Read You Can't Get Blood Out of Shag Carpet: A Study Club Cozy Murder Mystery (The Study Club Mysteries Book 1) for Free Online Page A

apes?”
    “Sister,” Clara interrupted, “you can believe whatever you want to, but I dare you to take a good look around at our next family reunion and tell me you don’t see some potential in that idea.”
    Mae Ella started to say something, but Clara held her hand up. “That’s enough. We’re not getting into politics or religion amongst ourselves. Every bit of it is just fighting words. Who else is on the list?”
    “The Baptist preacher,” Mae Ella said, “so we know that’s not a problem . . .”
    “Uh, well,” Wanda Jean stammered.
    “You are not planning on telling me anything bad about Brother Bob, are you?” Mae Ella said, skewering Wanda Jean with a furious and devoutly Baptist glare.
    “I wouldn’t say bad ,” Wanda Jean hedged. “It’s just that Hilton caught Brother Bob and Mrs. Brother Bob . . . well . . . dancing.”
    A collective gasp went up around the table. Growing pot and supporting the Kennedys was one thing, but this latest was just too much. Sugar had to swallow twice before she said, “Hilton caught the Baptist preacher dancing? With music and everything?”
    “Ernest Tubb,” Wanda Jean said mournfully, “Walking the Floor Over You.”
    “The Baptist preacher was dancing to honky tonk music ?” Mae Ella said, turning pale. “I just can’t accept this. Hilton must have been mistaken.”
    “It was in the privacy of their own home,” Wanda Jean offered.
    “Dancing to honky tonk music in the Baptist parsonage,” Mae Ella said. “I may need to lay down.”
    “For God’s sake, Sister, get ahold of yourself,” Clara said. “You were raised Methodist. You didn’t get nearly so dyed-in-the-wool until you married Cletus. Who else is on the list?”
    “As much as I hate to admit it,” Wanda Jean said, “Hilton sprayed over at Leroy Taylor’s.”
    “God,” Wilma said. “Did Hilton ever see Leroy hit Lura Belle?”
    “No,” Wanda Jean said, “but Leroy fired Hilton last month.”
    Clara frowned. “What for?”
    “Leroy called Lura Bella something awful in front of Hilton and shoved her out of the way,” Wanda Jean said. “She fell down and Hilton helped her up and told Leroy he needed to learn how to treat his wife better.”
    “I bet that went over like the kerosene radio,” Mae Ella said.
    “What was worse is that I saw Lura Belle in the grocery store the next day and she had a black eye and a busted lip,” Wanda Jean said. “I asked her if she was okay, and she told me the handle of the sausage grinder flew up and hit her in the face.”
    “It’s always something like that,” Wilma said. “She comes in the office with broken ribs and cuts and tries to convince us how clumsy she is. Leroy is always with her and he won’t leave the room so Walter can talk to her in private.”
    “I’d sew that sorry SOB up in a sheet and take a baseball bat to him if he was mine,” Clara said darkly.
    “Lura Belle’s too scared,” Wilma said. “You can see it in her eyes. She flinches if Leroy even acts like he’s moving in her direction. He just laughs and says, ‘Just look at how rabbity my little woman is.’”
    “Hilton said we ought to try to help her,” Wanda Jean said. “I told him there wasn’t anything we could do, but he said he was gonna try to think of something anyway.”
    “Did he do anything?” Clara asked. “Did he try to talk to Leroy?”
    “Not that I know of,” Wanda Jean said, “but he was real upset about it.”
    “Okay,” Clara said, “that just leaves the Temples. You say that Hilton said they’re buying all kinds of stuff?”
    Wanda Jean nodded. “He said in just the last two months they’ve gotten one of those fancy new hi-fi stereos, a garbage compactor, one of those fancy bikes that doesn’t go anywhere, a color television, a bean bag chair made out of fake fur, and you all have seen those diamonds Bitsy has on her fingers.”
    “I have indeed,” Sugar said. “Flowers gave Bitsy a manicure last week and almost