Scent of Murder by Carolina Dow

Author:Carolina Dow [Carolina Dow]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Level Best Books
Published: 2024-08-16T00:00:00+00:00

Chapter Nineteen

“Al mal tiempo, buena cara.”

“Be positive even in a bad situation.” — Polish Proverb also commonly used in Spain

“Híjole!” I exclaimed as we pulled onto the main road and turned toward town. “You’re a lifesaver, Elsbeth.”

“What happened? Who was that Ned, I mean, ruffian?” Elsbeth asked as she maneuvered adroitly through traffic.

I took a tissue from my purse and pressed it to my forehead, realizing I was so nervous I’d worked up a sweat. “I never saw it coming, or believe me, I wouldn’t have gotten myself into the situation to begin with.”

“We’ve got a couple of bottles of water on the floor of the back seat. Want one?”

“Yes, please.”

Elsbeth glanced in her rearview mirror and spoke to her daughter. “Ginger, can you hand Auntie Issy a bottle of water?”

Gratefully, I accepted the bottle, opened it, and took a long pull. “Ay, that’s better. As you can tell, I was at Regal Foods when my car broke down. Michael, or Miguel, is one of the graduate students we were talking about the other day.”

“One of the actors in the play?”

“Right. He appeared out of nowhere and offered me a ride home, but said he needed to stop by his place first.”

I lowered my voice so the children wouldn’t overhear. “Elsbeth, I swear he’s never been anything but Preppy polite to me. When we got to his apartment, he disappeared for a couple of minutes and returned in a bathrobe with two funny cigarettes. It was like Jekyll and Hyde.”

“How off-putting! He never came on to you before?”

I leaned closer to Elsbeth and whispered, “He’s always been affable to the point of obsequiousness, but I assumed he was brown-nosing to get a better grade. I never dreamt he’d try to get me into you-know-where. He got unpleasant when I refused his advances and bragged about how he’d been with Dolores and what a bad you-know-what she was.”

“Hmm. I wonder who else knows about that.”

I leaned back in my seat. “From the way he talked, he’s probably blabbed to everybody.” The light dawned. “Now that I think of it, this must’ve been the reason for the quarrel between him and Javier that occurred the day I arrived here. Javier seems tight with Dolores. I remember that before he punched Michael in front of the department, he made some reference to how Michael had ruined somebody’s reputation.”

“Sounds like your student is a nasty piece of work,” Elsbeth commented while checking on her children in her rearview mirror. Luckily, they were engrossed in their tablets.

I said, “When Eddy and I were up in Nederland we saw Michael speed by in his car. He didn’t look his usual Brahman self that day, either. He was probably high, like today. Oh!” I wailed. “Why didn’t I see this before?”

“Because you weren’t looking for it. Smells like you have a skunk of a student with a substance abuse problem.”

Elsbeth turned off the main road and wound through the side streets of my neighborhood. She changed the subject.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.