(eng) Madelyn Alt - Bewitching Mystery 07 by Home for a Spell

Author:Home for a Spell [Spell, Home for a]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Published: 0101-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Bewitching Mystery 8 - Home for a Spell

Chapter 10

“What’s that, ducks?” The words were muffled, called through teeth loosely clenched around a string of café lights.

“Mom saw the announcement of the murder on the morning news. Guess who was featured in the background as Chief Boggs was being interviewed.”

“Oh. Oh dear. You, I take it?”

“And Marcus. We were just leaving the apartment complex at the time.”

“Trouble?”

I shrugged. “The usual. She’s going to demand to know what’s going on.”

“If you don’t call, she’ll be calling here again shortly.”

“Don’t I know it.” Better to get it over with quickly. Like pulling off a bandage that is more sticky tape than anything else. One tooth-gritting rip and Bob’s your uncle until the next time.

Customer traffic had been nonexistent this morning, which was fairly typical for a Tuesday, so after a resigned sigh to relieve my tension, I dialed the number for home, the same number it had been throughout my life. I was hoping I’d get lucky, that she would have stepped out to one of her many ladies’ auxiliary meetings and I could tell her I did call her back, buying myself a little bit of time. But that would be a postponement at best, and it wasn’t happening this morning anyway—Mom picked up on the second ring.

“Margaret Mary-Catherine O’Neill, it is about time you called me back.”

“Hi, Mom, I love you, too. Are you having a nice day?”

“There is no need to sass me, Margaret. What on earth were you doing at that place this morning? And how do you get yourself into these situations?”

And there it was, as expected. The defining characteristic of my relationship with my mother. Some days, some months, things were better, but whenever anything went wrong, it always came back to this. “Well,” I said, doing my best to keep any hint of annoyance out of my voice because that only added to the tension that always simmered between us at some level, hidden or not, “in answer to your first question, I went to the apartment complex to sign a lease for an apartment, and in answer to your second question, how does anyone get themselves into any situation? They wander in. Innocently. You know. Things just happen.”

“To you, Margaret. Things seem to always happen to you.”

I sighed.

“I worry.”

“Mom, it’s an apartment building. How could I possibly have known the manager was going to run into trouble of this kind?”

“What were you doing looking for an apartment anyway? You already have an apartment—which you don’t even live in, I might point out—and a place to stay with this Marcus fellow of yours, even though you don’t need it because home would be a much better place for you while you’re recuperating.”

“It’s fine, Mom.”

“That doesn’t answer my question.”

“I was looking for an apartment for a couple of reasons. One, because Steff is getting married and won’t be living in Stony Mill for much longer”—Sob!—“and two, because I felt like a change might be in order, since she won’t be living at my apartment building anymore.

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