Murder on a Starry Night: A Queen Bees Quilt Mystery Read Online Free Page B

astronomy classes whenever he wanted. The kids teased Ollie sometimes—but they learned to like him, too. But anyway, Ollie had actually told Chancellor Phillips that he’d will the house to Canterbury when he died.”
    “It appears he didn’t get around to doing that,” Po said. “Max Elliot has handled the Harrington affairs forever, and he said Ollie never put anything in writing. Ollie cared more about things like black holes and planets’ orbits than he did about wills.”
    “It’s too bad. Canterbury would have maintained the house’s integrity,” Leah said. She waved at a group of college students walking by.
    Po nodded. “They’d have been a better choice than Tom Adler and his Prairie Development group—I hear Oliver also told them that they could have the house. They actually had a plan in place that they’d shown Oliver. Tom promised he’d keep the lovely grounds as best he could, but the plan was five homes on the land—luxury homes for empty nesters, they described it. I suppose that means people like me.”
    Kate laughed. She picked up a bunch of slender asparagus and a clump of arugula and handed some bills to the young girl behind the stand. “Po, you may think your nest is empty with the kids living on the West Coast, but it will never be true. Has there ever been even a week without a gathering at the Paltrow home? I doubt it.” Po’s home had been a second home to Kate nearly all her life, and especially since her mother’s death a couple of years earlier.
    “I guess you’re right. It doesn’t feel empty, that I know for sure. And maybe that’s Adele’s dream—to fill the Harrington house with people. It’s been a shell for a long time. Oliver always liked it when I stopped by, and I know he had a few friends, but he wasn’t much of a party giver.”
    “Have you been inside the home recently, Po?”
    “A few times. Ollie and I mostly sat on the veranda and talked. He’d go on for hours about stars and galaxies—I think he had read every book ever written on planet alignments. He was such a sweet man. I’d see him every day walking over to campus. As you said, Leah, that was his life.”
    “Oliver would probably have liked the college having his house.”
    “Yes,” Po agreed. “But it’s not to be. So we need to move on.”
    “I talked to Susan after our session today about the quilts,” Leah said. “By next Saturday, we should have materials picked out and ready to go. I’m going to meet Adele at the house today to look at colors. Want to come?”
    “Sure,” Kate said immediately. “Wow, a preview. Po, you come, too.”
    “I need to run by the college library briefly, but that’s all that’s on my schedule until the reception tonight at Canterbury,” Po said. “I’ll be happy to go.”
    “Oh, dear, I nearly forgot about the party,” Leah said. “Eleanor is such a sport to host it. I don’t know what the college would do without her.”
    “I think the whole town must be invited,” Kate said. “Even P.J. got invited.”
    “Even P.J.?” Po teased. Kate’s current relationship with P.J. Flanigan, a member of the Crestwood police department and one-time lawyer, pleased Po to no end. She’d known P.J. nearly as long as she’d known Kate; a kinder, more trustworthy man couldn’t be found. And his sense of humor and laid-back personality helped, too. One definitely needed that to be involved with Kate. “Of course P.J. would be invited,” Po said. “Eleanor figures her payback for hosting university affairs at her home is the license to invite all her friends.”
    “To make it fun, she told me,” Kate said.
    Po laughed, “That’s true. Those events can be mighty dull on occasion. I can’t even remember what this one is for. But I know Eleanor was in the mood for a party and she probably jumped at the chance to have it at her house.”
    “It’s for several faculty members who have had things published recently. Jed Fellers is one of them,”