Christmas Dessert Murder by Joanne Fluke

Author:Joanne Fluke [Fluke, Joanne]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2021-08-03T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Four

“Is everyone ready?” Hannah asked, picking up the first of Essie’s notebooks.

“I am,” Delores declared, propping her feet up on a footstool and relaxing in her favorite living room chair.

“I am, too,” Lisa agreed, leaning forward on the couch.

“Go ahead, Hannah,” Michelle urged, tucking a couch pillow behind her back.

Dinner had been fun and Andrea had apologized when she’d left at seven. She’d told them that she wished she could stay, but she had several things to do before Bill got home from work. Once she’d left, Delores, Lisa, Michelle, and Hannah had retired to the living room, where Hannah had stacked Essie’s notebooks.

“Okay, if you’re ready,” Hannah said, pulling on her reading gloves and opening the notebook. And then she began to read.

* * *

She had just finished totaling a column of figures when the phone on her desk rang. She let it ring twice, as her cousin had instructed her to do, and then she answered.

“Cappella Enterprises. This is Sharon speaking. May I help you?”

“Rose!”

“Yes, Tony.” She felt her heart begin to beat wildly in her chest. It was her husband and he’d used his private name for her, the name no one else knew. “Is it time?” she asked him.

“Yes, I’ll be there in less than five minutes.”

Her hand was shaking slightly as she hung up the phone and she felt their baby give a protesting kick. Her doctor had told her that babies, even when they were still in the womb, could sense when their mother was upset.

“It’s all right,” she told the baby, getting up from her desk and walking across the small office. She opened the closet to retrieve her coat and purse, and drew a deep, steadying breath. They’d talked about this day, rehearsed what each of them would do, and she knew exactly what was expected of her as she reached up to get the empty box from the top shelf. “It’s all right,” she repeated, attempting to reassure the baby and herself at the same time. “Daddy’s coming to help us.”

She’d just finished going through her purse to make sure she had enough money when the door to the office burst open. Her husband rushed in, locking the door quickly behind him.

“Are you ready?” he asked in a slightly breathless voice. “They’re on the way. You know what to do, don’t you, honey?”

“Yes,” she said, trying not to look as frightened as she felt as she opened the bottom drawer of her desk and took out a bulky duffel bag. She had hoped this day would never come, but she trusted Tony to know when danger was imminent and it was time to flee.

“Let me,” he said, taking the two ledgers out of the drawer and quickly stuffing them into the box, quickly taping it shut. “Go out the window and use the fire escape. Climb down to the second-floor landing. I opened that window a crack on my way up here. Push up the window and climb back inside, but don’t use the elevator.

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