Read The Pea Soup Poisonings for Free Online Page A

question. “I don’t there’s much of any value in it.”
    “Think hard,” said Zoe. “They’re coming here tonight, those two. Keep an eye on the window, Spence.”
    “Right,” said Spence, and pressed his nose to the chill glass.
    “Well now, there’s my will,” said Thelma. “But my lawyer has a duplicate, so that won’t do them any good.” She swallowed her lower lip with her yellowy upper teeth and stared at Spence as though he might have an answer. He just shrugged, and went back to his watch at the window.
    “What else?” asked Zoe. “There must be something else.”
    “Oh, a couple of deeds. I own farmland, and then a couple acres in the Branbury swamp –  but who wants that except the salamanders? And then...” She paused. She stuck out a pale pink tongue as if to catch the thought.
    “And then?” Zoe urged.
    “And then...” Thelma began.
    “They’re here!” said Spence. “They’re coming up the driveway. I recognize that blue car with missing hubcap!”
    Zoe jumped up. “We can’t stay,” she told Aunt Thelma. “But we’ll get that safe deposit box for you. And hide it.”
    “But you can’t get it without my signature,” said Thelma. “Unless I’m dead, and maybe that’s what they want.” She struggled up from the bed. “I’ll go with you. There’s adumbwaiter at the other end of the hall. I suppose we could take that. Avoid the stairs. It goes down into the kitchen.”
    “A dumb waiter? You mean he can’t speak?” said Spence.
    “It’s a small elevator that carries trays of food,” explained Zoe, who’d read about one in a book. “Now, come on. Hurry!”
    “Take me, too,” hollered the woman on the horsehair sofa as the three hurried out. “Take me!”
    “Take me!” echoed the third woman, waving a pink chenille arm.
    “We’ll try to come back for you,” said Zoe, not wanting to hurt their feelings, and followed Thelma down the hall.
    “What children? We have no ch-children.” Zoe heard a man’s voice shout up the stairwell.
    Thelma pressed the button and Zoe and Spence waited anxiously as the dumbwaiter cranked slowly up from the depths of the building. Somewhere on the floor above a woman screamed, and Thelma’s eyes gazed into Zoe’s, huge and full of fear.
     
     
    Chapter Eleven
     
    Down the Dumbwaiter
     
    They were squeezed into the dumbwaiter like glasses of juice. Zoe squatted on Miss Thelma’s lap and Spence on hers. She didn’t dare breathe or she might expand and squash the others. It seemed forever as the square box slowly, crankily, descended.
    When it finally opened up they found themselves in a stainless steel kitchen crammed with hanging pots and pans and gleaming knives. Zoe put a small knife under her shirt just in case. It might come in handy.
    “How do we get out of here?” Spence whispered.
    Zoe looked at Thelma, but she just shook her head. The back door was padlocked. A swinging door led to a dining room that led to the inner part of the building; Zoe could hear voices. One guttural howl she recognized as Cedric’s – upstairs. He would have discovered that Thelma was missing.
    Spence jumped onto the countertop and shoved up a small window. A rush of night air filled the room and Zoe almost laughed aloud. Spence climbed out first, and then helped the others through the window. Aunt Thelma got stuck halfway - her plump purple bottom filled the whole space, but Zoe was finally able to push her out and into Spence’s arms. The pair tumbled together onto the damp grass. Zoe closed the window carefully behind her; she wanted Cedric to think they were still in the building.
    They crept along the side of the building to the front gate.
    But found it locked!
    “We’ll have to climb the fence,” Zoe said, and Aunt Thelma cried, “Oh, no, no, I can’t.”
    “Yes, you can, you have to,” said Zoe, feeling her way along in the dark. There was a sliver of moon, so she was able to see the outline of the fence. It was not