[ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]
.She put down her coffee cup and held up her wrinkled, work-worn hands as if in defence.“This is her story, not mine.” Shegave Millie a look.“Thanks for the coffee.I’m going to get back to that woodpile.Never know when another storm is going to hit.”We watched in silence as Barb put on her coat and boots and left through the same door she’d entered.“She’s not really very social,” Millie said by way of explanation.“She didn’t know Hilda very well.Didn’t think we shouldget involved.”Millie rose and ambled into the kitchen area.I thought she was getting the coffeepot to offer refills.Instead, she dug out a bottle of Kahlua from one of the cupboards.“I think this coffee needs a little something, don’t you?” She held the lip of the bottle over my cup, waiting for my answer.I smiled.“Oh thanks, that would be nice, except I have to drive back to the city right away.My mother is expecting me fordinner.”“Okay for you then.Don’t say I didn’t offer.” She poured herself a double portion, mine and hers.Millie had obviouslyfound a better way to keep warm.Why keep a fire going when there’s alcohol around?“So you and Hilda were good friends?”“Oh, I don’t know if I’d say that,” she answered when she’d returned the bottle to its hiding place and sat back down.“Butshe was our nearest neighbour.Has been all my life.Her place is just over the hill to the north.Big place.She pretty much owns most of the land around here.Something like seventy quarters or more.“We weren’t best friends or nothing like that.But we were friendly.Like neighbours are friendly.At least in the country.We look after one another out here.She’d buy eggs from us every now and then.Our hens have always been better layers than hers.Don’t know why.They just are.So if she needed extra, for baking or company at Christmas or something like that, she’d call and ask if she could buy an extra dozen or so.I’d take them over there and we’d have coffee and talk sometimes.”“What was it about her death that made you think you needed to hire a detective, Millie?”“It’s what that doctor said.And the police.That she’d died from that food poisoning thing.”“Botulism.”“Another thing that country folk know about is that botulism.Used to be that people were afraid—city people, that is—theywere afraid to eat home-canned food, because they thought they’d die from it if the canning wasn’t done right.But that wasyears and years and years ago.All you have to do is boil everything long enough and hot enough.It’s not hard.And let me tell you, if anyone knew how to preserve safely, it was Hilda Kraus.She would never make that kind of mistake.I’d stake my life on it.And besides, they say it was a jar of canned asparagus that did her in.There’s no way.”“Why’s that?”“Can’t grow asparagus around here.Comes up all reedy and woody.Must be the soil, I don’t know.But in all my days, I’venever known Hilda to grow asparagus.Never mind can it.”“I suppose she might have bought it somewhere else.Like maybe at a Farmer’s Market or something like that.”Millie swigged her coffee/cocktail.“I suppose, but I doubt it.Besides all that, I had another reason for calling in Jane.”Excellent.“What was that?”“I know who killed Hilda.”Chapter 4“I saw the car.”“You saw the murderer’s car?” I asked, a little gobsmacked.“You see, I have to pass right by Hilda’s yard on my way to town.I go into town at least once a day.It was strange, the first time I saw her car…”“Her?”“Lynette.Hilda’s daughter.”Okay, wow.Millie was accusing Hilda’s own daughter of killing her.Matricide.Tsk tsk tsk.It was shocking.Unbelievable.So much so, that I wasn’t sure I believed it.And I certainly couldn’t begin to connect how a daughter killing her mother in Muenster could lead to Jane Cross being shot to death in Regina.“The first time I saw her car, it wasn’t even in the yard [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]