Trouble Most Faire by Jaden Terrell

Author:Jaden Terrell [Terrell, Jaden]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: KaliOka Press
Published: 2019-10-07T04:00:00+00:00

Chapter Ten

It was easier than Mal expected to talk Hammond into releasing Joanne. It was true that there was little evidence against her, but Mal suspected the decision to let her go had more to do with Guy’s influence than with Mal’s eloquence.

“Thanks, guys,” Joanne said. She picked Tuck up and plopped him onto the seat beside her. With a cheerful grunt, he scooted his haunches closer to her thigh and heaved a contented sigh as Mal turned onto the main road and picked up speed. Scarlett, beside the rear passenger-side window, spared a quick glance at the pig, then resumed her vigil, eyes fixed on the landscape flashing past as if keeping a lookout for lost sheep.

Pointedly ignoring her porcine admirer, Joanne finally answered the question Robbi had asked a few moments before. “Three days. That’s how long the family has to claim the body before you can step in and make a claim of your own.”

“It’s already been three days.” Robbi gave Trouble’s ears an affectionate scratch. “And there’s no family. Her parents died when she was a baby.”

Mal knew he was imagining it, but he could almost feel her warmth from across the seat. “Raised by her great-aunt, right?”

“Great-Aunt Esther.” Robbi looked into the distance with a wistful smile. “She died three years ago. My father used to call her Auntie Mame.”

Mal had heard tales of Aunt Esther’s adventures. The time she’d taken the girls to India with only a few hundred dollars and a single carry-on each; the time she’d helped them build a go-cart that had won the downhill race at the fair and then crashed into a booth full of plush animals; the time she’d bought a Jeep Wrangler and taken the girls off-roading. That one had ended with the three of them thigh-high in mud, laughing uncontrollably as the abandoned Jeep puttered into a nearby pond. “Auntie Mame?” he said. “More like the Incredible Mr. Toad.”

Robbi laughed. She had a nice laugh. Musical and genuine. Then, dreamily, she said, “The Wind in the Willows. I love that book. My father used to read it to me.”

“Elinore read it to me. Way past our bedtime, under the blanket with a flashlight.”

“You two must have been close.”

“Peas and carrots,” he said. “Mom was sick a lot. El and I took care of each other.”

Why had he gone there? It must have been the reference to a childhood favorite. It had lowered his defenses.

“So was my mom. Sick a lot.” Robbi looked across the seat at him as if she meant to pursue the subject. Instead, after a searching moment, she looked away and said, “I always thought flashlight reading was the best. You feel like you’re getting away with something, but the something is reading, so how bad could it be?” She turned toward Joanne in the back seat. “How about you? Did you have a favorite book when you were a kid?”

Without turning away from the window, Joanne said, “Johnny Tremaine.”

Mal grinned. “I guess that explains a lot.

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