Patterned After Death: Southern Sewing Circle Mystery #12 - Softcover

Buch 12 von 12: Southern Sewing Circle Mystery

Casey, Elizabeth Lynn

 
9780425282571: Patterned After Death: Southern Sewing Circle Mystery #12
Softcover
ISBN 10: 0425282570 ISBN 13: 9780425282571
Verlag: Berkley, 2017

Inhaltsangabe

Murder hits close to home for the Southern Sewing Circle in the latest mystery from national bestselling author Elizabeth Lynn Casey.

Everyone in Sweet Briar, South Carolina, knows former high school football stars Jake Davis and Noah Madden. The two were fierce rivals once and now, twenty years later, the dueling quarterbacks haven’t lost their luster. So townsfolk are surprised when Jake and Noah team up for a business venture. And there’s only one suspect when Noah turns up murdered. 

Margaret Louise, Jake’s mother and one of the founding members of the sewing circle, isn’t about to take the attack on her son’s reputation lying down. In fact, she’s in full mama-bear mode. And Tori and the rest of the Sweet Briar gang are more than willing to help her sharpen her claws to catch a killer.

PATTERN AND SEWING TIPS INCLUDED 

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Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Elizabeth Lynn Casey is the author of the bestselling Southern Sewing Circle Mysteries, including Needle and Dread, Wedding Duress, Taken In, Remnants of Murder, and Let It Sew.

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Chapter 1

Wentworth Tucking her tote bag beside her feet, Tori Sinclair glanced over at the sixtysomething woman beaming at her from behind the sun-faded steering wheel.

"I really appreciate the ride, Margaret Louise." Tori reached up, grabbed hold of the seat belt, and fastened it across her lap and shoulder. "Saves Milo the hassle of having to drop everything just to pick me up."

Peeking into the rearview mirror, Margaret Louise Davis yanked the station wagon to the left and pressed down on the gas. Hard. If she noticed the way the back of Tori's head smacked against the headrest, she didn't let on. Instead, she turned left out of the parking lot, her smile widening with each additional number gained on the speedometer. "I don't think there's anything that sweet husband of yours wouldn't drop for you, Victoria."

"And knowing Milo, you're probably right. But he's already doing me a huge favor. On his Saturday, no less." Tori tried not to grimace as they sped around the corner. "I just hope whatever is wrong with my car isn't anything too expensive. I kind of went a little crazy on our trip to Heavenly, Pennsylvania, last month, you know?"

At the end of Main Street, Margaret Louise turned right and then left at the next four-way stop. "Bring it to Jake. There ain't nothin' he can't fix."

"But he has a business to run and I don't want to take advantage." And she didn't. Just because Jake was Margaret Louise's son didn't mean he should have to drop everything to work on her car.

Margaret Louise waved Tori's protest aside as if it were a pesky gnat. "I love you. Melissa loves you. And all eight of my grandbabies love you. That right there is why Jake would move your car to the front of the heap. Well, that and the fact he's just the sweetest, most wonderful son a mama can ask for. Been that way since the day he was born. No fussin' and no troublemakin'. Ever."

"Spoken like a proud mama."

"There ain't no prouder, Victoria." At the next stop sign, Margaret Louise stayed on the brake. "Victoria? Would you mind if we stop out at the garage before I bring you home? All this talk about my boy is makin' me want to give him a hug."

She felt the smile as it raced across her face. "Hugs are good."

"Woo-ee." Margaret Louise looked both ways and then found the gas pedal with a heavy foot. "Wait 'til you see his place, Victoria. Jake calls it state-of-the-art. I call it fancy-real fancy."

There was no denying the way Margaret Louise's natural enthusiasm for life bubbled over the moment the subject of her son, his wife, or their eight children came up. Even if the woman didn't utter a word, the love she had for them was as tangible as the polyester warm-up suit covering her plump form.

Tori swung her attention off the road in front of them and back onto her friend. "So the renovations are done?"

"Yes siree, Victoria. And it sure looks mighty purty out there now."

"And the partnership with Noah is working out okay?" Tori asked.

It was quick. And it was fleeting. But there was no missing the way Margaret Louise's smile faltered in response.

"Margaret Louise?"

Again, Margaret Louise waved at the air with her hand, only this time it was a tad bit less emphatic. "Don't mind me, Victoria. I'm just a mama bear with a memory that won't quit. But I'm workin' on it. For Jake's sake."

"I know I wasn't living in Sweet Briar when Jake was in high school, but I also know that was a long time ago. Surely an old football rivalry is long dead and buried." Though, even as the words left her lips, Tori knew she was speaking from a place of ignorance. Sweet Briar was a small town. A small southern town, for that matter. Ninety-five percent of the residents had been born there, as had their fathers and mothers before them. It was a dynamic she found both endearing and, at times, a little disconcerting, too.

Sure enough, Margaret Louise stiffened in her seat, her gaze firmly fixed on the road. "You might think that, Victoria. But defeat don't always go down easy. Especially when it was suffered in front of friends and family the way Noah's and Noah's mama's and daddy's was. Memories like that don't just fade away."

"Eighteen years isn't exactly fading away, Margaret Louise. Life goes on, you know? They're grown men, with jobs. And, in Jake's case, a family." Tori reached across the seat and squeezed her friend's shoulder. "And, from what I can see, Noah has done pretty well for himself since high school. Because here's the thing: the clubs you belonged to and the awards you won in high school might have mattered at that time, but in the real world no one really"-she stopped, mentally called back the word she was seconds from uttering, and opted to get the point across with a slightly softer touch-"thinks too much about it, you know?"

Margaret Louise said nothing as she turned right at the end of the block. There, in front of them, loomed the new sign for Jake's Garage-bright and eye-catching. "I guess, if nothin' else, Jake's business will increase now that Team Noah won't be drivin' clear into another town just to have their cars fixed."

"Team Noah?" Tori echoed.

"The folks who favored Noah as quarterback that last year were called Team Noah. The folks with workin' eyes were Team Jake." The car slowed as they approached the building but resumed its normal speed as a quick perusal yielded a closed sign on the door and no sign of Jake's car in the lot. "Well, I'll be darned. Looks like that hug is gonna wait 'til I drop you off after all, Victoria."

She was pretty sure she nodded in response, but really, her thoughts had yet to fully leave the previous conversation. "So these teams were essentially made up of family, I take it?"

"Family, friends, people in town. Everyone picked a team. Though it ain't any coincidence the nicer folks are Team Jake."

"Are?" she repeated, only to pause as Margaret Louise made a U-turn in the middle of the road and headed toward Tori's side of town. "You say that like these teams still exist."

"Because they do." Margaret Louise swerved to avoid a squirrel, her eyes darting between the road and Tori. "And they're just as loyal and adversarial now as they were then."

"You can't be serious."

"Ask Leona sometime. Bein' a business owner in this town gives her a front-row seat to the inner workin's of Team Noah. Why, she can tell you a story or two 'bout Team Noah that'd curl your toes."

Tori winced as they narrowly missed yet another squirrel, and then looked back at the driver. "What's your sister and her business got to do with this?"

"Noah's money is all over this town these days. And as for Leona, she's Team Jake by default on account of bein' kin."

"Okay, slow down. You lost me on the money part . . ."

Margaret Louise opened her mouth to speak but closed it as Tori's phone began to ring. Reaching down, Tori fished it out of the center compartment and glanced down at the screen.

"It's Charles. Do you mind if I take this? He was on tap for checking on Rose this morning, and I want to see how it went."

"Put him on that speaker thingy so I can hear, too. Saves him another call that way." At Tori's raised eyebrow, Margaret Louise shrugged. "I'm worried 'bout her, too, Victoria."

Nodding, Tori hit the green button and the speaker button in...

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Verlag
Berkley
Erscheinungsdatum
2017
Sprache
Englisch
ISBN 10 
0425282570
ISBN 13 
9780425282571
Einband
Taschenbuch
Anzahl der Seiten
304
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