A Motor for Murder (Veronica Margreve Mysteries Book 1) Read Free Page A

stands for Battery Electric, and is pronounced ‘Belle’”.
    Well, he certainly had big plans! It was nice to hear the kid so excited about technology and improvements in electric cars. I thanked him and put the card in my purse.
     
    At that moment, a portly, mostly bald guy in a bowling shirt and jeans, and holding a beer joined us. He was also under-dressed, and I took him for another fellow nerd.
    “Oh hi Mr. Kempler!” Roger said.
    Mr Kempler saluted Roger with his beer and told me that his name was Wayne. During small talk, I learned that Wayne was a retired accountant. We chatted about the Alluring Exotics Car Club that Wayne was the president of a member and George a member for the last 8 years; his fabulous cars – he referred to a vintage Rolls Royce as “his pride and joy”; the recent car show that the club held; Wayne's disappointment on missing out of the top prize in his category (his comment to Roger then was: “Your brother-in-law is very proud of himself!”); and how he stored his two cars. He seemed like a bit of a bore, and after a little more chit-chat, I wished Roger luck with his ideas and excused myself to head to another part of the house, still on the trail of more delicious food.
     
    In the kitchen, I grabbed another treat off the full plate stacked high: caprese skewers. As I was fumbling around with my food and my drink, I bumped into an Indian man in his 50s, short, round and jovial. He introduced himself as Vinay and said that he was George's golf buddy, and bought all his cars from him. Amid small talk, it came out that Vinay was a serial entrepreneur, having started and sold 3 software (game development) companies to the likes of Facebook and Microsoft. I was familiar with the products of one of his ventures, and knew that he was a millionaire many, many times over (probably close to being a billionaire). He was now working on his next start-up, in mobile gaming. We talked about software development and the trends in it for a while, exchanged business cards, and then moved on.
     
    As I grabbed the next bite of food, I reflected that I was pleased with myself – I was successfully mingling at the party! Meeting strangers, smiling at them, being polite, making small talk. Overall, an outgoing and social evening! It was nice to have one of those every once in a while, I decided, instead of just sitting at home with my cat, as smart and cute as she was.
     
    And by this point in the party, I felt I deserved a break. More so since being un-used to wearing 5'' heels (no matter how fabulous), I got tired of being on my feet all evening. I decided to head back down towards the pool, where I had seen some big chairs on the patio near the fireplace. On the way there, I passed another catering station. The staff has updated the selections there – now miniature desserts. Eating those by the roaring fire, on a warm evening was going to be fun. My introvert personality had about enough of people and conversations for the time being. But the glutton in me didn't have enough of the wonderful food yet. As I was curled up in a big comfy chair by the outdoor fireplace near the pool, the plate piled with varieties of mini-desserts, I contemplated that I had achieved what was surely the pinnacle of earthly pleasures from my cat's point of view: I was comfortable, warm, already had some delicious food and was about to dig into some more, and had free access to more piles of food just steps away.
     
    As I was contemplating the cat's philosophy of life, I heard determined clicking of high heels, and then voices. By the sound and the rhythm of the steps, I realized that one of the people heading my way was Caitlin. Since she previously caught me with double servings of food and was so unpleasant to me, I decided to try to make myself smaller, lest she noticed  and judged the 5 different desserts on my plate – I was not in the mood to have her bitchiness directed at me again. I tucked in my feet and