Poisoned Prose (A Books by the Bay Mystery)

to spend a Monday afternoon in a store filled with kids. I’ll be there in ten.” She hung up.
    “My turn?” Laurel dialed the chief’s number while Olivia waited for a break in the traffic. Seeing her chance, she shot out in front of a pink VW Beetle convertible being driven by a young woman balancing a cell phone against her steering wheel. As they drove down the street, Olivia darted glances at the Beetle in her side and rearview mirror. More than once, she saw the car drift over the double yellow line and back again.
    At the next stoplight, Olivia’s eyes were locked on the young woman. The top half of her face was hidden behind the brim of a tennis visor and a pair of bug-eyed sunglasses, but judging by the frantic movements of her fingers, she was busy texting. When the light turned green, the driver behind her lightly honked his horn to encourage her to move. In response, the woman raised her middle finger and accelerated. She swerved around Olivia and floored it across a pedestrian crosswalk, causing an elderly couple to jump backward in alarm.
    Olivia growled and Haviland mimicked the sound. The traffic grew thick again near the Methodist church, and Olivia found herself trailing the pink bug. This time, the Beetle was fading to the right, coming dangerously close to clipping the side mirrors of the cars parked along the street.
    Laurel was too engrossed in her conversation with Rawlings to notice the angry set of Olivia’s jaw, but when she deliberately passed the turn leading to Through the Wardrobe, Laurel put her hand over the phone and whispered, “Where are you going?”
    “I just need one red light,” Olivia said. “Don’t worry, we won’t be late.”
    At that moment, the pink car edged into its neighbor’s lane, forcing a minivan to abruptly swerve away. The driver honked and shook his fist. Olivia noticed a pair of car seats in the back of the van, and her anger escalated.
    “Yes!” she exclaimed when the next traffic signal turned red. Jerking her gearshift into park, she leapt out, jogged up to the pink convertible, and yanked the rhinestone encrusted cell phone from the young woman’s hands.
    “Hey!” the girl shrieked, and Olivia instantly recognized her. It was Estelle, Harris’s annoying ex-girlfriend. “Give me that!”
    Ignoring her, Olivia jogged over to the sidewalk and dropped the phone in a trashcan. “You know that expression ‘hang up and drive’?” she shouted at Estelle as she headed back to her car. “Well,
now
you can drive.”
    “I’m going to call the police!” Estelle threatened, her cheeks flushed pink with indignation.
    “With what phone? Oh, wait, my friend is talking to the chief right now.” Olivia pointed at Laurel. “Would you like to speak with him? Explain how you’ve nearly killed two senior citizens? How every time you send a text you’re inches away from getting in an accident or committing property damage?”
    “You’re just doing this because I broke up with Harris!” Estelle yelled.
    The signal turned green, and Olivia paused before getting in her car. “I did it because you’re an idiot. And Harris broke up with you. Probably because you’re an idiot. Now get out of the way, or I’ll give the chief your license plate number.”
    After calling Olivia a string of choice expletives, Estelle drove off.
    Next to her, the minivan driver, a handsome man in his midthirties, began to clap. His kids joined in and so did Laurel.
    “Bring on the puppets.” Olivia grinned.
    When they arrived at the bookstore, however, there wasn’t a puppet in sight. Flynn had cleared the children’s area of its usual assortment of pint-sized chairs and beanbags, leaving the rectangular alphabet-block rug free for the children to sit on. In addition to the rainbow-colored kites suspended from the ceiling, a sign welcoming the storytellers was hanging from the basket of a papier-mâché hot air balloon.
    “I didn’t know you were so crafty,” a woman in a plaid golf short teased Flynn as she pushed her child toward the rug.
    “I’m not. Jenna made the balloon. She also designed the ‘Stories Take Us to Other Places’ poster. We’re selling them for ten dollars apiece.” Flynn gave the woman his most charming smile.
    She responded instantly. Touching him on the arm, she said, “I’ll take two.”
    “He’s got the soccer moms eating out of his hands,” Millay said, coming up behind Olivia, Laurel, and Haviland. “I can’t believe you