The Good Girl's Guide to Murder (35 page)
Read The Good Girl's Guide to Murder Online
Authors: Susan McBride
Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Suspense, #Mystery & Detective, #Women Sleuths, #General
“So you took care of him.”
“Yes.” She seemed to calm down as she said it. Her hands relaxing in her lap.
She had murdered Justin
, I told myself, only now truly believing it. And it had been no accident, not from what Deputy Chief Dean had relayed, only minutes earlier.
The police had sent a diver into the catfish pond and found the silver BMW Roadster, Justin belted into the passenger seat, and the tracks of the tractor indicated the car had been pushed the final few feet into the water. They were awaiting the crane when I’d spoken to Anna Dean from my cell in the studio parking lot. An autopsy of the body would doubtless show he’d been drugged. I had a feeling Kendall had made him a sleeping pill smoothie, maybe even here at the studio, when everyone else had packed up and gone to Mother’s for the taping. She had already decided then that he had to go, even before she made her mummy “sick” with the ma huang in the chocolate cake.
“Mummy, come back, please,” Kendall breathed and pulled the wig from her head and cradled it, her own dark hair falling to her shoulders, the streak of white-blond catching across her face. “I’m so sorry . . . so sorry . . . I didn’t mean to hurt you, Mummy, believe me.” She drew her knees to her chest and started sobbing in earnest, vicious shuddering sobs that broke my heart.
I wanted to reach for her, to hold her, but I couldn’t.
Not this time.
Instead, I wrapped my arms around myself and closed my eyes, sick with disappointment and anger and guilt. Disgusted at Kendall for what she’d done and at the people who’d surrounded her, wondering how many times she’d cried out for their attention and had been ignored.
She had needed love and had killed to get it.
If I—if anyone—had only listened.
A hand touched my shoulder, and I turned, opening my eyes to see my mother’s face, the sadness in her eyes reflecting mine.
“Come, Andrea,” she said softly. “Beth has made arrangements for Kendall. You have to let go.”
I saw Dr. Taylor approaching the stage with a bespectacled man, and I knew that they would take Kendall somewhere she’d be safe, where she could heal her mind and soul. I only hoped the courts would let her seek the treatment she needed instead of punishing her. I think she’d punished herself enough.
“Sweetie?”
Cissy reached for my hand, and I held on.
“Yes,” I said and leaned on her. “Please, take me home.”
Two Weeks Later
“Y
ou sure Cissy actually included me in this invitation?”
“Yeah, sure,” I lied and brushed invisible lint off the shoulder of Brian’s crisp button-down shirt. We stood between the terra cotta lions that guarded Mother’s door, putting off ringing the bell for a minute. “Besides,” I said and caught my thumbs beneath his collar, looking spot-on at him, “I told her I wouldn’t come to dinner tonight without you.”
He swallowed. “So you forced her to invite me? Is that it?”
I shrugged. “It was either that or risk her hooking me up with some rich cattle rancher’s unmarried son who probably suffers from halitosis as well as serious issues with commitment.”
“Wow,” he said, adding dryly, “You sure know how to make a guy feel special, Andy.”
“You are.” I smiled and went up on my tiptoes to plant a soft kiss on his lips. “Special, I mean.”
Malone had gone out of his way to help Kendall, arranging for that colleague of his, Allie whatever her name was, to work with him on a deal with the D.A.’s office so that Kendall wouldn’t have to go through a trial. What she needed was psychiatric help, years of it, and Brian assured me he was doing everything in his power—and the power of Abramawitz, Reynolds, Goldberg, and Hunt—to get the job done.
Somehow, I believed he would.
“Who else did you say was coming?” he asked, his eyes so blue behind the preppy glasses. “Anyone I know?”
“Renata Taylor,” I told him.
“Marilee’s daughter? The one who ended up getting everything?”
“Yes, that one. And a friend of hers, Carson Caruthers. He was the food editor for
The Sweet Life
. They’re actually working on a new show for Twinkle Productions called
The Bald Chef
. I think it has ‘hit’ written all over it.”
They’d asked me to design a Web site, but I’d declined. I aimed to stick to nonprofits from now on. So much less drama. And never a murder as yet.
“Oh, and Dr. Taylor and her husband.”
“The couple in the newspaper article?”
“Yes.” I sighed. “But don’t bring it up, okay? I don’t know how they feel, but Mother was hugely embarrassed about it.”
“Understandably,” Brian murmured.
Unfortunately, he’d seen the copy of Kevin Snodgrass’s piece, as had the rest of Dallas and the world, since MSNBC picked up on it and posted it on their Web site, basically to poke fun at it. But it had made Beth and Richard Taylor local celebrities. They’d been on every morning talk show in the Metroplex.
Isn’t it ironic, don’t you think?
“Ready?”
He nodded.
“Brace yourself.” I pressed a finger to the doorbell.
Malone shifted behind me, listening to the muted chimes before the door groaned open, revealing Mother in all her glory. This time, in pink Chanel and gray pearls.
“Darling,” she said, and I stepped up for her air kisses. She turned to Brian. “Mr. Malone, what a surprise. I wish I’d known you were coming.” Her eyes narrowed on me. “I’ll tell Sandy to set an extra place.”
“But Andy said . . .”—he swallowed and looked at me frantically, as in “
what have you done?
”
“Hey, Mother”—I took Brian’s hand and twined his fingers in mine—“guess who’s coming to dinner?”
As we slipped inside past her, I heard her murmur, “Obviously, it’s not Sidney Poitier.”
SUSAN McBRIDE
is the author of
The Truth About Love & Lightning, Little Black Dress
, and
The Cougar Club
, all Target Recommended Reads. She also penned the award-winning Debutante Dropout Mysteries, including
Blue Blood and Too Pretty to Die
. She lives in St. Louis, Missouri, with her husband and daughter.
Visit Susan's website at
www.SusanMcBride.com
for more info.
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www.AuthorTracker.com
for exclusive information on your favorite HarperCollins authors.
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is definitely the beginning of a wonderful new series with a character who is feisty without being snotty, witty but not a smart-aleck, and just plain likeable. This is more than simply a cozy. Andy Kendricks’s sophomore effort can’t come soon enough.”
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has it all—suspense, humor, friendship, snobbery, and televangelists . . . Positively gripping.”
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T
HE
T
RUTH
A
BOUT
L
OVE AND
L
IGHTNING
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.
THE GOOD GIRL’S GUIDE TO MURDER. Copyright © 2005 by Susan McBride. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the nonexclusive, nontransferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, decompiled, reverse-engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.
EPub Edition DECEMBER 2013 ISBN: 9780062326010
Print Edition ISBN: 978-0-06-232602-7
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