Read Mulch ado about nothing for Free Online Page A

looked blank for a minute and finally said, “Oh.”
    Jane got the taco salad with the chili mixed in, and Shelley let herself go with a chicken chimichanga. When the waitress had gone, Shelley asked, “Do you think the attack on Julie Jackson had anything to do with her job?“
    “I’ve been wondering the same thing,“ Jane said. “I’m not clear on exactly how she fits into this business, though. Geneva said they had a professional relationship as well as being sisters. Is Julie, like Dr. Eastman, a plant breeder?”
    Shelley shrugged. “Eastman suggested that she was some sort of patent cop. Checking out suspicious claims. Only he said ‘questionable,’ I think. She didn’t appear to have anything especially interesting growing in her yard.“
    “But we didn’t see the backyard.“
    “True. Do you think Mel knows exactly what it is that she does?“
    “You heard all he said,“ Jane replied. “She had a sort of laboratory/office in her basement with lots of filing cabinets and some plants under lights. I think that’s what he said. I was too obsessed with my foot to pay much attention.“
    “We need to find out exactly where Julie comes into the process. I might have misunderstood what Dr. Eastman was saying about her job. Maybe this attack on her comes back to money, like we were discussing before.“
    “In what way?“ Jane asked.
    “I don’t know, because we have no idea what sort of money is involved. Or who gets it and how. I really want to know about that part of it. So many crimes come down to money.“
    “Then why didn’t her attacker take anything?“ Jane asked.
    “We don’t know he or she didn’t,“ Shelley said. “And Geneva would be about the only one who could guess what might be missing. And even she might not be able to determine that.“
    “Mom, why did you get such a boring cast?“ Jane’s daughter said with just a hint of a French accent as she came into the Jeffry living room later that afternoon.
    “I wasn’t offered anything else,“ Jane said. “Would you get me a glass of iced tea, Katie? It’s in the fridge.“
    “I’ve got something better. “ There were a couple of faint z’s in “something.”
    Katie rummaged in her jeans pocket and pulled out a folded sheet of paper.
    “What is this?“ Jane said. “Oh, pretty flower stickers. They actually look like color photos. I could stick them around the screen of my computer.”
    Katie threw herself into an armchair and said, “Oh, Mom,“ in a highly critical tone.
    “Couldn’t I?“
    “Mom, they’re for your cast. Nobody has a boring cast. You have to have your friends sign it, and if you know an artist, you ask him to draw or paint a picture on it. And even if you don’t, you put stickers on it. “ She’d temporarily lost her fake accent. “One guy at school with a broken arm had a really cool one. His mother wove ribbons like a plaid design on his and stuck them down somehow. So when do you get it off?“
    “Before it gets really filthy, I hope. The doctor didn’t say. Just that I had to come back in two weeks to have it X-rayed again.“
    “Cool. They’ll have to cut it with a saw to do that,“ Katie said. “Can I come along?“
    “My leg or the cast? A real saw?“
    “ I do not know, ma mère. I’ll ask my friend.”
    Katie had spent the first two weeks of summer vacation in France with her best friend, Jenny, and Jenny’s parents, who had begged to have Katie along so Jenny wouldn’t be bored with the sightseeing they planned to do. Jane had been more than glad to spring for the plane fare to get Katie out of her hair for part of the summer. Katie’d made no effort to get a summer job, not even at her usual summer haunt, the town swimming pool. Something about the chlorine ruining her hair. Even before the trip idea came up, Jane had dreaded having her underfoot and at loose ends for the whole three months.
    The trip hadn’t quite turned out as Jane imagined. Katie had fallen in love