Cast Iron Conviction (The Cast Iron Cooking Mysteries Book 2) Read Online Free Page A

the right way to go about it. If you keep getting in other people’s faces, a punch in the nose might be the least of your worries.”
    “I’m not afraid,” he stated flatly.
    “I never said that you were. All I’m saying is that if Annie and I agree to help you find Mitchell’s killer, we’ll approach it from a more subtle angle.”
    Albert smiled again, this one genuine. “You know me, Pat. I was never very good at subtle. That’s what got me in trouble in the first place. If I hadn’t had that public argument with Mitchell just before he was murdered, they would never have convicted me.”
    “The reason behind it never came out in the trial. What were you two fighting about, anyway?” I was honestly curious about it, and this was the perfect opportunity to ask him.
    Albert shook his head, refusing to rise to the bait. “All I’ll say is that there was a reason I didn’t testify,” he said simply.
    “I understand that, but what secret could you be still be trying to protect all these years later?”
    “One worth keeping,” Albert said. Dabbing at his nose again, he added with a slight grin, “I don’t even think it’s broken.”
    “How do you know?”
    “I wouldn’t be able to touch if it were. Trust me, I’m speaking from the voice of experience.” He dusted himself off and then started to walk away.
    “Think about my offer, okay?”
    “I will. And thank you, Patrick.”
    “You’re welcome. It’s no problem. I’ve got a dozen more handkerchiefs upstairs.”
    “That’s not what I’m talking about, and you know it. I mean about your offer to look into this with me. It’s nice to know that someone in Maple Crest believes me.”
    After Albert was gone, I realized that he was right. Without coming to a conscious decision about the matter, I’d evidently reached the conclusion on another level that he was innocent, at least of this particular crime. All I had to do now was to convince Annie of it.
    I didn’t like my chances, but I at least had to try.

Chapter 5: Annie
    “W hat was that all about?” I asked Pat as he walked back into the Iron. I’d watched his conversation with Albert Yeats from the front window, but I hadn’t wanted to interrupt them. We’d learned in our earlier investigation that sometimes folks felt as though we were ganging up on them when we approached them together. The push to act in unison was a hard one to fight at times, but the results were usually worth it.
    “How much of it did you see?” Pat asked me guiltily. What did he have to feel awkward about? “Did you see the punch?”
    “You hit him!” I asked incredulously. My brother hadn’t been in a fistfight since grade school.
    “Keep your voice down,” Pat said as folks doing some last-minute shopping stared over at us. In a loud voice, he added, “I didn’t hit anyone, Annie.”
    That seemed to mollify most of them. “Did Albert hit you?” I asked him, searching for some sign that he’d been struck.
    “Ollie Wilson decked Albert Yeats.”
    “What? Ollie? You must be mistaken.” Ollie was a gentle man if ever there was one. I couldn’t imagine him throwing a punch at anyone.
    “I saw it myself. Whatever there is between the two of them is poisonous.”
    “Ollie? Ollie Wilson? You’re sure?” I just couldn’t believe what I was hearing, even though I trusted my brother implicitly.
    “It was actually kind of frightening seeing the look in Ollie’s eyes for a second there. Annie, I’m beginning to believe that Albert is innocent after all.”
    “What? Why do you think that?” Pat and I had both done our best to give him the benefit of the doubt until he’d been tried and convicted, but it was hard to accept the fact that the so-called evidence presented at the trial hadn’t been true. I hoped they roasted that prosecuting attorney and put him in prison along with the folks he had helped send there!
    “If he did it and somehow managed to get off on a technicality, would he come