Secret Sins by Kate Charles

Author:Kate Charles [Charles, Kate]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Fiction, Mystery
ISBN: 978-1-61595-021-8
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press, Inc.
Published: 2011-01-17T16:00:00+00:00

JUST HAD 2 TEL U!!!!! U KNOW THE XMAS DISCO?!?!!??? EWAN HAS ASKED ME 2 GO WITH HIM!!!!!!! OMG LOL. THIS IS SO 2TALY COOL!!!!!!! LOL

Alex had become fairly adept at translating, though she had vowed to herself that she wouldn’t sink to that level in her own communication. She quickly grasped the fact that Kirsty was going to the school’s Christmas disco with the objectionable Ewan. And that she was happy about it.

A year ago, things had been so different, Alex recalled. She and Kirsty had laughed together about the girls who tried so hard to get boys to notice them, and who set such stock in the Christmas disco. They wouldn’t be caught dead there, they’d agreed. Least of all with Ewan Fraser, she added to herself, picturing him in her mind. Either she had been very wrong about him, or he had changed beyond recognition.

Or maybe Kirsty had gone blind, and hadn’t bothered to tell her.

***

When Callie got home from her afternoon calls in the parish, rubbing her hands together to warm them, the flat was empty: no Peter, no Bella. He’d got off his backside at last and taken the dog for a walk, then, she concluded gratefully. She could use the time to work on her next sermon. First she made herself a warming cup of tea—the traditional way, with a guilty sideways glance at the shiny new machine—and carried it through to her study, turning the thermostat up a notch as she passed it.

But no sooner had she sat down at her computer and pulled up the file than the phone rang.

“Callie?” said her mother’s voice, on a querulous note.

Oh, Lord. Mum. “Hello, Mum,” she replied with as much cheerfulness as she could muster as she quickly calculated how long it had been since she’d talked to her mother. She and Peter had been to see her last Friday; she certainly hadn’t rung her since then.

“I just wondered if everything was all right,” Laura Anson said. “Since I hadn’t heard anything from you.”

Guilt, guilt, guilt. How did her mother do it?

“Oh, I’m fine.” Callie’s voice was unnaturally hearty; it was a tone she often adopted with her mother, as a defence mechanism against sounding too apologetic.

“I haven’t heard anything from Peter, either,” her mother went on. “And he’s not answering his phone.”

“Have you tried his mobile?” suggested Callie.

“You know I hate those things. And they’re so expensive to ring. Have you talked to him?”

Now there was a loaded question, if ever there was one. “As a matter of fact, he’s staying with me at the moment,” Callie said neutrally.

“With you?”

“He’s had a problem at the flat, and needed a place to stay for a few days.”

“Oh,” said her mother, investing that single syllable with a wealth of meaning.

Knowing her mother as she did, Callie picked one unspoken question at random and went with it. “I’m sure he didn’t want to put you out. He comes and goes at odd hours, you know. The life of a musician…”

Her mother gave a loud, disapproving sniff.

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