The Blood Lie Read Online Free Page A

“What am I supposed to tell the missus?”
    â€œMy Bettina just thinks I’m out gin milling. Anyway, let’s make it eleven straight up, just to be sure.”
    â€œYeah, yeah, whatever you say.”
    Gus and Royman’s smuggling operation was easy money during these Prohibition days. Whiskey and wine were legal a scant mile across the St. Lawrence River in Canada. All it took was knowing one Canadian with a boat who was willing to load up with alcohol and meet you somewhere. Then you let a few discreet friends know you had a supply. You might let the Mr. Lingstrom-types know, too. You might even let a Jew know because the Jews used wine to welcome the Sabbath, and if you couldn’t get business from the sheenies on your pies and meats, you might as well get them with the hooch.
    Better yet, you kept your direct dealings to a few trusted customers, and let them sell their stuff to the Jews and the drunks.
    Tiny appeared with a plate heaped with meat and biscuits. “Doughnuts’ll be another minute,” he told Royman.
    â€œAnyways, I gotta work,” Gus said as the first paying lunch customer strolled in.

    When Lydie and Emaline finished their stew, they settled into the living room to do some beading. Emaline was finishing up the bracelet she was making for her mother’s birthday next month. Lydie decided to try her hand at a choker.
    After a while, Mrs. Durham came in from the garden and walked over to the telephone. “It’s 1:30,” she said. She picked up the receiver, then put it down, hesitated, then picked it up again. Finally she spoke to the operator. “Good afternoon, Bess. Would you put me through to my sister-in-law? Thank you.”
    â€œClarisse?” Mrs. Durham said after a moment. “Yes, Lydie’s right here. She can stay as long as she likes. Listen, Daisy didn’t happen to walk over there, did she?…No, everything’s fine. Maybe she wandered back over to the Pools’ house…Yes, I do trust that family, Clarisse… Yes, I know them well enough—Eva Pool is my friend…No, nothing else. I’m positive, Clarisse.”
    Next, Mrs. Durham tried phoning the Pools, but no one answered. Then she called her cousin Mickey and the Pikes down the street, whose new litter of barn kittens drew the neighborhood children, but they hadn’t seen her. She called the Pools once more, again with no luck.
    â€œEmaline,” Mrs. Durham called.
    â€œYeah?”
    â€œDaisy must still be in the woods. Go fetch her, will you, before that stew spoils? Both of you.”
    â€œCan we finish our beading first?”
    â€œNo,” she said more sternly than she meant to.

    â€œOkay. Come on, Lydie.”
    Mrs. Durham handed Emaline a biscuit in a paper bag. “Here,” she said. “Give this to her right off. She’ll be half-starved by now. And keep at it till you find her, you hear? I’ll whistle for you if she beats you home.”

    After Emaline and Lydie had hiked the forest path for a little while, chatting and calling for Daisy every now and then, Lydie put a fresh piece of gum in her mouth and said carefully, “Your mother seems pretty upset.”
    â€œShe’s always upset,” Emaline said. “Upset and worried. Like I said, we haven’t pulled ourselves together like you and your ma have. She’s just overreacting. Honestly, how far could Daisy have gone? She’s only four year old! She’s probably poking around for frogs or stones, the way she always does.”
    â€œDaisy?” Lydie shouted.
    Another half-hour passed.
    â€œ Little girl, little girl, where have you been? Gathering roses to give to the Queen ,” said Emaline. “ Little girl, little girl, what gave she you? She gave me a diamond as big as my shoe . Daisy?”
    â€œC’mon, Daisy, we’ve got a biscuit for you,” Lydie called. Her voice was getting scratchy. “What time