AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Lucky me,” Theodosia said.
“Lucky for Quaid,” Drayton said. “Otherwise the plan to make him a patsy or a suspect would have worked beautifully.”
“But the question is—who set him up? Who’s the master puppeteer pulling the strings?”
“And powering up the homemade electric chair last Monday and pulling the trigger tonight,” Drayton said. “If, in fact, it’s the same person.”
“Oh, it’s the same person,” Theodosia said. “I just haven’t figured out who it is yet.”
“But you will,” Drayton said. “Right? Because now it’s an even bigger challenge.”
Theodosia took another sip of water, considered Drayton’s words, and said, “You’re right. It is a challenge and I will keep working on it.”
“Ah,” Drayton said. “There’s the Theodosia we know and love.”
22
“You certainly got yourself stuck in the glue last night,” Drayton said to Theodosia.
It was early Friday morning at the Indigo Tea Shop and Theodosia, Drayton, and Haley were sitting together at the little table by the fireplace sipping cups of Sweet Lady Grey, one of Drayton’s house blends. Theodosia had just finished filling in the details about last night’s wild escape from the attic, seeing the food truck, and then finding poor Helene Deveroux murdered at her shop. And when this morning’s Post & Courier thunked against their front door, they were gobsmacked by the headline that blared: “SECOND MURDER-MYSTERY MOVIE DEATH!”
“Good grief,” Drayton murmured. “Newspapers can be so tawdry.” But it didn’t stop him from reading the article in its entirety while Haley prodded Theodosia for a few more details about last night. Finally, Drayton folded up his newspaper, gazed at Theodosia, and said, “I still can’t believe you stumbled onto Helene’s murder.”
“Neither can I,” Theodosia said. “The whole thing is downright bizarre.”
“Mmn, not really,” Haley said. She was staring at Theodosia, a crooked half smile on her face.
Drayton peered at Haley over his tortoiseshell half-glasses. “Not really? What do you mean by that?”
“Theo found a clue on the back of that food truck,” Haley said. “Which sort of pointed her in Helene’s direction.”
“Yes,” Drayton said, drawing out the word.
“Which was good because Theodosia really has a knack for this stuff,” Haley said.
“A knack?” Drayton looked as if he found Haley’s words quite improbable.
Haley brushed back her stick-straight blond hair and reworded her statement. “Okay, maybe I should say that Theodosia being involved is more like providence, a kind of divine intervention.”
“What?” Theodosia said. She didn’t think there was anything divine about it.
“What on earth are you talking about?” Drayton said. “You’re saying it’s a good thing Theodosia found poor Helene?”
“In a way, yes,” Haley said. “Look at it from this perspective—a crime was committed and Theodosia was first on the scene. That means she has a leg up when it comes to investigating.”
Drayton peered at Theodosia with something akin to hope. “Do you have a leg up?”
“It doesn’t feel that way,” Theodosia said.
“But you were there,” Haley insisted. “So you must have seen or intuited something.”
“It was more like intense shock at finding Helene,” Theodosia said.
Haley wiggled her fingers. “And what else?”
Theodosia closed her eyes, thought for a moment, then opened them.
“Well, there were the chairs,” she said.
