The Death of Perry Many Paws Read Online Free PDF Page A

but …”
    “Claudia, what is difficult to accept is that someone would kill himself by shoving a letter opener into his own throat.”
    I had to take several deep breaths after saying it because that image is the brick wall I hadn’t been able to get past—the scowling oldman sitting in a chair staring at me through the window with a blade sticking out of his neck like some horror house prop. Even though I hadn’t gone inside, I could smell the gamey metallic aroma of blood mingled with stale old-man smell.
    “There is no way someone could do that to himself.” I started to feel nauseous and wondered what the proper Claudia would think if I threw up diet soda and breakfast M&Ms all over the table while she was drinking her coffee.
    “But Franklin wasn’t normal,” Sybil needlessly reminded me. “Who knows what was going on in his head? Claudia and I certainly ceased to understand him ages ago. His actions would not be the same as yours or mine.”
    I pressed my thumb against my inner wrist, something that I had read in a magazine to counter nausea. “What do the police think of your suicide idea?”
    Claudia would never do anything as uncouth as roll her eyes but she did flick them up and down a little. “They didn’t seem to take the suicide idea very seriously. But then, after not finding a motive or signs of an intruder and no sign of anything missing or disturbed, they may change their minds. It takes them a while to open their minds to other options.”
    “It may take them quite a long time to open their minds to
that
idea,” I said. “I wouldn’t hold your breath.”
    “I don’t plan to, dear. In my heart I know what happened and that is all that matters. Now, I have something I would like you to do …”
    It suddenly occurred to me that I had neither made a pie nor manned the refreshment booth at the flower show last week. I apologized. Claudia nodded, graciously accepting my apology.
    “I didn’t go to the flower show this year and no one expected anyone in our family to do anything about it so don’t worry. The Ladies Guild grants some leeway in obligations when there is a death in thefamily, especially one as spectacular as ours. What I have in mind is something totally different.”
    Sybil got up and poured herself the dregs of the coffee and then got me a diet soda out of the refrigerator, possibly fortifying me for what her friend had to say. Claudia calmly waited until I popped the tab and took a drink.
    “Tamsen, dear, I feel you would be the perfect person to go through all the papers and books in Franklin’s cottage. Sybil keeps offering to do it, but I need her by my side.”
    One thing I can say about my mother-in-law is that she is way too classy to flinch when someone spews diet soda across the table and into her coffee. She merely moved the cup away, took a napkin and wiped off her hands.
    “I don’t really want to go back over there, ever …” I protested.
    “It really is asking a lot of Tamsen,” Sybil agreed. “Why not let me do it. I don’t mind at all.”
    “Nonsense, Tamsen. You did such an adequate job that summer when you organized our library and there is so much less involved in cleaning out Franklin’s place. You and Cam can have any books that might be valuable or of interest. Most of the stuff in there can be donated to Goodwill. But I think it’s important to have someone in the family sort through it all. Cam is much too busy. And I can’t bear to be without Sybil right now.”
    By the time they left, I had traded not baking a pie and manning a refreshment booth for clearing out the house of a murdered man.

am not a brave person. The last brave thing I did was to give birth. And let’s face it, I really didn’t have a choice. For my latest foray into the world of the courageous, I decided to ramp up my fortifications and take Grace, Diane and Syra with me. I would have brought Bing, too, but he was semi-agoraphobic and would only venture out across