Peach Pies and Alibis by Ellery Adams

Author:Ellery Adams [Adams, Ellery]
Language: eng
Format: epub, mobi
Tags: Mystery
ISBN: 9780425251997
Publisher: Berkley
Published: 2013-01-01T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter 11

Normally, Ella Mae would have set her alarm for midnight in order to watch her mother’s Luna rose ceremony from her bedroom window, but she was too tired to do anything other than slide under the covers, kiss Chewy on the nose, and close her eyes.

The next morning, she woke wondering if the couple who’d paid for the privilege of standing beneath a harvest moon in her mother’s garden had received the answer they’d been looking for. Had the fireflies gathered en masse around the single rosebud, setting it afire with an ethereal glow? Had they seen the breathtakingly beautiful flower and known that they were meant to live a charmed life together?

“I hope so,” she told Chewy as he was gulping down his breakfast. “Someone should be happy around here.”

After dressing in jeans and a T-shirt, Ella Mae slipped on a pair of tennis shoes and carried her second cup of coffee and a copy of the Daily into the garden. Chewy darted in the opposite direction, setting his sights on the woods bordering Partridge Hill. He streaked over the grass, his dark eyes glimmering with anticipation as he launched himself from the lawn onto the carpet of pine needles. Startled mourning doves and chipmunks scattered at his approach. Within seconds, Ella Mae could no longer see him, but she knew where he was by the sound of his zealous barking.

Sipping her coffee, Ella Mae strolled past a tall hedge and a row of camellias, following the path of pale blue stones deeper into the garden. When she reached a marble bench near one of the perennial beds, she was surprised to find Noel, the husband of her mother’s pretty young housekeeper, kneeling on the ground. He was busy removing the spent buds from a massive, ochre-hued chrysanthemum, but looked up when he heard the sound of her footfalls on the gravel.

“Good morning,” she said, smiling at him. “This is a pleasant surprise.”

Ella Mae had met Noel and Kelly at the beginning of the summer when they’d graciously provided her with an alibi following her arrest on suspicion of murder. Since then, Kelly had taken Reba’s place as Partridge Hill’s housekeeper, and Noel often stopped by after work to share a meal with his wife and the LeFayes. He’d gotten a job in construction shortly after their June wedding, and Ella Mae had run into him inside her mother’s house dozens of times, but only in the evening. After a long day at work, he’d stop off at the little bungalow he shared with his new bride, take a quick shower, and then drive to Partridge Hill smelling of soap and fulfillment. So Ella Mae found it strange that Noel was here at such an hour and stranger still that he was deadheading one of her mother’s plants.

“I got laid off,” Noel murmured after a long moment, his gaze fixed on the ground. “Things have slowed down and my boss had to let me go. Last hired, first fired.

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