Fatalities And Folios by ACF Bookens

Author:ACF Bookens [Bookens, ACF]
Language: eng
Format: epub

7

My feeling of brilliance lasted until I tripped on my dress at the door of the restaurant and literally fell into Adaire’s arms.

Fortunately, the evening only improved from there. Adaire gently set me back on my feet, but then he didn’t remove his hand from the small of my back as he pointed me toward our table in the back of the restaurant. Aaran, I noticed, simply gestured for Beattie to go ahead of him, so I thought maybe we weren’t going to have a ‘brothers and best friends’ love situation here after all. Still, everyone was smiling, including me, even though I could still feel the blush of embarrassment in my cheeks.

At Beattie’s request, Aaran ordered a bottle of white wine for us, and then he told us about the fish that was probably freshest from the boat today. The three of them took his advice and ordered the special while I decided on mushroom ravioli in a cream and truffle oil sauce that sounded like absolute heaven on a plate, especially to my seafood-hating palate.

While we waited, we munched on the absolutely scrumptious bread and fresh butter our server brought, and Aaran regaled us with fishing tales that had Beattie and me laughing and gasping in suspense. I’d never thought Melville was much of a fisherman for real because while his book was fantastic in a number of ways it was not a page-turner, and every fisherman I had met could tell a story better than Edgar Allan Poe himself.

When our meals arrived and the natural lull of first bites settled around us, I decided to take the opportunity to posit my question for the group. “So, anyone want to go snoop around Davis MacDonald’s house with me tomorrow?”

When three forks stopped mid-way to three mouths, I realized I might have needed a little more lead-up before suggesting what sounded like breaking and entering to my best friend, her date, and my date. I quickly sputtered out, “With the Inspector’s permission, I mean.” I stuffed a whole ravioli in my mouth and then had to do that thing where I keep my teeth apart and try to mush the food to death so that I’m not chewing with my mouth full because I took too big of a bite.

Beattie smiled and, as she always does, saved me. “Poe and I were talking earlier today about alternative motives for MacDonald’s death. The inspector seems pretty committed to the idea that this is book-related, and that’s certainly a possibility—”

Aaran interrupted, “But you think it could be something else, like a heartbroken lover.” His eyes grew wide with delight, and when I looked over at Beattie, I thought I saw her pupils forming tiny hearts. She loved a good exaggeration almost more than I did.

“Exactly,” I said. “But we don’t know enough to even hazard a guess. So I thought maybe I could ask the inspector if we could look around MacDonald’s house for more information about the book.” I laid a lot of emphasis on the word book for effect.

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