The Root of All Evil (Hope Street Church Mysteries Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page A

ever have the chance to bring her a pedicure-in-a-box during her own pregnancy. With Nathan’s attitude the other day, she wasn’t so sure they were thinking the same thing as far as a future together. But today, Cooper didn’t want to think about that, and she certainly didn’t want to discuss it with Ashley. It didn’t seem like an appropriate conversation, considering all that Ashley was going through.
    She poured the rosewater onto one of the warm hand towels and started to gently wash her sister’s feet. “So how’s Lincoln handling this? The bed rest and the looming end of the pregnancy.”
    Ashley snuggled back into her pillows. “I think he may be more stressed than I am. When he’s home, he watches over me constantly. I put on a movie the other night, and he missed half of it because he kept watching me instead of the TV.”
    “It’s good he cares about you so much.”
    “Yeah, but I already feel helpless, and his hovering doesn’t help. Did I ever tell you why he hired Rhonda?”
    “I thought it was because he didn’t want you here alone.”
    Ashley sighed. “That’s not the whole story. My first week of bed rest, I was alone. Just as he pulled in the drive, I was getting a bottle of water from the kitchen and I tripped. I didn’t fall, but I wound up sitting on the floor for a minute to regain my bearings.”
    Cooper paused the pedicure. “Were you okay?”
    Ashley waved away her concern. “Oh, I was fine! I was just shaky. But it was at that very moment that he walked in the door and found me on the kitchen floor.”
    “He must have been terrified!”
    “That doesn’t even begin to describe it. The very next day he introduced me to Rhonda, and she’s been here every workday since. She spends a lot of her time in the drawing room; I can’t take any more hovering. It makes me feel so . . . feeble.”
    “Only a few more weeks,” Cooper assured her. “Then you’ll have a baby, and you won’t have to worry about Rhonda or anyone else trying to watch you every second.”
    Ashley laughed. “Right! Then I’ll get to do all the hovering! . . . Enough about that, though. Tell me something about the real world. Say, did you hear about that church?”
    “The Catholic church? Yeah, I heard that it was robbed.”
    “Oh, then you didn’t hear.” Ashley tried to lean forward but failed. “Our church was robbed last night!”
    Cooper’s jaw dropped. She recovered quickly, scooped exfoliating scrub out of its jar and continued her work on Ashley’s feet. “Are you serious? Your church?”
    Ashley nodded. “Lincoln got a call this morning from one of the elders. Actually, it was for me because of the missions committee I’m on, but he took the message.”
    “What happened?”
    “Well, that was all Lincoln found out from that call, but he did a little snooping and found out some more information. Turns out somebody pried open the back door. They took some of the sound equipment and two tablets from the music room, and they broke into the safe.”
    “Was anyone hurt?”
    “No. No one was around when it happened.”
    Cooper sighed with relief. “I’m glad for that. How much money did they get?”
    “Everything.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “We had an emergency fund, kind of a rainy day account in case anybody at church went through a rough patch. The pastor and elders could vote to give them money from the emergency fund—just a way to take care of each other. Last I checked, it was up to a few thousand dollars.”
    Cooper gaped. “A few thousand dollars? Why wasn’t that in the bank?”
    “So the pastor and elders could get to it whenever it was needed—even on days when the bank was closed. Besides, it was more confidential this way.”
    Cooper thought of the other stolen goods—the sound equipment and tablets. She knew Ashley’s church was well-to-do but hadn’t realized just how well off it was. “With all that stuff, you’d think your church would have some kind of