A Catered Thanksgiving by Isis Crawford

Author:Isis Crawford
Language: eng
Format: mobi, epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2010-09-14T22:00:00+00:00

Chapter 22

Everyone sitting around the dining room table did a double take when Bernie and Libby straggled into the dining room.

“Surprised to see us?” Bernie asked the assembled population.

The Field clan quickly averted their eyes and resumed doing what they had been doing when Bernie and Libby walked in, which was eating. Bernie glanced around. This was not going as planned. She’d hoped someone would clutch their chest and practically fall off the seat at the sight of them. Obviously, that wasn’t happening. Maybe they shouldn’t have cleaned up first.

“Should we be surprised to see you?” Lexus asked, speaking for the group.

“You guys looked as if you were surprised,” Bernie told them.

“Well, we were wondering where you two had gotten yourselves off to,” Perceval allowed. “That’s true.”

Melissa looked up, then went back to eating. Libby noticed her plate was stacked high with food.

“It looks as if you two were someplace not very pleasant,” Geoff observed. He seemed to have developed a tic in his right eye since Bernie had seen him last. Maybe it was their presence. Bernie certainly hoped so.

Lexus cut into a piece of turkey. “Yes, where did you two run off to? To coin one of my mother’s expressions, you both look like something that the cat dragged in.”

“That’s rather rude.” Bernie thought that she and Libby had done a pretty good job of cleaning themselves up under the circumstances.

“But true.”

Bernie was about to explain why they looked the way they did, but before she could, Lexus continued talking.

“And what, may I ask, are you doing with those?” Lexus pointed to the pair of duck boots Bernie was carrying. “I know there must be a reason you’re carrying them. I just can’t think of what it could be.”

Bernie lifted them up. “I want to know who these belong to.”

“They’re mine,” Geoff said. “What the hell are you doing with them?”

“They’re wet,” Bernie said.

“Of course they’re wet,” Geoff said. “I was outside smoking a cigarette.”

“In this weather?” Libby said.

“Nicotine is a powerful drug,” Geoff replied. “Or at least that’s what I read.”

“I didn’t know you smoked,” Bernie said.

“Why should you?” Geoff said. “I’m trying to quit, so I smoke two cigarettes a day. Not that that’s any of your business.”

“It most certainly is,” Bernie told him.

Geoff cocked his head. “And how do you figure that, pray tell?”

“Because it ties in with you being outside,” Bernie told him.

“Believe me, I would smoke inside if I could, but my stepmother,” Geoff said, emphasizing the word stepmother, “won’t allow it in the house.”

Lexus nodded. “He’s quite right. I won’t.”

“That isn’t the issue,” Bernie said.

“Then what is?” Lexus demanded. “Make your point and get on with it.”

“Her point,” Libby replied, “is that someone tried to kill us.”

There. Finally. It was said, Bernie thought. She looked around the table. No one seemed terribly concerned. In fact, she’d seen more of a reaction at the train station when the announcer came on and told everyone that the Metro-North was going to be late.

Lexus raised an eyebrow.

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