Death of an Ice Cream Scooper by Lee Hollis

Author:Lee Hollis [Hollis, Lee]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Kensington Books
Published: 2022-06-08T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 20

Hayley had never seen Mona Barnes looking so elegant.

Yes, elegant.

That was the first word that came to mind when Mona had opened the door of her house to greet Hayley and Bruce. She had discarded her usual wardrobe of choice, a frumpy sweatshirt and mom jeans, for a flattering green plaid flutter-sleeve top that could have come right out of an Ann Taylor catalog. And although she still wore her signature jeans, they were more fitted than baggy, with not a grease stain in sight. Mona, who normally eschewed makeup of any kind, had a hint of lipstick and a tiny amount of blush on her cheeks, although Hayley suspected she would vehemently deny it if called on it. As for Mona’s pageboy haircut, there wasn’t much to be done about that on such short notice, but Mona had gone to the trouble of pulling her bangs out of her eyes with a matching green barrette.

Even Bruce was momentarily taken aback. “Mona, you look so . . . so . . .”

“What, Bruce? Spit it out, we haven’t got all night!” Mona barked.

“Nice.”

That was the best the professional writer could come up with, but you could hardly blame him for his downright lack of articulation.

“All right, that’s enough. Get in here, I gotta get the lobsters in the pot, and we still have to go over some ground rules!” Mona announced, ushering them inside.

Hayley and Bruce froze in the foyer as they looked around the normally chaotic mess of a house. First of all, there were no screaming kids running around. Second, the house looked, well, tidy, for lack of a better word. Mona’s mother Jane had always said her house typically resembled one of those hurricane-ravaged homes in Florida whenever she stopped by for a coffee and a chat with her daughter. Mona’s excuse was that she was a busy working woman, who didn’t have a lot of free time for monotonous chores like housework. She had a family to feed. But somebody had gone to the trouble of dusting and vacuuming for tonight.

“Who cleaned?” Hayley asked.

“I paid Chet and Jodie fifty bucks each to make the place look presentable. I know, I shouldn’t have to pay my kids to do simple chores, but I was in a tight time crunch,” Mona explained, bounding toward the kitchen.

Bruce and Hayley dutifully followed.

“Where are Chet and Jodie?” Hayley asked.

“Banished to the basement. I ordered them pizza from Napoli and told them to stay down there and watch a movie and don’t come up for any reason until I say the coast is clear.”

Mona whipped open the refrigerator, grabbed two lobsters—whose claws had been tied shut with rubber bands—and deposited them into a big pot of boiling water. It was admittedly a barbaric ritual, one Mona would never give a second thought to, but Hayley always struggled with it whenever she cooked lobsters. However, she could always manage to work through her angst by picturing herself gorging on all that delicious lobster meat later.

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