A Corpse for Yew Read Online Free Page B

Someone probably pushed her into their car and drove her out here. Check the records on her ATM card. Those people always go after the ATM card.”
    “If they aren’t after something else.” Geneva lowered her voice dramatically, dark eyes saying what her words didn’t.
    All the women gasped in dismay, and their hands flew to their faces. “This can’t be happening,” Grace said. “Not to us. The Shamrock Historical Society has been together for more than fifty years, and nothing like this has ever happened to us before.”
    “We need a lawyer.” Annabelle Ainsley’s voice was decisive. “Dorothy, isn’t your son-in-law the district attorney? He could represent us.”
    “Don’t be stupid, Annabelle,” Mrs. Waynewright cautioned. “The district attorney prosecutes people! He can’t represent us if he’s accusing us of a crime.”
    “Besides, my son-in-law is a corporate attorney, not the district attorney,” Dorothy added.
    Peggy had heard enough. “No one is being accused of anything yet. We don’t know what happened to Lois. She may have had a heart attack and died out here before we arrived. The police are here to figure that out.”
    “Then where’s her car?” Geneva demanded. “She didn’t walk out here, not with her lumbago. If she drove out here, her car would be here now.”
    “She’s right,” Lilla hissed, caught up in the investigation. “We have to find Lois’s car.”
    “But which one?” Grace asked. “Lois had that silver Mercedes, the one with the gray leather trim inside. But she also had that old brown Cadillac she liked so well. The one her husband gave her for her fiftieth birthday. You know the one I mean.”
    “Would she have driven either one of them out here?” Annabelle questioned. “Don’t forget; she was a stickler on keeping her cars clean. Not an easy thing to do right now. Would she have brought either one of those vehicles down here, knowing how dirty they’d get?”
    Mrs. Waynewright put her skeletal hand with its plethora of diamond rings on Annabelle’s shoulder. “Look! Isn’t that Arnie? That poor boy. They were very close, you know. Let’s go over and say something to him. He needs all the support he can get right now.”
    “But the police officer said to stay here,” Jonathon reminded them.
    “We aren’t suspects”—Geneva looked at Peggy—“right?”
    Peggy shrugged. “Not as far as I know. They’ll want to ask you some questions, so don’t go too far.”
    The words were barely out of her mouth before all of the ladies swarmed to see Chief Mullis. “You think this will be all right?” Jonathon looked at her. “I mean, they have a valid point about Lois’s car.”
    She agreed. “They do. There’s no point in speculating about it. We’ll have to leave it to the police. At least for now.”
     
     
    TWO HOURS LATER, a rookie police officer who’d started on the force at the same time as Peggy’s son, Paul, dropped her and her mother off at historic Brevard Court. College Street was crowded, but the squad car cut through the traffic like Moses parting the Red Sea.
    “Thanks for the ride,” Peggy said. “I’m glad things are going so well for you, Allan. I know your mother is very proud of you.”
    “She’d like it a lot better if I wasn’t wearing this uniform,” he confessed with a smile. “She wanted me to follow in the family footsteps, you know. Everyone must be a lawyer.”
    “And there’s nothing wrong with that noble profession,” Lilla added. “I don’t understand why men want to play with guns and wear uniforms. Is it the shiny buttons?”
    Allan laughed, his face lean and vital beneath his crew cut. “I don’t know about other men. It might sound corny, but I wanted to make a difference. I wanted to be out there helping people who really need help.”
    “You sound like Paul,” Peggy intervened. “I’m glad we had a chance to talk. I’ll see you later.”
    Lilla got out on the crowded sidewalk that led