The Swallowtail Legacy 2 by Michael D. Beil

Author:Michael D. Beil [Beil, Michael D.]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Holiday House
Published: 2023-04-18T00:00:00+00:00

CHAPTER

10

it’s tuesday, day three of Swallowtales—the halfway point. There are some special guest speakers in the morning and Keyheart’s morning class has been moved to late afternoon, so I’m officially off-duty until four. The event at the yacht club doesn’t start until seven thirty, which means that it’s going to be a late night babysitting Keyheart and making sure she gets back to the hotel without falling (or being pushed) into the lake.

Also on my agenda for the day: a follow-up snooping session on Howard Allam and Wendy Eppinger. His words keep running through my head: This isn’t how it was supposed to go. I still can’t believe that she’s gone. And all because of my bruised ego. One bad review. That’s all it was, but I just couldn’t let it go.

I mean, he has to be talking about Didi, and how Keyheart’s review of his book drove him to try to kill her, right? He’s obviously feeling really guilty about it—so guilty that it’s obvious that Wendy Eppinger is concerned that he’s going to confess his crime. And who knows how involved she is. One thing for sure, she has her own reasons to hate Keyheart. The only reasonable conclusion is that one of them—or both—switched the chocolates.

Getting close to Howard Allam may require me to hang around with Gabby Bensikova, though, which adds a degree of aggravation. I don’t care how talented she is; she’s a pain in the butt.

Thomas enters the kitchen for a refill of his coffee and sees me just as I’m thinking about Gabby. “What’s that face all about? You look like you did that time you tried espresso.”

“What? Oh. Nothing. Just something I have to do later. But not for a while. I have the morning off.”

“This is excellent news,” Thomas says. “In that case, you can do me a huge favor.”

“Oh, yeah?”

“Yup. Pip’s taking Tinker over to Nadine’s today for a riding lesson with a friend of Nadine’s, but I didn’t know what to do with Nate and Jack. If you take them all over there for the day, though, I’m sure you can find some way to keep them entertained and out of trouble. And this way, I can get some work done. Two of the paintings I’m working on are ready to go back in their frames, and I would love to be able to get them back on the museum wall.”

Thomas is an art restorer, and has been working all summer long on some artwork at the Cheever Museum.

“Sure,” I say, grinning as Pip, Jack, and Nate cheer enthusiastically.

Thomas looks suspiciously at me. “That’s it? No argument?”

I shrug. “No big deal. I have some things I need to talk to Nadine about anyway.”

“Sounds serious. Everything all right? How is your, er, Ms. Keyheart? Still making friends and influencing people?”

“Ha. Yeah, you could say that.”

A few minutes later, the boys and I are on bikes right behind Pip and Tinker as we make the turn out of the yard when we spot Suzy coming down the lane.

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