Iced Chiffon by Duffy Brown

Author:Duffy Brown [Brown, Duffy]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
ISBN: 9781101611524
Publisher: Berkley Prime Crime
Published: 2012-10-01T14:00:00+00:00

Chapter Eleven

“YOU’RE not going to scare me off,” I yelled after Boone, the door closing behind him. I picked up an already cracked plate and threw it against the door, smashing it into even smaller pieces. What was this about blood? I looked at my scraped hands. I did not need more blood.

I took the horn-rimmed glasses from my pocket, gaining some confidence that I knew things Boone didn’t. Baxter Anderson had been here in the town house tonight. These glasses were distinctive, memorable, and fearful ugly. What was the man thinking? Considering Baxter’s usual attire, I would have thought he’d have better taste even when traveling incognito.

I didn’t have enough energy to go on cleaning and looking for evidence, whatever it was. Truth be told, it was a little creepy being in the town house all alone after Boone’s speech. Baxter knew I was here. He knew I might have seen him, and I probably had his glasses, the ones he dropped. If he did see me and KiKi that day at the Marshall House coming out the back entrance, he knew I could connect him to his clandestine female activities there. I could tell Tillie, and that could lead to divorce court and end the easy life as he knew it.

I dropped the glasses in Old Yeller, flipped off the lights, and stepped out onto the stoop, hoping to feel safer in the company of traffic and late-night walkers. Except the wind blowing through the trees and lightning flashing over the ocean had chased everyone inside. The streets were deserted, with only an occasional car, the carriages and tour buses calling it quits. Leaves somersaulted across the sidewalk, and flowers tossed their heads in all directions. I could wait for a bus, but they only ran every hour or so this time of night, and a storm was brewing. It was about a fifteen-minute walk to Cherry House, fifteen lonely minutes, and I did it in ten, walking mostly in the street, avoiding shadows, listening to the wind blow though the trees.

Home looked especially good as I trudged up the walk. I took a hot dog I’d gotten at Parkers and put a chunk of it on the steps. I clapped my hands. “Look what I have, Bruce Willis,” I singsonged. “Come and get it, the big surprise.”

Bruce stuck his nose out from under the porch, spied the hot dog, then came all the way out and scarfed it down. I put another piece on the next step and Bruce ate that, then the next step, and all the way across the porch to the front door. “You wait right here.” I handed off the last bit of hot dog. “I’ll be back.”

I got a blanket in hopes of enticing BW to stay on the porch as my four-legged alarm system, but when I got back outside, there was no doggie. I looked in his usual residence, finding two eyes and a thumping tail. “What happened to being man’s—and woman’s—best friend? What happened to protecting your turf?” I patted the steps.

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