Bed & Breakfast 1 - Just Desserts by Mary Daheim

Author:Mary Daheim [Daheim, Mary]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mary Daheim
Publisher: Unknown
Published: 2010-03-22T04:00:00+00:00

Mavis sounded faintly weary.

“Thanks. Good luck with…everything.” There was a pause at the other end. “Lance wouldn’t do anything dumb, would he?”

Mavis actually laughed, but it was a hollow sound. “I told you, he didn’t know anything.”

There was another pause. “No. Of course he didn’t. I keep forgetting how dense Lance is.”

“Don’t forget,” said Mavis in a warning voice. “Especially if you’re ever asked to be a character witness. Remember, my husband is as dumb as a rope,” Mavis declared, and hung up.

Judith waited a few seconds, then did the same. The cousins eyed each other. Judith spoke first: “Well. So Mavis guessed.”

“That Wanda and Lance were related?” Renie wrinkled her pug nose. “She may have known about Otto for years. She’s very shrewd, I’ll give her that. It would have been easy for her in her capacity as a reporter to check the records in L.A.”

“If Wanda noticed a resemblance between her own eyes and Lance’s, then maybe Mavis did, too.” Seeing Renie’s JUST DESSERTS / 169

blank look, Judith explained what Lester had told her within the hour. “Ordinarily, I suppose a patient’s spouse wouldn’t come into contact with an O.R. nurse. But Mavis is the type who’d grill any member of the staff she could get her paws on. Still, if she didn’t tell Lance, would she confide in any other members of the family? Mavis isn’t exactly buddybuddy with her in-laws.” Judith headed for the hallway to hang up her jacket, pausing to glance outside at the swirling snow. Movement at the edge of her vision caught her attention. There, on the porch that ran the width of the house, stood Mavis and Gwen, their attitude one of conspiracy. Judith took a deep breath and tiptoed back into the kitchen.

“So I was wrong. Mavis and Gwen are outside, looking like a couple of sorority sisters.”

Renie looked up from the cocktail napkins she’d been counting. “They probably are. The UCLA connection. I’m willing to believe anything about now.”

“Including the fact that Dash did see Wanda after their divorce.” Judith was feeling rather dazed, as well as stiff and sore from her tumble in the snow. “Never mind all that now, let’s get going. I can hear the animals rattling their cages.”

She could, in fact, for the Brodies were making angry noises out in the living room. The object of their ire almost toppled Renie—Sweetums was running for his life, seeking sanctuary in the basement. Judith ignored both the fleeing cat and the incensed Brodies, taking time to dig into her handbag for lipstick, blush and a touch-up to hide the dark circles under her eyes. After putting her black suede flats back on, she slipped out through the dining room and into the entry hall, then beat a hasty retreat into the front parlor. No one in the living room, including an embattled Renie, had noticed her. With a sigh of relief, she leaned against the door and shut her eyes. Her guests were barred, and Sweetums was outlawed.

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