Maid of Murder

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Book: Read Maid of Murder for Free Online
Authors: Amanda Flower
emotions.
    The khaki-clad man uttered a frustrated sigh. “Who are you? We’re in the middle of an interview here.”
    I recognized the man’s face, but couldn’t put a name to it, a fairly common occurrence for a community of Stripling’s size. “I’m his sister. India Hayes. Can you telling me what’s going on?”
    “Well, Miss Hayes,” the man said. His voice had the lilt of recognition. “A woman tumbled into the fountain and was badly hurt. Your brother’s a witness.”
    “Who’s the woman?” I asked, but already I knew.
    The man consulted his minuscule memo pad. “Olivia Blocken.”
     

 
Chapter Six
     
    “Olivia,” I whispered.
    The man peered at me. “Do you know her?”
    “She’s a friend. Is she okay?”
    Breathe. In and out, in and out, I reminded myself.
    Mark snuffled. I patted his arm again. I really wished Carmen was there.
    “She’s alive, but unconscious. She received a nasty gash and bump falling into the fountain, or whatever the hell you people call that thing.”
    I let out a breath. “And she’ll be okay? She’ll recover?”
    “Hopefully we got to her in time.” He flipped through his notebook.
    Mark stopped weeping and sat staring in the direction of uniforms by the fountain. His face looked carved from stone.
    “Does her family know? Have you called them?”
    “They’ve been notified and will meet Olivia at the hospital in Akron.”
    “What does Mark have to do with this?”
    “If you would give us a minute, that’s what I am trying to find out,” khaki man said.
    The light dawned. “You’re a police officer.”
    He held out his hand. “Detective Rick Mains.”
    I stopped short of shaking his hand. “Rick Mains? Ricky Mains?” And I remembered where I had seen Mains before. He was one of a long line of high school boyfriends that Carmen had dated before she’d settled down in college. Mains was one of the long-termers. Four months.
    Mains grinned. “You remember me?”
    “I’m sure Carmen does too,” I said.
    Mains guffawed the same intrusive and uproarious laugh that had caused Carmen to dismiss him for the happy hunting grounds of higher education.
    I frowned. The current situation was not conducive to any levity, and what I’d said wasn’t funny, anyway.
    Regaining control, Mains smiled. “I’m sure she does. Now, if you don’t mind, I only need a few more minutes with Mark.”
    I scowled, but stepped away from the ambulance. At the fountain, the small cluster of people divided again, and a female EMT rolled a stretcher toward the other ambulance. Although I couldn’t see her, I knew that Olivia lay on the stretcher. Two EMTs lifted Olivia into the ambulance. Sirens blared, and the ambulance raced off campus. The emergency workers cleared the scene, uselessly wiping their sweaty faces in the humid air. The half dozen police officers circled the fountain, like August yellow jackets around an especially fragrant garbage can.
    Mid-morning and the humidity had already plastered my hair to my neck and face. I heard snippets of Mains’s and Mark’s conversation. Mark was harder to hear. I found myself in one of those rare moments when I longed for my cell phone, if only to call my mother and tell her that Mark was okay. She would be climbing the church’s narthex by now. My cell was uselessly sitting in my office back at the library.
    Turning my thoughts from my mother, and from Olivia and the stretcher, I mentally replayed the scene at Blockens’ yesterday afternoon and Mark’s strange appearance. Why had he asked to see her? Did he honestly think that she’d leave Kirk for him? Did she actually come? I wondered. There was no other reason for her to be on Martin’s campus than to see Mark. Why would she come? To appease Mark? To finally settle things between them?
    I held my knit blouse away from my body, hoping a nonexistent breeze would cool me.
    “Miss Hayes,” Mains said, breaking into my thoughts.
    “Call me India,” I said,

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