One Book in the Grave: A Bibliophile Mystery

Crystal said, casting a look at her sister. “I do it all the time.”
     
    “She does,” Melody conceded. “Crystal is a wiz at so many things.”
     
    Mom leaned closer to Crystal. “We ladies do it all, don’t we, sweetie?”
     
    Crystal laughed. “It’s true. So I’ll tell Bennie to call you. I see him every morning at church.”
     
    “You would do that for me?” Mom said.
     
    “Oh, Mrs. Wainwright, you’ve always been so good to us.” Crystal wrapped her arm around Mom’s waist. “Of course we would.”
     
    “You’re a sweet girl, Crystal.” She reached over and patted Melody’s arm. “You, too, Melody.”
     
    China grabbed a store business card and wrote Mom’s phone number on the back, then handed it to Crystal.
     
    She glanced at the card and smiled. “I’ll call you as soon as I’ve talked to him.”
     
    Mom squeezed Crystal’s arm lightly. “Thank you, sweetie.”
     
    “We’d better get going,” Melody said, and her voice rose with excitement. “We’re driving over to Sonoma to pick up ten new dehydrators. OMG!”
     
    “TTYL,” Crystal said, waving as they left the store.
     
    “Hasta la vista,” China said.
     
    “Whew,” Mom said when the door closed. “Those girls always had more energy than ten of you two.”
     
    China’s shoulders slumped. “I’m exhausted.”
     
    “Good thing they played for our team,” I said, then grabbed Mom for a quick hug. “You were awesome, Mom. You lied like a real pro.”
     
    “Watch and learn, sweetie,” she said, stepping back and patting her hair.
     
    “OMG,” I muttered.
     
    We dropped by Savannah’s and caught her racing around, preparing for the dinner crowd.
    She stopped for a minute to answer my questions about her time at the Art Institute and about Angelica and Solomon.
     
    “I hated her. What else did you want to know?”
     
    “Did you know Solomon?” I asked.
     
    “Well enough. I went to parties at his house.”
     
    “Did Solomon use guns?” Mom asked, going off script. Apparently she was running her own investigation. I guessed I would watch and learn.
     
    “Oh, God, Mom,” Savannah said, pressing her cheeks with her hands. “You just reminded me of this really creepy thing that happened one night.”
     
    She told us of a party she attended with the usual gang of institute partygoers at Solomon’s place out in the woods somewhere. It must’ve been two or three o’clock in the morning when the host came out of his bedroom with a couple of guns and a box of ammunition. He announced that he wanted to play Russian roulette.
     
    “I got up to leave right then,” Savannah said, “and Angelica sneered at me. ‘What? Are you scared?’ And I said, ‘Yeah. You people are sick,’ and I walked out.”
     
    “That’s my girl,” Mom said, with a sharp nod of approval.
     
    “They really were sick,” I said, feeling chills skitter up my arms.
     
    “Completely,” Savannah said.
     
    “Did they really play Russian roulette?” Mom asked, her face showing her shock and worry.
     
    “I asked a girlfriend later,” Savannah said. “She told me that somebody threatened to call the cops, so Solomon kicked everyone out. He said they all needed to lighten up because he was just kidding around. But I know they weren’t kidding.”
     
    Savannah’s cell phone beeped and she checked the text message. Her mouth dropped open. “It says the
Chronicle
will be publishing a three-star review of Arugula in tomorrow’s paper.”
     
    “Oh, sweetie,” Mom whispered in awe. “I’m so thrilled for you. You’ve worked so hard. You deserve every wonderful accolade you get.”
     
    I could see tears in Mom’s eyes as we all hugged and laughed. Then we laughed harder as Savannah screamed and ran back into the kitchen to check the cabernet reduction sauce she’d left simmering.
     
    “It’s still alive,” she cried out.
     
    “Hallelujah,” Mom said, and we left Savannah to her cooking.
     
    Mom got in the car, but didn’t start the engine. Instead she turned to face me. “I want to see Max.”
    “Yeah, I was afraid of that.” I’d had an itchy feeling all morning that she’d bring it up at some point.
     
    “I’ll go by myself if you’d rather not come along.”
     
    “It’s not that I don’t want to. It’s just that it could be dangerous.”
     
    “Do you honestly think these people are watching us right now?”
     
    I sighed. How could I answer without giving her a heart