Christmas Carol Murder (A Lucy Stone Mystery) Read Online Free Page A

count.”
    Norine arrived with coffee for Rachel and green tea for Pam, who ate only natural, organic foods. “You girls want the usual?” she asked. Receiving nods all round, she departed, writing on her order pad as she went.
    “Let’s not talk about the fire,” Rachel suggested. “I’ve got big news.”
    “Go on,” Sue urged. She didn’t like dramatic pauses unless she was making them.
    “I’m directing the Community Players’ holiday production,” Rachel announced. “It’s Dickens’s A Christmas Carol, and I want you all to audition.”
    “Count me out,” Sue said, shaking her head. “I couldn’t act my way out of a paper bag but I’ll be happy to handle the refreshments.”
    “Great,” Rachel said. “But I think you’d make a fabulous Ghost of Christmas Past.”
    “That’s a joke, right?” Sue asked suspiciously.
    “Yeah,” Rachel admitted. “But I do think Lucy would be great as Mrs. Cratchit. She’s so warm and motherly.”
    “Me?” Lucy didn’t recognize herself in that description.
    “Actually, yes,” Sue said. “You are warm and motherly, even grandmotherly.”
    Lucy gave her friend a dirty look. “I adore Patrick,” she said, naming her son Toby’s little boy, “but you have to admit I’m a young grandmother.”
    “My grandmother wore thick stockings and lace-up oxfords with heels,” Pam recalled. “White in the summer and black after Labor Day. I don’t think they make them anymore. Her breasts went down to her waist and she wore her gray hair in a bun.”
    “Fortunately for Lucy they’ve invented underwire bras and hair dye,” Sue remarked.
    “And sneakers,” Lucy added, naming her favorite footwear as Norine delivered her order of two eggs over easy with corned beef hash and whole wheat toast. Norine passed Rachel her usual Sunshine muffin, gave Pam her yogurt topped with granola, and refilled Sue’s cup with coffee.
    “Auditions are tonight,” Rachel said. “Will you come, Lucy? And how about you, Pam?”
    “Ofay,” Lucy agreed, her mouth full of buttery toast.
    “I’m too busy for rehearsals,” Pam said, “but I can do the program for you. I’ll get ads and Ted can design it and get it printed.”
    “That would be great,” Rachel said. “Any money we make will go to the Hat and Mitten Fund.”
    They all nodded in approval. The Hat and Mitten Fund, which provided warm clothing and school supplies for the town’s needy children, was a favorite charity.
    “Maybe we could give part of the money to the Cunninghams,” Lucy suggested. “They’re having a hard time right now. Their little girl, Angie, has kidney disease and there are a lot of expenses their health insurance doesn’t cover.”
    “That’s a good idea, Lucy,” Pam said, a member of the town Finance Committee. “Lexie is one of the town employees whose hours were cut.”
    “How awful for them,” Rachel said. “Just having a sick child is bad enough, but now the Cunninghams have all these financial worries, too.”
    “They may lose their house,” Lucy said.
    “Oh,” Pam groaned. “I feel so responsible.”
    “But you voted against those cuts,” Sue said.
    “The vote was three to two,” Pam said. “Frankie and I were the nays—we were outnumbered by the men.” She paused. “But now that Marlowe is no longer with us there’s a vacancy on the board. Right now we’re evenly divided. Taubert and Hawthorne have one goal: keep taxes low. Frankie and I aren’t exactly big spenders, but we have a more moderate approach. We need to fill that vacancy with another moderate who understands the value of town services.”
    “And town employees,” Rachel added.
    “You’re right,” Pam said. “Marlowe actually called them parasites who were sucking the taxpayers dry.”
    “Sounds like a real sweetheart,” Sue said sarcastically.
    “Not really,” Pam said. “So if you can think of anybody who’d be willing to take on a thoroughly thankless task by joining the FinCom,