“What are you two ladies up to?” I asked, and I traversed the last step.
Talia blew out an exasperated breath. She jerked a thumb in Edna’s direction. “This one wants to invite you to have sweet tea and cake. I told her it wasn’t necessary. So what, you solved a murder.”
I chuckled. “I hardly solved it, Talia. Peony kind of broke down, and Frank came tumbling after her. Besides, Spencer had figured it out.”
Talia waved a hand. “Are you coming in here, or not? I give you a compliment, the least you can do is say thank you.”
I’m still waiting for the compliment!
Rather than saying this aloud, I stood there in silence, fighting with myself to keep my lips together. If I made her mad, she might change her mind about the invite. While I looked at Talia, she blinked at me, a tiny crooked smile on her face. The manipulative little thing knew I was having a hard time. Honestly!
“Oh stop it, the two of you,” Edna said, and she linked her arm with mine to drag me forward.
Sweet Edna swept by Talia, carrying me along, and that’s when I got my first exposure how an old lady could obsess over anime figurines. Every shelf, every nook and cranny, on tables and in half unpacked boxes, they were everywhere. This was Talia’s secret obsession. I couldn’t find words to say.
Edna still at my side tittered. “That’s our Talia. She can’t get enough of them, and when each of us finds one, we get it for her to add to her collection.” Edna lowered her voice to whisper in my ear. I got the chance to experience firsthand her pretense of being hard of hearing. She shouted, “It’s how we soothe the savage beast.”
“I heard that,” Talia bellowed right back.
Talia stomped past us, crossing the living room. Her slippered feet disturbed the disordered pile of DVD boxes on the floor as she moved. What an interesting character she was.
While I watched Talia pop into the kitchen with movements of a woman twenty years her junior at least, Edna patted my arm. “Come and sit down in the dining room, dear. While you eat the cake I made”—she clutched her wrinkly neck with both liver-spotted hands and made a gagging noise then thumbed in Talia’s direction—“you can tell us all about your sheriff.”
By Edna’s antics, I knew she meant eat her dessert and not Talia’s or risk death. Good to note.
“Yes, tell us,” Talia called from the kitchen. “I need to have something that darn Ollie doesn’t know and put him in his place for once.”
Shaking my head in amusement, I felt bound to point out, “He’s not my sheriff.”
“Fiddle faddle!” Talia strode to the table and set two plates of thickly sliced cake in front of me along with a glass of iced tea. “He’s been here every night, all night since he arrived in Briney Creek.”
“I think that’s an exag—”
“Eat up.” Edna slid one of the plates closer to me, while at the same time Talie slid the other nearer. Edna’s cake appeared moist and plump, Talia’s a bit dry with scorch marks on the base. I suppressed a moan and lamented my favorite donut maker being a murderer. I found myself wondering what other mysteries in town I could uncover just to get me away from a situation such as this.
I picked up one slice of cake, bit into taste heaven, chewed, and then tried the other. A sip of tea washed it all down. “Well, ladies, where shall I start…?”
The End
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