The Pea Soup Poisonings Read Online Free PDF

whispered.
    She stuck a hand in her pocket and encountered the key. It felt cold and hot all at once. Any minute, she thought, it might burn a hole in her shirt.
    “Let’s go,” she said, wiggling out from under the dusty bed and letting out the sneeze she’d been holding back. “We’ve got to catch the evening bus.  We’ve got to get to Aunt Thelma before those two get there!”
     
     
    Chapter Nine
     
    A Nighttime Bus Ride
     
    “Alice called,” Kelby said when Zoe and Spence arrived at her house. “Her mother has the night off from her job at Chat & Chew Restaurant and Alice has to stay home to help clean the attic.”
    “Bad luck,” said Zoe. “That means she can’t go to Lili Laski’s supper party with us.”
    “Lili Laski’s having a supper party?” asked Spence.
    “Of course. We’re both going. You remember,” said Zoe, and gave Spence a knowing look.
    “Oh, that party,” he said.
    “Zoe arranging your social calendar now, Spence?” Kelby asked. Spence reddened, and then coughed.
    Kelby was sitting at the table staring at a bowl of pea soup. “I can’t eat that,” he told his mother. “The Bagley sisters made it. In a chamber pot. It killed Alice’s granny.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous,” their mother said. “I ate the soup and I’m perfectly fine. Now sit down, Zoe, and have some supper. Bowl of pea soup, Spence? It’s delicious. I added a little ham. I think the sisters are vegetarians.”
    “Uh, no thanks,” he said. “But I’ll have some of that.” He pointed at a dish of macaroni and cheese.
    “Sorry, we don’t have time,” said Zoe, tapping Spence on the shoulder. “We’re having supper at my friend Lili Laski’s house. Can you drive us into town, Dad? Please?”
    Town was only three miles away. They would catch the six-thirty-five bus to Rockbury and then walk to the place from there. Zoe hoped it wasn’t far.
    “Please, Dad?” Her father hadn’t sat down yet. He always had something else to do when dinner was served. One time, just for fun, her mother had called him to eat at three in the afternoon, only to see him wheel about and stride off to the apple barn to do “one more job.”
    “Actually,” her father said, running a hand through his shaggy hair, “I have to pick up an herbicide at Agway.”
    “Oh, Dan,” said their mother. “Then everything will get cold,” She sighed heavily, then brightened up. “Last one finished does the dishes!”
    Zoe’s father shrugged and grinned at Zoe. “Let’s go then, kid. I’m the best darn dish washer you ever saw.”
    Her mother laughed. “We’ll have to rent you out.”
    “Three and a half days,” Kelby hissed as Zoe and Spence left. “And we have new evidence. Damaging evidence. Gonna put those old ladies right behind bars.”
    “What evidence this time?” Zoe demanded.
    “Oh, you’ll see.” He gave a sly smile and heaped macaroni and cheese on his plate. He didn’t want to have to do the dishes.
    In five minutes they were at Lili’s house. Luckily Zoe’s father drove off at once so they didn’t have to go in. They ran off to the Citgo gas station where the bus made its stop – and just in time.
    “Where to?” the driver said, a big brawny man with a round bald spot in the center of his head.
    Zoe said, “Two for Rockbury, please.”
    “We’re going to visit a relative,” Spence informed him, and Zoe sighed. “You don’t have to explain,” she said. “Lots of people live in the town of Rockbury.”
    “When are we going to eat?” Spence asked as they took their seats in the center of the bus. She knew he was thinking of that plate of macaroni and cheese he’d missed.
    “We’ll eat afterward.” Zoe shook out a handful of chocolate peanuts. “Here. This is a salary advance against tonight.”
    Spence shoved the peanuts into his mouth and smiled. “So what’s the strategy? We go in there and snatch her? And then what do we do with her?”
    “We wait and see. We play it by