Death on the Mississippi Read Online Free

additional bottle of sherry. He opened a lower kitchen cabinet and quickly snapped it shut. The sound evidently awakened the snakes and caused them to stir so that the basket thumped against surrounding glassware. He made a mental note to ask Dalton to make snake-removal arrangements before the evening was over. He found the sherry in a high cabinet over the sink and was uncorking it when she spoke from behind him.
    â€œMr. Wentworth … ah, Lyon.”
    He turned to see Pandora Turman standing stiffly by the refrigerator. Her blue eyes, deeply shaded with makeup, squinted as she looked at him intently. He wondered if her intensity was due to astigmatism or emotion. “Can I get you something, Pan? I was just opening some sherry.”
    â€œA bourbon and Coke would be great.”
    Her words were truncated and fired in a rapid burst composed of a Southern accent mixed with nervous tension. He reached for the bourbon as she watched his movements carefully. His male antennae were not receiving. He wondered why the statuesque Katrina Loops could send him strong sexual signals while this obviously attractive woman seemed nearly asexual. Perhaps it was because she was the cheerleader type, the proverbial girl-next-door—so wholesome and sister-image provoking that lust became nearly incestuous.
    He handed her the drink and she took a hefty swig. “I’m sorry we missed the wedding,” Lyon said, “but we just weren’t able to get to Jackson on two days’ notice. As I recall, I think Bea had an important vote in the senate and …”
    â€œThat’s all right,” she answered. It came out sounding remarkably like “salright.” “You know Dalton. He’s always on a spur-of-the-moment calendar. We woke up one morning and he said it was Tuesday, which it was, and that was probably as good a day as any to marry, but it turned out that it had to be on Thursday for complicated reasons. Believe me, it’s hard for a girl to get ready and marry on two days’ notice. Dalton said there were tax advantages if we did it before the first of the year.”
    Lyon laughed. “That’s as good a reason as any.” He knew of one mutual friend who married her long-time lover in order to cover him on her health insurance.
    â€œDalton says that you’re his best friend,” she said as her hand brushed his sleeve as if asking for physical confirmation of the statement.
    He felt vaguely embarrassed and tried to avoid eye contact for he detected a note of pleading in the remark. “We manage to see each other a time or two a year.”
    â€œThen you two are close?” she pressed.
    â€œLet’s say that I owe him.”
    The answer seemed to satisfy her. “Then his jokes don’t really bother you?”
    â€œIf you’re going to be around him you have to tolerate it.”
    â€œHas he told you about the threatening calls?”
    â€œTelephone calls?”
    â€œThey seem to come at all hours of the night. In the beginning Dalton tried to hide them from me. He’d either go into another room to take the call, or tell whoever it was that he’d call back. But the other night I got on the extension and heard what was said.”
    â€œYou might have misunderstood the conversation.”
    â€œI tried to convince myself of that too, but then the accidents began to happen. A backhoe slid down an embankment, and if Dalton hadn’t been able to jump into a nearby ditch, he would have been killed. Two days ago the brakes on the car just went. I was with him when it happened. We were both almost killed when he lost control and we went off the road into some high bushes.”
    Lyon was having difficulty following her rapid-fire speech and the abrupt shifts in content. Pandora was afflicted with the same problem as others he knew. They assumed that you were aware of most things that transpired in their lives and could therefore initiate