Howloween Murder by Laurien Berenson

Author:Laurien Berenson [Berenson, Laurien]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2020-06-12T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

“Tell me everything,” Aunt Peg said.

We were settled at her kitchen table. Her Standard Poodles and Faith were milling around the room. A mocha cake was on the tabletop in front of us.

“Cake first,” Kev piped up.

Aunt Peg paused in the act of cutting the cake to dab a smear of icing on his nose. Kev giggled happily. The two of them made a fine pair.

“I was talking to your mother,” Aunt Peg told him. “She and I have important things to discuss. Shall I set you up in the other room with a tray and a cartoon?”

“Yes, please.” Kevin slid down off his chair. “Can the dogs come too?”

“Only if you promise not to feed them cake.” Aunt Peg winked at him as they left the room. “Otherwise there won’t be enough for the rest of us.”

“You’re a bad influence,” I told her when she returned. “Cake? Midafternoon television? Reckless bike riding?”

“Oh pish,” she replied. “I did all that when I was his age, and I survived.”

Of course she had. Aunt Peg would probably survive a zombie apocalypse. And emerge unscathed at the end as the fearless leader.

While she was gone, I’d cut two more slices of cake and placed them on the plates in front of us. “Talk,” Aunt Peg commanded as she picked up her fork and dug in.

Quickly I summed up everything that had happened since we’d last spoken. Had it truly been less than a single day? It seemed much longer than that.

“Harriet’s in quite a quandary,” Aunt Peg said at the end. “Do you think Russell would really fire her?”

“I don’t know. He depends on her. We all do. But Mr. Hanover would do anything to protect Howard Academy. If it came down to having to choose between the school’s well-being or Harriet’s, well . . .” I stopped and sighed. “He might feel forced into doing it, whether he wanted to or not.”

We pondered that and ate more cake.

“Tell me more about John Vidal,” Aunt Peg said after a minute. “I like the sound of him.”

“He applied for a scholarship to Howard Academy and didn’t get one.” I was talking and eating at the same time. Thank goodness Kev wasn’t there to see it. One bad influence a day was plenty.

“Pity, that. He sounds like a bright young man.”

“He is. Apparently he knows just about everything there is to know about computers.”

“I think you should introduce me,” Aunt Peg decided. “I’d imagine he’s a useful person to know.”

“Maybe you and he can bond over a plate of Harriet’s marshmallow puffs,” I suggested.

“I’m game if he is.” She eyed the cake as if debating helping herself to another piece, then pushed her plate away. “So now what?”

“Back to school tomorrow morning,” I told her. “I’ll check in with Harriet. I want to see if she has a lawyer yet. I also need to find out what she wants me to do with the puffs I’m gathering up. I expect to retrieve the remaining batches tomorrow afternoon.

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