Bark Up and Smell the Coffee by Stella St Claire

Author:Stella St Claire [Claire, Stella St]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2018-09-05T23:00:00+00:00

13

Willow arrived on her father’s doorstep with a bottle of wine promptly at six o’clock for their weekly family meal. Earlier in the day, she had been worried that her side of the dinner table conversation would keep veering towards how she couldn’t believe her father could suspect Terry Gib.

Now, she had so much on her mind that she didn’t think she’d be able to form a coherent accusation. She hoped that Wednesday would be able to keep the chatter going and compensate for her distraction.

She opened the door and announced her arrival. Her dad called to her from the kitchen. She walked in and was greeted by the succulent smell of rosemary chicken and potatoes.

“Do you need any help?” Willow asked, after placing her wine in the fridge. She glanced around the room. With its checkered blue wallpaper, it looked exactly the same as it did when she was growing up. The only slight differences were the electric appliances on the counter. They had been updated at some point down the line.

“All that’s left is to bring the food to the dining room table,” Frank said.

“Should we wait for Wednesday?”

“Wednesday is not coming,” he said as he sliced the chicken and placed it on a serving plate.

“What?”

“She sent me a text,” he said matter-of-factly. “It was full of emojis, but I gathered that she wasn’t going to make it because she needed to focus on her life.”

Willow groaned, but then sensing her father’s agitation as well, she stood up for her sister. “When she says she’s focusing on her life, she means the social media assignment that’s due this week. Not her life in general.”

“I know,” he said, continuing to carve.

“Do you want me to read the text and explain the pictures?”

“I’ve been deciphering her texts for years,” Frank said. “Luckily, I’ve been a detective for many years too. Let’s go and eat.”

He picked up the chicken and headed out of the kitchen.

Willow was about to grab a side dish but decided to text her sister before she went to the dining room. Her message of “Why did you bail on us?” was replied to with a picture of Wednesday enjoying a solo picnic in the park. Admittedly, with her sister’s filters and eye for layout, it looked like a fantastic evening out. However, this didn’t help the fact that Willow would now have to be the social only child that night.

She and her father finished setting the table. Frank was setting every food dish down with extra restraint, treating each bowl as if it were a flower. Willow couldn’t disguise her negative feelings towards the world and was letting the silverware plop down into place.

They took their seats and Willow said, “It looks delicious, Dad.”

“I’m glad you’re here to enjoy it.”

She nodded and started to fill her plate. However, despite how good it all looked, her mind wasn’t on the meal. She was thinking about how complicated things had become suddenly. It seemed that somebody had snuck into Kaitlin’s house and poisoned her coffee grounds, and the suspect list seemed to be growing.

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