15 Minutes of Flame by Christin Brecher

Author:Christin Brecher [Brecher, Christin]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2020-05-06T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 13

Emily Hussey has been my best friend since preschool, but I hadn’t seen her in three days. Her baby, the sweet Victoria, had caught a cold last week and had spread it to both of her doting parents like the plague. In fact, Emily’s last Instagram post was an update on how the red patch under her nose was healing nicely. I decided she was past the chicken-soup phase, but on the way over to her house, I picked up some clam chowder from the Brotherhood. We have more choices for a good cup of clam chowder than you can begin to imagine on Nantucket, and everyone has their favorite. Emily loves the creaminess of the Brotherhood’s recipe.

My dear friend was propped up in her bed when I arrived. She looked like she’d run a marathon, but Victoria slept soundly beside her, breathing easily, with the look of a cherub about her. I oohed and aahed silently over how cute she was.

“We don’t have to whisper,” she said. “Vicky can sleep through a tornado. Getting her to sleep is a nightmare, but once she’s in dreamland, we’re the luckiest parents on earth. The other day, Neal hung the new medicine cabinet—”

“The one from Pottery Barn went on sale?” I said, rising to take a look at their newest upgrade.

Emily and Neal bought a small, gray-shingled house close to the elementary school after they were married. Emily is always thinking ahead. The place was modest and somewhat cookie-cutter when they moved in, but slowly Emily has added her magic touch to make their house unique and welcoming. The medicine cabinet had been on her list for a while. The minute it went on sale, she was ready.

“It looks so good!” I said.

“Thanks. Neal was so proud to hang it up, and then in the middle of the night, after Vicky fell asleep next to us, the whole thing fell from the wall. Just fell right off. I told him to read the directions, but two years of Boy Scouts, and he thinks he could build a house if he had to. Anyway, Vicky slept through the whole thing.”

“Speaking of the scouts,” I said, settling into a gorgeous chintz club chair in red florals that had been a great discovery at the Hospital Thrift Shop, “I have news.”

“Tell me,” she said, removing the lid on her cup of chowder with a satisfied smile. “We’ve been so cooped up. I don’t know anything that’s going on.”

“Put your hands over Vicky’s ears,” I said. “I don’t want any of this to enter her dreams.”

I told Emily the story of how I’d moved into the Morton house and of finding Patience Cooper’s skeleton.

“Setting a good example to the girls while keeping an eye on your skeleton,” said Emily with an approving nod.

“Exactly,” I said. “Can you imagine us not wanting to be in a house with a skeleton at their age? Very disappointing.”

Emily nodded in agreement.

When I finished telling her everything, from my discovery

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