Plain Murder by Emma Miller

Author:Emma Miller [Miller, Emma]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780758291721
Google: hVkVAgAAQBAJ
Amazon: 0758291728
Barnesnoble: 0758291728
Goodreads: 17802752
Publisher: Kensington
Published: 2013-01-01T05:00:00+00:00

Half an hour later, Rachel found a parking place on a back street near the Methodist church and, umbrella now in hand, crossed the boxwood garden to the hall. As she approached the side entrance, a man called out to her.

“Rachel Mast? Wait up. I want to talk to you.”

Rachel turned to see a short, stocky man wearing black shoes, tan corduroy slacks, and a navy-blue sports coat bearing down on her, a disagreeable expression on his face. She didn’t know Steve Barber well, but she remembered what Chelsea and Blanche had said about him at the trailer park. Obviously, he was no friend of Willy O’Day’s, so what was he doing at his after-funeral reception?

“I understand that you were at my mother-in-law’s place asking questions about our family.” Steve pushed his wire-rim glasses up on the ridge of his nose. Rachel guessed that he was somewhere in his late forties, but his hair and mustache were a suspiciously uniform black. Steve had a slight lisp; his tone was sharp and unpleasant. “I want to know why.”

Rachel waited, expecting him to say more. And he did.

“What call do you have to be sticking your nose in our business?” He advanced on her and shook his finger in her face. “Don’t you know that Blanche is a sick old woman? How dare you badger her—”

“Wait.” Rachel forced a smile and, at the same time, raised her hand, palm out, to keep him from intruding further into her personal space. “I wasn’t badgering anyone, and Mrs. Willis invited me into her home.” She drew herself up to her full height and fixed Steve with a firm gaze. “I’m surprised to see you here. It was my understanding that you didn’t like Willy O’Day very much.”

“Like him?” Steve muttered something under his breath that sounded like something Rachel would rather not hear on the back steps of a church. “Willy was a con artist and a thief. He took advantage of my late wife, and half the women in this town. I didn’t dislike him. I hated him.”

“Hard words on the day of a man’s funeral.”

“Not hard enough. If you ask me, he got what was coming to him.” Steve’s lips drew back into a sneer and his lisp thickened. “Whoever killed him did this town a favor. And if I’d known how he was going to twist my Millie around his little finger, I’d have killed him myself.”

“Did you?” Rachel flung back, taking a step toward him. “Did you kill him, Mr. Barber?”

Steve’s eyes widened in surprise. Then he grimaced, hawked, and spat on the ground near her feet. “Sorry. You can’t pin this on me. Paper said he went into the ground the day he disappeared. I was in Williamsport that weekend. A family wedding.”

Shouldn’t be too hard to prove or disprove. “Fortunate for you,” she said sweetly. “Weddings are always enjoyable.”

“My cousin Trudy married a welder.” He raised his chin. “I didn’t get back until Tuesday, October fifth. Took off from work.

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