Case of Imagination by Jane Tesh

Author:Jane Tesh [Tesh, Jane]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery, Detective / General, FICTION / Mystery &#38, Contemporary
Goodreads: 1562350
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Published: 2006-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Chapter Five

Jerry hesitated before entering the house, but nothing jumped out at him. We weren’t haunted by anything else that night except the vision of Juliet sprawled on the stage floor in her beautiful pageant gown. Unable to sleep, we sat on the porch for a long time, talking.

Jerry passed me one of the last two sodas he’d found in the fridge. “Did you learn anything useful from the contestants?”

“No one saw or heard anything unusual backstage. I’m going to talk with Karen Mitman tomorrow. Of all the girls, she wasn’t crying or looking very upset. I guess she could’ve been in shock. And I have something to show the contestants. I didn’t want to show them at the theater.” I took the plastic fingernail out of my pocket.

“What’s that?”

“A fingernail. I found it by Juliet’s body. There were a lot of sequins, too. I’m not sure, but I think they’re the same kind I found near Shana’s house.”

“Which means?”

“I’m a little closer to solving Hayden’s ghost story.” I put the fingernail back in my pocket. “But I never expected to have to solve a murder.”

“Which you will solve, and then it’s ‘In your face, Reid Kent.’”

“That’s part of it, I have to admit. But I really want to find out who killed Juliet. I want to put them away. Nobody has the right to do that to another human being. Sure, she wasn’t everybody’s favorite, but she didn’t deserve to be choked to death. She didn’t deserve to die before she had a chance to—”

I must have sounded seriously worked up. Jerry put his hand on my shoulder. “Hey, take it easy. We’re both a little shaken by this.”

“Did you ever think, a few days ago, when we were having lunch at Baxter’s and talking about your house, that this sort of thing would happen?”

“You’re not sorry you came, are you?”

“Oh, no. No.” I took a deep breath to steady myself. I thought of everything I would’ve missed, Gregory Prill’s dramatics, the exploding ghost dinner at Hayden and Shana’s, Nell’s wry observations, Ted’s flattering interest. And being here with Jerry, doing what I knew I wanted to do. “No, this is what I want.”

He held up his soda can and touched mine in salute. “Okay.”

Okay. I took courage from his calm gray gaze. This is what I want.

***

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