Slip and Go Die (A Parson's Cove Mystery) Read Online Free

her.
     
    Flori, Esther and I went to school together. Esther picked on me from the very first day. My mother wasn’t too happy when I came home with gum stuck in my hair. Or, when Esther poured her bottle of ink into my pencil case. Or, in high school, when she accused me of cheating and had me expelled. No one could lie and get away with it like Esther Flynn. If it weren’t for Flori’s intervention at times, I’m afraid I might have killed her.
     
    No, no one in Parson’s Cove ever found fault with Chester Flynn for running away.
     
    I dialed. Just reminiscing made me angry.
     
    “Yes?” Esther’s voice, as usual, was nasal, high-pitched and annoying.
     
    “Esther, this is Mabel.”
     
    “Of course, I know that. Don’t you think I would recognize your croaky voice anywhere?” She sniffed. “Besides, I have ‘call display.’ Now, what do you want?”
     
    I didn’t have to see her; I could envision her. She was pursing her lips. It’s something she tends to do a lot when she’s talking to me. Sniff and pucker. Sniff and pucker.
     
    “Umm, I happened to hear that you were the one who found Beulah Henry’s body.”
     
    “So? What concern is it of yours?” Sniff.
     
    “No concern. I was wondering what you were doing out there, that’s all.”
     
    “None of your beeswax.”
     
    I felt like telling her that saying ‘beeswax’ wasn’t cool anymore but I refrained. The trouble with Esther is that half the time she uses words I don’t understand and the other half, she talks like an adolescent. “Okay, can I ask you another question then?”
     
    “Go ahead.” She sniffed. “Maybe I’ll answer, maybe I won’t.”
     
    “That seems fair.” It was taking all the self-control I could muster not to either hang up or use a few choice swear words. “This is all I’m asking–are you sure she slipped on the ice? Was she all alone? Did you see any evidence of someone having been there?”
     
    There was a long silence. My clock ticked forty-three times. I waited. If she were doing this to annoy me, she was succeeding. Right when I was ready to ask if she was still alive, she did her usual thing. She sniffed. At least, she was taking in oxygen.
     
    “That’s three questions. You said you only had one.” Sniff and five seconds silence. “You’re thinking murder again, aren’t you, Mabel?” Her voice suddenly turned high-pitched. “You’re out of your mind. You are the only person in this whole town, no, the whole world, who would dream up something so preposterous. Why would anyone want to slay Beulah? A woman, who unlike you, was clean and pure. I think you’ve spent so much time in the past few years with known criminals that you’re starting to cogitate like one.”  One octave higher: “I’ve a mind to report you to Sheriff Smee this very minute.”
     
    “You don’t want to do that, Esther. Besides, he’s in bed by now and you know what he’s like when someone interrupts his sleep. I’ve done it a few times and it’s not pretty.”
     
    “No, you don’t want me to call because he’d lock you up for sure, wouldn’t he? He could put you in jail for harassing me.”
     
    “I’m not harassing you, you silly old fool. I was curious, that’s all. I was wondering what you were doing up at Beulah’s. That’s not such a strange question to ask. Why are you keeping it such a big secret?”
     
    “Because it’s no one’s business, you silly old fool.” She sniffed. “And, furthermore, you would be the last person in the world to whom I would divulge that information. If that’s all you have to say to me, you can now hang up.” Sniff.
     
    “No, you can now hang up, you silly old fool.”
     
    “I said for you to hang up, Mabel.”
     
    “Nope. You first.”
     
    “Oh, for heaven’s sake, you are the most stubborn infuriating person I’ve ever known.”
     
    The phone went dead.
     
    Well, that didn’t go exactly as I’d planned. There were, however, other