Running on Empty (33 page)

Chuck's eyebrows went up. 'And
I'm
insensitive?'

AnnaLise shrugged. 'I was traumatized. Thoughts just came tumbling out.'

'Speaking of trauma,' Chuck said, 'you didn't report being attacked in Daisy's garage.'

'Don't tell me,' Bobby said. 'My mother again, right?'

'Well, I don't―' AnnaLise started.

'So Mrs. B herself says,' Chuck confirmed. 'She mistook you for your mother.'

AnnaLise came forward, elbows on knees. 'She was trying to kill Daisy? I mean, even
before Ema pushed my mother into the lake?'

'Uh,' Bobby raised his hand. 'I think, in the interests of accuracy, that you told
me
your
mother pushed
mine
into the lake.'

'Point taken,' AnnaLise said. 'But the question still stands, why did Mrs. B want
to hurt my Daisy?'

'She didn't, particularly, though it might have started her thinking about it. Fact
is, planting the cane to divert attention had worked so well, Ema Bradenham decided
maybe she should stash the rifle there, too. You surprised the woman is all, Lise.
Nearly caught her in the act.'

'The rifle?' Bobby repeated. 'The one that was used to shoot Smoaks and Hart?'

Stated that way, it sounded like a North Carolina law firm. AnnaLise, despite herself
and the situation, emitted an involuntary giggle.

Side-cutting a look at her, Chuck moved both cups of bourbon to his end of the table.
'The very same. It's yours, in fact.'

'Wait just a minute.' Bobby shook his head like a horse on a cold morning. 'Ma used
my
deer rifle?'

Of all the things he'd heard, this upset Bobby the most?

'I'm sure Ema planned to put your gun back,' AnnaLise said, patting him on the shoulder.
'I mean, until the time she decided to plant it in our garage.'

She turned to Chuck. 'Where is it now, by the way?'

'She dropped it when you surprised her.'

AnnaLise remembered hearing something metallic hit the deck as the garage door descended
on her. 'So, Ema took it with her when things didn't go as planned?'

'So she says. Then put it back in Bobby's "miscellany cabinet", as she called it.'

AnnaLise turned to Bobby. 'That's a very nice set-up there on your deck, by the way.
The grill, the hot tub and...' She reached for his cup.

'Uh-uh,' Bobby said. 'You're cut off.'

'OK, OK,' AnnaLise said, settling back into the vinyl of the couch and closing her
eyes to both her companions and the tufts of stuffing tickling her nose.

'Short hitter, Lise,' she heard from Chuck, as though in a dream.

'Let her sleep,' said Bobby, his voice like velvet. 'It's been a rough day all around.'

'You're telling me.' Chuck cleared his throat apologetically. 'I have to go get your
mother now.'

'I know.' Silence. Then: 'Did Ma confess to everything?'

'Pretty much. Said she wanted to get it all out, then forget and move on.'

AnnaLise had that feeling of a patient listening to her doctors as the anesthesia
kicks in.

Bobby laughed. 'That surely sounds like her. The past is the past, she'd say. Now
I know why.' A pause. 'Funny, isn't it?'

'You're a better man than me, Bobby, if you can think of anything humorous just now.'

'I mean odd, ironic. AnnaLise is so worried about Daisy losing her memories. And my
mother? All she wants is to forget her own.'

Ironic. AnnaLise, in her fugue state, approved the choice of vocabulary.

Chuck's voice: 'Daisy's still got more on the ball than Lise might realize. Her mom
heard the Spyder coming — you know, that noisy muffler?'

AnnaLise thought Bobby might have nodded. At least, he should have.

Chuck again: 'Well, Daisy kept Ema talking, pretending they were back in the day.'

Now Bobby: 'So Annie would have time to get there? That is smart, I have to say.'

'Yup.' A hesitation. 'Daisy is failing, though. It's hard to see... but impossible
not
to.'

'You think Annie'll stay?'

'I hope so.'

Another pause. AnnaLise thought she might actually be falling... asleep.

'You're going to have to ticket her for that muffler, you know.'

'I know.'

Maggy Thorsen Mysteries

Uncommon Grounds

Grounds for Murder

Bean There, Done That

Brewed, Crude and Tattooed

From the Grounds Up

A Cup of Jo

Triple Shot

Main Street Mysteries

Running on Empty

Dead Ends

Single Titles

Heaven’s Fire

The Grass is Always Greener and Other Stories

Sandra Balzo turned to mystery writing after twenty years in corporate public relations,
event management and publicity.
Triple Shot
, her seventh
Maggy Thorsen
coffeehouse mystery, was just released, and Sandy's second series, Main Street Mysteries,
debuted in April with
Running on Empty
. The books, set in the popular vacation destination of North Carolina's High Country,
will alternate with the Maggy Thorsen mysteries.
Heaven's Fire
, about a fireworks show gone badly wrong, was released directly to Kindle with excellent
reviews.

Balzo's novels have been nominated for both the Anthony and Macavity awards and received
starred reviews from Kirkus and Booklist. In addition to her books about coffee-maven
Maggy Thorsen and displaced journalist AnnaLise Griggs, Balzo writes short stories,
two of which have been published in Ellery Queen Mystery Magazine, winning the Macavity,
Derringer and Robert L. Fish awards. Those psychological thrillers, along with a third
original story, are available on Kindle in
The Grass is Always Greener and Other Stories
.

Balzo has handled publicity for three Bouchercons (World Mystery Conventions), as
well as the International Association of Crime Writers, and has served a national
board member of Mystery Writers of America. A native of southeastern Wisconsin, she
currently splits her time between Florida and the High Country of North Carolina.

And roots for the Green Bay Packers.

www.sandybalzo.com