago.”
    “Although I don’t have any references to offer,” I had to admit.
    “I didn’t kill anyone either,” she said suddenly, her voice unexpectedly fierce. “No matter what Ben or the townspeople think. I didn’t do it.”
    I didn’t know Kelli well enough to jump in with a resounding echo of belief in her innocence, but I was certainly leaning in that direction. Does a murderer offer down-and-outers a free place to stay?
    “Do you have any idea who did?” I asked.
    “Unfortunately, no one who makes as good a suspect as I do.”
    “Maybe we can talk more about this sometime,” I said.
    She regarded me thoughtfully. “Maybe we can.”
    I briskly returned to the matter of the house. “It’s not just Koop and me who need a place to stay. A younger woman, my friend Abilene, is traveling with us. Though I don’t know where she is at the moment.”
    “The more the merrier. Uncle Hiram isn’t going to mind. And I think the house would be better off occupied than sitting there empty. You know how old houses get when they’re empty. They start smelling strange. And they get broken into.”
    “Has this house been broken into?”
    Reluctantly, as if she were afraid it would scare me off, she said, “Somebody shoved in the back door and went through things, though I don’t think anything was taken. But I’m sure that wouldn’t happen if the house was occupied. There isn’t much crime in Hello.”
    “Do you have time to come in and wait until Abilene gets back? I just made tea.”
    She instantly pulled off the stocking cap. “That’d be nice.”
    Kelli was sitting on the sofa, under inspection by Koop, and I was pouring tea for her when the door burst open. Abilene’s cheeks were pink with exertion, and excitement lit up her eyes.
    “Ivy, you won’t believe what happened—” She broke off when she realized I wasn’t alone in the motor home.
    “Kelli Keifer . . . Abilene Tyler,” I introduced. Abilene had stopped using Boone Morrison’s last name. “And I guess I haven’t introduced myself yet, either. I’m Ivy Malone.” To Abilene I added, “Kelli has offered us a place to live.”
    “We’re staying here?” Abilene said, and I remembered she hadn’t yet heard the bad news about the kaput engine.
    I briefly explained our problems and the probable cost of a new engine. She dropped into a seat at the tiny dinette, obviously as shocked by the figure as I was. Yet at the same time, she didn’t look as disappointed or panicky about this change of plans as I was afraid she’d be, which surprised me. So far, she’d been as eager as I to keep on the move.
    We all contemplated that $4,000 figure for a moment, until Kelli said, “You’ve been out for a run?” Abilene wasn’t really breathing hard—she’s in too good physical shape for that—but her breathing was still fast enough to suggest exertion.
    “No. Well, I did run back here. I’d been gone so long that I figured Ivy’d be getting worried.”
    “I was.” Abilene is kind of the granddaughter I never had, and I do worry about her. I took her under my wing back in Oklahoma. Although I have to admit that sometimes she’s the wing, and I’m the one under it. “Where have you been all this time?” I added, trying not to sound as if I were scolding.
    “I walked downtown, past all these little antique-y places and a