Plum Tea Crazy
Page 29
“Are you all right?” Carmela cried. Ava was right there next to her, helping pull Shamus to his feet.
“Whuh hoppen?” Shamus stammered. He had a wonky look on his face and his eyes didn’t quite focus.
“Your float crashed,” Ava told him.
“No,” Shamus said in a loud pronouncement, as if he’d just been told the earth was flat. Then, “It crashed, really?” His left eye wandered to the far left, hesitated, then seemed to pop back.
“Are you okay?” Carmela asked. “Anything broken?”
“You don’t look so good, buddy,” Ava said. “Your eyes have gone all googly.”
Shamus took one step on wobbly legs and said, “I don’t feel so good.”
“Well, don’t toss your cookies on me,” Carmela said. She glanced around, deciding they’d all been incredibly lucky. Yes, the float was ruined, but it could have been so much worse. Nobody in the crowd seemed to be hurt . . .
Then she saw one man, still crumpled on the ground, who hadn’t moved an inch. “Oh no,” Carmela said, her voice catching in her throat. “We need to . . .”
Shamus limped over to the man who was still lying on the pavement, looking like a fallen ghost in his bunched-up white robes, his body twisted in a most unnatural way. “Hey,” he said, kneeling down, putting a hand on the man’s shoulder. “Hey guy.”
“Maybe you shouldn’t try to move him,” Carmela said. Now she and Ava had gathered around the fallen man as well. “Maybe we should wait for the EMT’s. Let them bring in a back board or something.”
“The least we could do is wipe that gold glitter off the back of his head,” Ava said, trying to be helpful.
Carmela bent closer and stared at the man as the screams of multiple sirens rose above the din of the crowd. Something didn’t look right to her. And as Shamus gently brushed glitter from the man, his features slowly came into focus.
“That’s not the back of his head,” Carmela cried. “The glitter’s all over his face! Quick, we have to clear an airway before he smothers.”
“I’m on it,” Shamus said.
With gold glitter still clinging to every square inch of the man’s face, Carmela thought he looked as if he were wearing a solid gold mask, like some kind of ancient Persian king.
“Is he breathing?” Carmela asked Shamus as he scrubbed feverishly.
Ava shook her mane of dark hair, prompting another miniature waterfall of glitter. “Not if he inhaled a nose-full of this stuff,” she drawled.
WATCH FOR LAURA CHILDS’S NEXT TEA SHOP MYSTERY
Broken Bone China
A terrible crash at a hot air balloon rally sends tea shop owner Theodosia and her right-hand man, Drayton, scrambling for clues.
AND ALSO THE NEXT CACKLEBERRY CLUB MYSTERY FROM LAURA CHILDS
Eggs on Ice
Did a ghost really murder the mayor’s right-hand man onstage in the middle of dress rehearsal? Suzanne and Toni don’t think so!
Find out more about the author and her mysteries at laurachilds.com or become a friend on Facebook.
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