Death on Demand 6 - Deadly Valentine by Carolyn Hart

Author:Carolyn Hart [Marisa]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 2011-02-02T05:00:00+00:00

"They invited all the neighbors," Lisa said quickly.

"Oh, of course. Did you happen to notice Sydney that night, who she talked to, that kind of thing?"

"She was like a cat in heat, rubbing up to every man in the place," Lisa snapped.

In Annie's experience, it was the toms who came after the tabbies, but she decided it might be damping to disagree, so she listened, with a mental apology to Agatha and Dorothy L.

Her eyes flashing, Lisa spewed the names of Sydney's dance partners, who at one point or another included an island lawyer, the druggist, a pediatrician, the visiting tennis player, and—much more to the point if Lisa realized it— compound resident Buck Burger. Lisa, of course, didn't mention her own husband or Annie's, though quite obviously she hadn't missed Sydney's sultry attentions to them Tuesday night. And she didn't mention Joel. An oversight? Did she consider it too unimportant—or too important?

"She might as well have waved a flag that said 'Take me,'" Lisa said bitterly. "She was absolutely—"

It was then that Annie saw the shoe in the window. Although, of course, it wasn't actually a shoe in the window. It was a reflection. Annie faced the windows. Lisa could see neither that particular window nor the portion of the hall it reflected. As delicately as Georges Simenon's Inspector Maigret absorbs atmosphere, Annie shifted millimeter by millimeter until her peripheral vision encompassed the archway opening into the hall.

The tip of a scuffed sneaker was just visible in the archway. Someone was listening to their conversation, to Lisa's denunciation of Sydney's actions on the last night of her life.

"—out of control!" Lisa paused, her cheeks crimson.

"I felt that, too." Annie leaned forward confidentially. "You know, she must have had some real problems." The shoe didn't move.

"That woman's only problem was a bad case of nympho-mania."

Annie was careful not to remind Lisa that she had begun their little chat by pretending absolute ignorance of

Deadly Valentine 127

Sydney's activities. It was amazing what a little discretion could net by way of revelations. Annie was sure that if she had started off by asking about George and Sydney's clinch in the alcove, she wouldn't have learned a thing. She made a mental note to remind Max how much one could learn about human nature from reading mysteries.

Lisa abruptly recalled herself. She picked up her half-full glass of iced tea and drank. She added another spoonful of sugar and sipped again before saying, her voice once more perfectly controlled,

"Of course, that's what it looked like, that night. I don't know anything firsthand."

"Perhaps it was one of those men who met her in the gazebo," Annie said brightly. "Now, this is so critical. Did you and George hear anything—any kind of disturbance that night? Do you think anyone could have trespassed oh your property?"

Lisa paused, the glass midway to her lips. Then, slowly and deliberately, she drank the rest of her iced tea.

Annie tried hard not to come to attention, like a bird dog on point. Lisa was stalling.

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