“What death?” I don’t know why I asked. I knew, of course. I moved aside and she came into the kitchen.
“Sophie Sawyer’s poisoning.”
Mitzi walked to the kitchen table and sat down as if her legs wouldn’t hold her up anymore.
“Sophie Sawyer was poisoned?”
“Arthur said you were there yesterday.”
“I was.” I sat down across from Mitzi, my heart thumping faster. “She was poisoned?”
“Second page. Crime reports.” Mitzi propped her elbows on the table, leaned forward and put a hand over each ear as if she didn’t want to hear my reaction.
I turned to the second page. The first crime report, one short paragraph, had the words—SUSPECTED POISONING DEATH—as its heading. Sophie Vaughn Sawyer, 64, had been pronounced dead the day before after being rushed to University Hospital from a nearby restaurant. Preliminary autopsy reports indicated that she was the victim of poisoning. Police were investigating.
Goosebumps skittered up my arms and across my shoulders. Sophie Sawyer murdered? Someone had killed the lovely woman I had seen at lunch the day before? I read the paragraph again. Since it was so brief, the news of the death must have barely made the paper’s deadline.
“God, Mitzi, I can’t believe this. It’s awful. Who was she? One of Arthur’s clients?”
Mitzi’s head bent to the table. Her hands slid around and clasped behind her neck.
“His first wife.”
“His what?” Surely I hadn’t heard right. Her voice was muffled against the table.
But she looked up and repeated, “His first wife.”
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
DEBORAH WOODWORTH spent her childhood in southern Ohio near the abandoned sites of several Shaker villages. Before turning to writing, she earned a Ph.D. in Sociology of Religion from the University of Minnesota and spent a decade conducting research and teaching. Author of three previous Shaker mysteries, she has also published sociology articles and nonfiction for children. Woodworth and her husband live in St. Paul, Minnesota.
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ALSO BY DEBORAH WOODWORTH
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COPYRIGHT
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental and beyond the intent of either the author or the publisher.
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SINS OF A SHAKER SUMMER. Copyright © 2000 by Deborah Woodworth.
Excerpt from Estate of Mind copyright © 1999 by Tamar Myers
Excerpt from Creeps Suzette copyright © 2000 by Mary Daheim
Excerpt from Death on the River Walk copyright © 1999 by Carolyn Hart
Excerpt from liberty Falling copyright © 1999 by Nevada Barr
Excerpt from A Simple Shaker Murder copyright © 2000 by Deborah Woodworth
Excerpt from In the Still of the Night copyright © 2000 by The Janice Young Brooks Trust
Excerpt from Murder Shoots the Bull copyright © 1999 by Anne George
Inside cover author photo by Bob LaBree
Published by arrangement with the author
Library of Congress Catalog Card Number: 99-96772
EPub Edition December 2014 ISBN 9780062385284
ISBN: 0-380-80425-5
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