Twice Told Tail by Ali Brandon

Author:Ali Brandon
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2016-09-21T13:57:40+00:00

TWELVE

As Darla watched in amazement, a tall, wiry old man with rosy cheeks came marching a few steps down the stairway. He was holding a baseball bat and wearing only baggy white boxer shorts topped by a white tank-style undershirt.

Hodge?

No surprise that he was back on the streets—after all, he’d simply been questioned in the murder—but what was he doing at Mary Ann’s at this time of night? She eyed the baseball bat he held with sudden suspicion. What if they’d all been wrong, and he had been the one to kill Mr. Plinski? And what if he’d switched to a new and far more brutal weapon than a pillow, and Mary Ann was lying somewhere upstairs bludgeoned to death?

But that horrifying possibility had barely flashed through her mind when Darla saw that he was followed by a very living and breathing Mary Ann.

The old woman was dressed in a lacy white nightgown with a pink plaid flannel robe belted tightly around her. Her gray hair, which was usually pulled up in a neat, tight bun, drifted loose past her shoulders, giving her an oddly girlish look that belied her many wrinkles. She pushed past Hodge and marched halfway down the stairs, her expression stunned.

“Jake . . . Darla? What in the world are you girls doing in here?”

Darla stared right back at her as realization dawned. Obviously, what was happening between Mary Ann and Hodge was a far cry from murder. She shot a helpless look at Jake, who appeared, for the first time since Darla had known her, to be at a loss for words.

“Uh, we—that is, Darla and I—were worried about you,” the PI finally managed. “We, uh, came by to ask if you wanted us to drive you out to Queens on Monday so you could work on that estate sale. You didn’t answer your phone or the door, and we thought . . .”

She trailed off, and Darla dutifully took over.

“We’re sorry, Mary Ann. We thought maybe something happened to you. We saw your light on upstairs, so we tried calling and ringing the bell. We couldn’t just walk off without knowing you were okay, and Jake did have a key, so we . . .”

Darla stuttered to a halt as well, feeling almost like she was sixteen again and facing a parental scolding for missing curfew. And Mary Ann did not disappoint her.

“I see,” the old woman clipped out, her reproachful gaze moving from her to Jake and back again. “And I suppose it never occurred to you girls that I might be deliberately ignoring your interruptions? That I might be otherwise occupied?”

“Now, now, Annie,” Hodge broke in, laying a large hand on her thin shoulder. “Don’t be so hard on them. They only had your best interests at heart . . . right, girls?”

Darla glanced Jake’s way again and saw to her relief that the PI had regained her equilibrium.

“I think we’re forgetting the important thing,” Jake coolly replied. “Mary Ann’s brother—our friend—was murdered just yesterday in almost this very spot.

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