Read Dead Over Heels for Free Online Page B

out and grabbed her hand.
    “Because, of course, Mrs. Youngblood, as I’m sure you guessed, you are pregnant.”
    Angel and I gasped simultaneously.
    “I’m sure you knew, right? You must have missed two periods. You’re at least ten weeks along, maybe more. Of course, with your wonderful physique, you’re not showing.”
    “I’m not regular at all,” Angel said in a stunned way. “I really didn’t notice, and it didn’t occur to me to wonder, because my husband . . . has had a vasectomy.”
    I sat down abruptly. Fortunately, there was a chair underneath.
    For once, Dr. Zelman looked nonplused. “Has he had a recheck done recently?” he asked.
    “Recheck? He got snipped! Why should he have a recheck?” For once, Angel’s voice rose.
    “It’s wise, Mrs. Youngblood, wise indeed, to have that recheck. Sometimes the severed tubes grow back. I’m sorry I gave you the news so blithely, since it seems you and your husband had not planned to have any children. But a baby’s on the way, Mrs. Youngblood. Well on the way. You’re in such excellent condition and so slim that the baby may not show at all for another month or so, especially since this must be your first pregnancy.”
    Angel was shaking her head from side to side, disbe lievingly.
    “If your husband wants to talk to me,” Dr. Zelman said gently, “I can explain to him how this happened.”
    “I’m pretty sure he’s going to think he knows already,” Angel said dismally. “But I would never in this world . . .” She shook her head, finishing the rest of her sentence in her head.
     
     
     
     
     
    I had to help Angel dress, she was so deeply shocked. tried not to burble, since she was upset, but I was so excited by proxy that it was hard.
    A baby.
    “How can I work?” Angel said, but not as if she was really concerned.
    “Pooh, as a bodyguard? I don’t need a bodyguard anymore, now that Martin’s out of—that mess,” I said soothingly. “If you still want to help me out around the place, we’ll work something out. Maybe I could keep the baby for you? Some?”
    She heard the yearning in my voice.
    “This should be happening to you,” she said with a faint smile on her thin lips.
    “Oh, Martin’s worried about his age,” I said, and thought right away of kicking myself: Shelby Youngblood was Martin’s age, forty-seven, and Angel was twenty-eight to my thirty-two and a half. “Anyway,” I said bracingly, “you tell him to call Dr. Zelman, okay? He may get kind of upset, having had a vasectomy and all.”
    “Oh, I just bet he will,” she said grimly.
    Angel walked out to the car in a state of stunned silence. I made sure she was in the car and then I ran back in to get my purse, which I’d left in the examining room. You could tell I was excited and upset, since normally I’d be as likely to leave my arm as my purse. I explained to Trinity Zelman, who waved me on back, and Linda was waiting at the door to the examining room with the purse in hand.
    “Knew you’d come back for it,” she said. “Give me a call, now!” She hurried down the hall to the little lab, and I turned to go out, passing the first examining room on one side and Dr. Zelman’s office on the other on my way to the waiting room. Dr. Zelman’s office door was typically ajar, and I heard Mr. Dryden’s pleasant accentless voice inside. He’d finally gotten his five minutes with the doctor.
    “I see that the widow has urged me to talk with you about her husband’s condition,” Dr. Zelman was saying without much enthusiasm. “So I’ll answer your questions.”
    I walked slower.
    “In your opinion, was Jack Burns an alcoholic?” Dryden asked directly.
    “Yes,” said Dr. Zelman. “Just this past two or three years, he came to me on several occasions with drink-related injuries. He’d hit his head when he fell, one time. Another time, his car had hit a tree. There were a couple more things like that.”
    “Did it seem to you, from what you knew