Read Aurora 08 - Poppy Done To Death for Free Online Page A

happened.”
    “It’s Poppy.” I met his eyes squarely.
    His face began to crumple. I swear that he looked as though this were news to him.
    “Poppy was attacked in your house after you left this morning.”
    “So she’s in the hospital?” There was a desperate hopefulness on his face.
    “No,” I said. No point stringing this out. I took a deep breath. “She didn’t survive.”
    He scanned my face for any sign that what I was saying wasn’t true, that my words might have some other meaning.
    He knew before he asked, but I guess he had to. “You mean she’s dead,” he said.
    “Yes,” I said. “When Melinda and I went to check on her, she was gone. I called the police.
    I’m very sorry.”
    Then I had to hold this man I didn’t even like anymore. I had to put my arms around him and keep him from sinking to the ground while he wept. I could smell the scents of his deodorant and his aftershave, the laundry detergent that Poppy had used on his clothes—and the smell of Romney. It was intimate and disgusting.
    There really was nothing more to say.
    When he calmed a little bit, I told him he had to go to the police.
    “Why?” he said blankly.
    “They’re looking for you.”
    “Well, now you’ve found me.”
    “They’re looking for you .”
    That got his attention.
    “You mean that they think I might have killed her?”
    “They need to rule it out,” I said, which was as diplomatically as I could phrase it.
    “I’ll have to tell them where I was.”
    “Yes, absolutely.”
    “You think I need a lawyer before I go in?” he asked, which was the most sensible thought he’d voiced.
    “I think it wouldn’t hurt,” I said slowly.
    “I’ll call Bubba,” he said, and whipped his cell phone out of his pocket.
    “Oh no,” I said without thinking.
    He stared at me.
    I shook my head vehemently.
    “You just call someone else, not Cartland Sewell,” I said. I was hoping the earth would open up and swallow not me but John David.
    If he could look any worse, he did. “All right,” he said after a deadly silence. “I’ll call Bryan Pascoe.”
    Bryan Pascoe was the toughest, meanest criminal lawyer in the county. I don’t know how much that was saying, but Bryan was local, and he was tough, and he knew his law. He was around Avery’s age, I thought, which meant he was a year or so older than I. I knew him only by sight. Many of the Uppity Women hoped that Bryan would become a judge in the next couple of years.
    Luckily, Pascoe was not in court, and his secretary put John David through. John David tried to explain the situation, but he broke down in tears. To my acute discomfort, he pressed the telephone into my hands.
    “Mr. Pascoe,” I said, because I had no choice. “This is John David’s sister-in-law, Aurora Teagarden.”
    “Of course, I remember you. I hope your mother is well?” The lawyer had one of those wonderful voices—deep, smooth, authoritative.
    “She’s fine,” I assured him. “But we have trouble.”
    “People who call me always do. What can I do for you on this beautiful fall day?”
    “Um. Well, this is the situation.” I explained it to him as rapidly and concisely as I could while John David lay over the hood of my car, weeping. I was so glad Romney didn’t come out of her duplex that I could hardly contain myself. Staying inside was incredibly smart of the girl, because I would have pounded her into a pulp. I didn’t have any sympathy or tact to spare.
    “Good summary,” Bryan said, and I felt like he’d poured syrup on my pancakes and cut them up for me. “Lucky for both of us, I just had a client cancellation. I can meet John David at SPACOLEC in forty-five minutes.”
    I started to ask Bryan Pascoe what the hell I was supposed to do with my brother-in-law in the meantime, but that was hardly the lawyer’s problem. “See you there in forty-five minutes, right outside the front doors,” I said, and hung up.
    “Okay, John David.” I tried to sound bracing