The Main Corpse Read Online Free PDF Page B

Albert up. With a hasty glance at the guests, Tony followed them. I used tongs to move the dumplings around, keeping an eye on the confrontation. What had gotten into Marla? Couldn't whatever it was wait?
     
     
"Absolutely not." Albert's voice rose in answer to something Marla had said. He laughed. The chuckle I'd heard earlier from him had been an awkward, uncomfortable one. The new one was derisive, as if Marla had told a particularly absurd joke. "You're completely mistaken. The Kepler lab is well known, and totally reliable. It - "
     
     
"Oh, I don't think I'm mistaken," Marla sniped right back. "My source says the only reliable process is afire assay - "
     
     
Tony once more tried to intervene. "Marla, please. We can all sit down together - "
     
     
Albert snarled at Marla, "You bitch. What are you trying to do?"
     
     
She cried, "It is my money and my investment!" Macguire timidly knocked on the top of the dumpling chafer, as if that could gain him admittance to our uncomfortable little scene at the back of the tent. "Uh, that Captain Shockley guy doesn't want to come back here and leave the display case out of his sight. But he just asked if there was some kind of problem - "
     
     
Tony must have seen Macguire and guessed his mission, for he hurried back over to the two of us. "No, no," he said with a desperate wave to dismiss my assistant. "Nothing's wrong. Tell anybody who asks that it's about corn futures. Or something. Go pass around some more food. Please," he added belatedly. Then he darted back to Marla and Albert.
     
     
I didn't know if ten minutes had gone by, but I used the tongs to arrange a platter of hot dumplings for Macguire to distribute. At that moment, Albert adjusted the lapels of his madras jacket, lifted his chin, and shrugged mightily.
     
     
"And today I got the paperwork to prove it," Marla shrilled. "But I had to have three glasses of that vile beer before I had the courage to come over here and confront you - !" Perhaps to make certain he was paying attention, she thumped his chest. Caught off guard, Albert dropped his glass, which shattered. Ale foamed across the tent floor. No, no, no, I thought uncharitably, I haven't been paid yet.
     
     
"Look, guys," Tony began again. "We need to postpone whatever discussion - "
     
     
"Shut up, Tony," Marla snarled. I'd never seen her so enraged.
     
     
Albert Lipscomb turned away from Marla. Marla held up her index finger and continued to scold. A blare of sound erupted from the far side of the tent. The chink of glasses and babble of guest voices - not to mention the noise of this fracas - were suddenly drowned under the flood of violin music cascading from the portable speakers. Poor Macguire must have turned the volume way, way up. Over Vivaldi, I heard Marla yell, "And another thing!"
     
     
But Albert didn't want to hear about the other thing. He stumbled past us, out into the rain. Marla stomped after him. Her crimped brown hair had shaken loose from the twinkling barrettes. Her green-and-gold silk dress drooped off one shoulder, and her bejeweled fingers were clenched. I rushed over to Tony's side.
     
     
"Doggone it, do something," I demanded.
     
     
"Like what? You saw how I tried," he said sourly. "They won't listen to me."
     
     
The rain was changing to hail. With her recent medical history, Marla had no business being out in a hail-storm. I wiped my hands, now damp with fear, on my chef's jacket. Surprised by the unexpected downpour of icy pebbles outside the tent, Albert Lipscomb wobbled on his pale loafers. Perhaps his sudden loss of equilibrium was owing to the beat of hailstones on his bald pate. He extended his long arms to get some balance, but the muddy road proved too slippery and he faltered. To my horror, Marla flew forward to try to catch him. He slipped from her grasp and careened sideways onto a car. Before he could stand up, Marla started yelling at him. The only word I could pick out was