A Dead Guy at the Summerhouse by Marian Allen

Author:Marian Allen
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Per Bastet Publications LLC
Published: 2014-10-13T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 17

"Did you tell the Fortune 500 poster boy you'd work for him?" Aunt Missy asked, when we were closed in her room.

I had to grin, in spite of everything. "Yes, ma'am. I guess I start tomorrow." Now I came to think of it, my clerical duties had been given short shrift. File this under D for Demon, and throw a little holy water on my son.

"Dinner tonight was appalling," Aunt Missy said. "Not the food, of course. One thing I will say for Matt Walton, he knew a good cook when he saw one. I was afraid he would let Sandy and Ava go, after the accidents, since Mary was so set on it, but he stood firm for once. The way to Matthew Walton's backbone, apparently, is through his stomach."

Wong snorted meaningfully at me and trotted to the clothes press, snuffling at the drawer where his and Chan's leashes were kept.

"Oh, he's a clever boy!" Aunt Missy cooed.

You couldn't say the same for me: It had taken me until now to see with my mind what I'd seen with my eyes that morning.

"You had Wong on a leash. Why not Chan?"

"I beg your pardon, dear?" Aunt Missy looked up at me with figurative cookie crumbs all over her.

"This morning. Why was Chan loose? Wong wasn't."

Her little fists opened and closed, and I saw that one had a purple band across it and down her first finger. She turned her head away and thump-thump-thump ed her fists on the arms of her chair.

Softly, I said, "He got away from you, didn't he?"

She nodded. After an attempt at a light laugh, she said, "The wages of a life of frivolity. I'm a feeble old woman at seventy-one."

Seventy-one sounded like a respectable age for being feeble to me, at seventeen. What did she expect at seventy-one?

"Why didn't you come tell me he got away? Ava knew where I was, or Dr. Andrew."

"I was ashamed." She held her hands in her lap and looked at them: soft and rounded, pink and clean. "Useless," she said. I sat in the chair next to her and took her bruised hand. It was clammy and it shook.

She blinked rapidly, then said, "I had them ready for their morning walk; I thought you and I could go together, after your breakfast and before mine. I opened the door to look for you, and they lunged. I held Wong, but Chan pulled away and ran down the kitchen stairs. I brought Wong back in and closed the door. I thought Chan would run into the kitchen and Sandy would bring him back, or send you back with him. When that didn't happen, I began to worry. I didn't know what to do; I was afraid to go out again, afraid Wong would run away, as well. I had just decided to tie his leash to a piece of furniture when . when I heard. " She bit her lip.

"Sandy was backstairs," I said. "So was Ava. So was Corrie, for a while, I know.

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