Read Killer Crab Cakes for Free Online Page A

move out, but it probably won’t be much longer . . . I hope.”
    “Well, maybe whoever bought the place will be better neighbors.”
    “Yeah, maybe.”
    The conversation had roused Phyllis’s curiosity. She asked, “What about the house on the other side? I don’t recall seeing anybody over there since we’ve been here.”
    “That’s because it’s vacant. The couple who owned it died in a car wreck about six months ago.”
    “How awful.”
    “Yeah, and they were pretty good friends with Dorothy and Ben, too. A real shame.”
    “You don’t think about bad things happening in a place as pretty as this,” Phyllis mused. “But I’m sure they do, just like they happen everywhere else.”
    “Yeah, you can’t get away from trouble. It follows people wherever they go.” Consuela’s mouth twisted in a little quirk as she spoke, and the words had a slightly bitter tone to them. She sounded like she had been followed by trouble of her own, Phyllis thought, and plenty of it. She didn’t recall Dorothy ever saying anything about that, though, and she certainly wasn’t going to pry. Whatever went on in Consuela’s personal life was private and none of Phyllis’s business.
    “Well, there ought to be places that are immune to trouble and pain,” she said.
    “There’s one,” Consuela said. She made the sign of the cross. “And poor Mr. McKenna’s gone there now.”

Chapter 4

    N ot surprisingly, a reporter from the local newspaper showed up before noon. Chief Clifton hadn’t said anything about not talking to the press, so Phyllis ushered the woman into the parlor intending to answer all her questions. Sam had just gotten back from fishing, so he spoke to the reporter, too, telling her with a rather sheepish look on his face about slapping Ed McKenna on the shoulder just before the man fell forward into the water.
    “Do you feel like you had anything to do with Mr. McKenna’s death because of that?” the woman asked.
    Phyllis responded before Sam could say anything. “He most certainly did not! Sam was just being friendly. He didn’t push Mr. McKenna or anything like that. Anyway, I’m convinced that Mr. McKenna was already dead when Sam and I walked out on the pier.”
    “Isn’t that up to the medical examiner to determine?”
    “Sure it is,” Sam said quickly, and Phyllis wondered if he had noticed that she was about to lose her patience with the reporter. It would be just like Sam to try to smooth things over, even if the woman was asking ridiculous questions. “We’ll just wait and let the proper authorities do their jobs.”
    “Have you retained a lawyer?”
    “Don’t need one,” Sam replied as he shot a glance in Phyllis’s direction. “I haven’t done anything wrong.”
    “He certainly hasn’t,” Phyllis said.
    “Just a couple more questions . . .”
    Phyllis felt like telling the reporter what she could do with her questions, but she reminded herself that Dorothy and Ben still had to live here and run a business here. She didn’t want to do anything that would create enemies for them.
    So somehow she managed to put a smile on her face and said, “Of course.”
    “This isn’t the first suspicious death you’ve been involved with, is it, Mrs. Newsom?”
    The question took Phyllis by surprise, and now it was Sam’s turn to begin getting annoyed by the reporter.
    “How’d you know about that?” he asked.
    “They have this thing called the Internet.” The woman gave him an insufferably smug smile, then turned to Phyllis again. “I Googled you, Mrs. Newsom.”
    Phyllis never had gotten used to the sound of that expression.
    “I found out that you’ve stumbled over dead bodies on several occasions besides this one. You’ve even been given credit by the authorities for solving some murders.”
    There was no point in denying anything, Phyllis told herself, especially in this day and age when practically everything about a person’s life was out there on the Internet for