Decorated to Death by Peg Marberg

Author:Peg Marberg
Language: eng
Format: mobi, pdf
Tags: Fiction, General, Mystery & Detective
ISBN: 9781597227766
Publisher: Wheeler Pub Inc
Published: 2008-02-05T05:05:40+00:00

Chapter

twenty

“Yes, Mrs. Daggert, it’s Jean Hastings. You know darn well who I am, and no, I am not wearing a disguise. My hair has always been this color, well, almost always, and these are precription sunglasses. Now let me in. I telephoned Mr. Bordeaux and he said it was okay for me to drop in on him. If you don’t open the door right now, I’ll tell your boss that you’re up to your old trick of telling fortunes again. I’d like to see you talk your way out of that.”

My threat worked. The massive front door slowly creaked open and I was ushered into the foyer by the eccentric housekeeper. Dressed from head to toe in black and with strands of colored beads in her stringy coal-black hair, on her neck, and around her waist, Lucrezia Daggert looked like a gypsy in search of a crystal ball.

“Wait here,” she croaked, tottering off in the direction of Horatio’s office. “And don’t move ’til I tell you, otherwise you’ll disturb the spell I put on you. I may be old but I still got the power.”

Less than a minute later, I heard Horatio’s deep laughter followed by Mrs. Daggert’s announcement that Mr. Bordeaux would see me now.

“Come in and close the door,” instructed Horatio. “That way we won’t disturb Mrs. Daggert. She’s recently taken up yoga and is into meditation.”

“I think she’s into more than that. If I were to guess, I’d say the cooking sherry. Why you put up with her, I’ll never understand. I practically had to promise her my first born to get in to see you.”

“Now, now, Jeannie, there’s no need to exaggerate. I think your problems with Mrs. Daggert stem from your misinterpretation of her sense of humor,” scolded Horatio with a twinkle in his eye.

“Okay, you win. The woman is a laugh a minute. Now that we’ve got that out of the way, I came to ask for your help in a very important matter.”

“Why do I have this feeling that it has something to do with Dona Deville’s murder,” said Horatio as he maneuvered his wheelchair closer to his desk. “Fortunately, I’ve got a bit of free time on my hands so I’m at your service. Why don’t we start with you giving me a brief summary of the case as you see it so far. That way I’ll have a better understanding of how I can be of help.”

That’s what I like about Horatio Bordeaux. He always cuts to the chase. With his unruly mop of salt-and-pepper curls, deep-set eyes, bushy beard, and wild taste in clothes, he has the look, and the credentials, of someone who has seen and done it all, from marching in 1963 with Martin Luther King Jr., to witnessing, firsthand, the 1989 destruction of the Berlin Wall. How he had time to party at Woodstock, ride horses in Ireland, and graduate with honors from Princeton is Horatio’s secret.

An hour later, I was on my way to Kettle Cottage

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