5 Highball Exit Read Online Free Page B

she was pregnant?” He turned and gave orders to a helper before he considered myquestion. “We were in Sarasota for my niece’s first communion, before Christmas.” He turned away, a steaming pan already in his hand.
    The bar had more lonely people in it than normal that night, all of them making me crazy. Brian Spears came in just in time to save my sanity. Before either of us spoke I took down a bottle of Famous Grouse and showed him the label. He nodded. When I set the scotch in front of him, he lifted his glass to me and offered his usual toast. “Success to temperance.”
    I picked up the glass I had beneath the counter. “And to abstinence.” His first sip was followed by a contented sound and then he said, “Wait until you hear this, Sherri. According to your Uncle Ziggy, your father has a new girlfriend.”
    “Well, that just proves hope never dies. I must take after my old man after all.”
    “I have to say, your family is definitely entertaining.”
    “We aim to please.”
    The cash register pinged. I read the bar order and opened a bottle of red wine and set it on a tray with four glasses. “All of us Jenkinses like to keep things interesting.”
    “You always do that.” Brian was not only my lawyer but also a longtime friend. He knew all about my folks, the ins and outs of family relationships and—from Ziggy’s fire to the attack on the ranch by the local crazy—he’d been involved in more than one of our disasters.
    “So who is the new girlfriend?” Brian asked.
    “If Uncle Ziggy doesn’t know, I sure don’t.” I delivered the wine to the wait station and came back to lean on the bar in front of Brian. “Old fool. It’s bound to end badly—finish with tears and restraining orders.”
    He took an appreciative sip and made sounds of joy before going on with his story. “It’s become some kind of a game for those two old buzzards. Ziggy’s taken to sneaking up on Tully to figure out who it is your dad phones behind closed doors. Ziggy says it’s definitely someone in Jacaranda so it must be someone we know.”
    “Probably a married woman,” I said. “Dad likes it that way— they don’t get ideas.”
    “Ziggy tried tailing him into town but Tully cottoned on to him, turning off his headlights and tearing off down a dirt road. They played tag in the dark like teenagers before Ziggy lost him.”
    Brian was grinning like a fool as he tipped his glass at me. “You are a shining member of one crazy clan.”
    “Show a little respect. It took two hundred years of inbreeding to arrive at our level of stupidity.”
    Brian jerked a thumb over his shoulder in the direction of the dining room. “I think it’s one of your waitresses. Your dad took a keen interest in Maria at his birthday dinner.”
    “My father takes a keen interest in any female who comes within sniffing distance. It was about the only thing my parents had in common, an overwhelming interest in the opposite sex. It kept their lives interesting, deciding which one was currently misbehaving.”
    Brian lowered the glass halfway to his lips. “Do you suppose Ruth Ann is back in town?” He answered his own question. “No, we’d all know if your mother was back. So who is it?”
    “Why would I know, or care? My dad’s life is his problem. I have enough troubles of my own.”

CHAPTER 9
    Dan Raines and his wife, Shelly, lived at the south end of Sarasota, about forty-five minutes north of Jacaranda.
    Dan was already in his police uniform when he opened the door. He was overly cheerful but his eyes were wary. He tried to pretend that it was completely normal for me to knock on his door at quarter after eight on a Sunday night, only hours after he found the body of someone we both knew, something we didn’t mention in front of Shelly.
    After Dan and Shelly showed me around their new townhome and I cooed over Hannah, Shelly went off to put their baby to bed. Dan and I went outside, taking drinks with us.
    The patio was a