Panic Button (31 page)

Alvin banged a fist down on top of the book. “No. None of those things. What you women
need to do…” His gaze moved from one to the other of us. “What all of you need to
do is learn to get along. You’re neighbors. Start acting like it. You have to stop
talking
at
each other and start talking
to
each other. And I’ll tell you what, I’m going to go down in South Bass history, because
I’m the one who’s going to make sure you do it.”

Yeah, I sounded as skeptical as I was feeling when I asked, “You’re going to sentence
us to talk to each other?”

Alvin’s smile was sleek. “I’m going to do you one better than that,” he said. “I’m
going to make each of you report to the library at seven o’clock, this Monday, and
every Monday for the next year. I’m sentencing you three to be a book discussion group.”

Marianne’s miserable expression morphed into a smile.

Chandra’s mouth dropped open.

Kate (do I even need to say it?) rolled her eyes.

Good thing one of us didn’t lose her head. “You can’t do that,” I said. “It’s not
legal.”

“Well, it’s not illegal,” he told me. “And believe me, it beats all the other things
I could do to you. You don’t want to find out what those things are.”

I had to agree with Alvin there.

But just for the record, that didn’t mean I had to like it.

From the looks on their faces, I’m pretty sure Kate and Chandra didn’t either, and
I left the town hall with a cynical smile on my face, thinking it was the first thing
we’d ever agreed on.

No, at that point, we didn’t think of ourselves as the League of Literary Ladies.
Not yet, anyway. I’m pretty sure we didn’t think of ourselves as anything but royally
pissed, not to mention inconvenienced.

But then, that was before the murder. And the murder?

Well, that changed everything.