Scoop to Kill Read Online Free

had slid the cash drawer closed and was watching her daughter with narrowed eyes.
    Alice sighed. “Okay. I didn’t tell you because I knew you’d be all crazy about it, but I talked with Dr. Clowper last night.”
    “You what?” Bree barked.
    “It’s no big deal. I went over so we could talk about my paper—”
    Bree cut her off. “ ‘Went over’? You mean to her house?”
    “Yeah. It’s really no big deal. She’s had us over before, all the students who are doing independent studies with her, so we can workshop our projects. We order pizza and sit around her living room. It’s just more comfortable than meeting in her office and quieter than a coffee shop or whatever.”
    “Were these other kids at her house last night?”
    Alice looked at her feet for a moment, before raising her chin and facing her mother squarely. “No. I went by myself. Dr. Clowper had sent us a mass e-mail saying she wasn’t allowed to come to campus until everything gets resolved, and I was worried about her.” She tucked her sleek strawberry hair behind her ear. “I tried to get some of the other kids to come with me to show our solidarity.”
    “But they were all too smart to say ‘yes,’ huh?” Bree shook her head. “Well, you’re not gonna do that again.”
    Alice’s jaw slid to the side, like she was chewing on gristle. “Actually, I am. Dr. Clowper isn’t allowed on campus, and they even put a hold on her account so she can’t access the library or the school computer network from home. So she gave me the key to her office, and I promised her I would stop by a couple of times a week so I can bring her things she needs for her work.”
    Bree gasped in outrage, but Alice pressed on. “I want to show her that we don’t all think she’s some sort of criminal.” She set her small fists on her hips. “Because she’s not.”
    Bree matched her daughter’s belligerent stance, so I sidled up to her, ready to intervene if things got too nasty. After all, I had to unlock the store in a few minutes, and their domestic dispute wouldn’t be good for business.
    “She’s not a criminal,” Bree mocked. “And do you have anything other than her word for that?”
    “Yes,” Alice said. “I have my own good judgment.”
    That took a little of the starch out of Bree’s spine. “I still don’t like it,” she insisted. “Even if she weren’t a suspect—”
    “She’s not a suspect.”
    Bree raised her hand. “Even if she weren’t a suspect,” she repeated, “I think it’s weird for you to go to a teacher’s house, especially by yourself. If there was any way for you to drop your classes this late in the semester, I wouldn’t even let you on that campus. I sure as heck don’t want you spending one-on-one time with a possible murderer.”
    Alice opened her mouth, then snapped it closed. She shook her head as she stripped her apron off. “I have to go to class,” she muttered, holding up a hand to fend off any potential argument, “with hundreds of other students in broad daylight. We can talk about this later.”
    “There’s nothing to talk about,” Bree insisted.
    “Whatever.”
    Nothing got under Bree’s skin more than that one dismissive little word. She tensed up again, ready to have it out with her troublesome child.
    “Let it go, Bree,” I hissed.
    Bree shot me an irritated glance, but Alice was already on her way out the back door, a backpack that probably weighed as much as she did slung over one shoulder.
    “Can you believe that?” Bree huffed as the door banged shut.
    Bree snorted. “Going to that woman’s house without so much as a by your leave? I thought I raised that child better than that.”
    I smothered a laugh. “She’s more like you every day.” Bree shot me a disbelieving look. It killed me that neither mother nor daughter could see how much alike they were. “She’s fiercely loyal, listens to her gut, stubborn as a mule . . . shall I go on?”
    I walked to the front door,