Read Blackvine Manor Mystery for Free Online Page A

the laundry room and, well, the rest is tabloids.”
    “Don’t worry, I don’t believe the whole ‘strung out drug addict’ story. Not to be all conspiracy theory, but it seems like someone is trying to keep you quiet.”
    Alexis nods. “There’s no ‘seems like’ about it.”
    George hops up and starts rearranging his cameras. “How do you feel about trying that whole meditation thing again and seeing what you pick up here? I saw a psychic medium, Alice Manetti, at a séance and I could try to help coach you through it.”
    Alexis runs back to her apartment to grab the book and pauses before grabbing a bottle of wine. When she gets back to George’s and plunks the bottle down on his dinette table, the tips of his ears start to turn pink.
    “Don’t think I’m forward,” she assures him, “I just thought it might help take the edge off.”
    He shuffles into his kitchen to search for clean glasses and Alexis opens the book. Her mother’s notes cover the margins on every page; she used it as a reference and a journal. The chapter on communication through meditation is different. Besides an emphatic pencil note reading, clear your head , next to the chapter title, the pages are worn but unmarked.
    She’s already three pages into the chapter when George returns with juice glasses for the wine. Just the act of reading the chapter on meditation works as a way to open up channels of communication because she starts to whisper what she is picking up.
    “They meet in the courtyard. It’s quiet and dark and no one can hear them over the fountain.”
    George pours her an unnoticed glass of wine and turns on his camera.
    “Except they laugh, like children. They call the fountain their clubhouse. Old friends.”
    “Can you describe them?”
    “She is definitely Delia Charles. The image, the woman I saw in the stairwell. He’s got salt and pepper hair, shorter than her, lean.”
    George clears his throat softly. “What are they doing?”
    “Remembering funny stories, but now he’s angry, threatening.” Alexis slashes a hand across her throat.
    “Is anyone else there?”
    She blinks, coming out of her trance with a jolt. “My mother.”

Chapter Ten
    M AXWELL PUNCHES THE HOSPITAL ELEVATOR button, deep in thought. He can picture his grandmother, Delia, perfectly. Her hair swept up into a bun, pearls clipped neatly on her earlobes, a soft smile on her face. He adored her, he remembers that much, but he doesn’t really know anything about her.
    I know her last name was Maxwell , he thinks sadly as the elevator doors slide open.
    “There you are, finally,” his mother, Maria, calls from down the white hallway. “Trouble at the property? Is that recovering drug addict causing any more problems? After her hallucinations scared everybody, I’m surprised you let her live there.”
    “Alexis Cole is not a drug addict.”
    “Calm down, son.” David Charles steps in between them. “Your mother is only repeating what she heard on the news.”
    “You mean the lie she told the reporters.”
    “Your mother does nothing but clear the way for all of us to be our best,” David tells him.
    “Is that what Delia did for Otto?” Maxwell waves a hand at his grandfather in the hospital bed.
    David scolds him. “Your grandfather is not well. He should be your concern today.”
    Maxwell enters the hospital room and circles around his grandfather. Otto Charles looks tough even asleep with his square jaw habitually clenched after years on the police force. According to the world at large, he was an honorable man and exemplary police chief. Maxwell knows he should look at him with pride but there is a cold knot of fear in his heart whenever he thinks of his grandfather. Delia was murdered, strangled to death, and her killer was never discovered. Looking at the hard, unforgiving figure of his grandfather, Maxwell can’t help but doubt.
    “He’ll be alright, won’t he?” he asks lightly.
    Maria breezes in and straightens