Death Threads Read Free

surface. “Not a problem.”
    “So what exactly does someone like Ella May Vetter read?” Rose asked, her raspy voice suddenly light and giddy.
    “Oooo, let’s see.” Margaret Louise’s chunky hand reached across the counter, scooted the stack of books to within an easy reach. “Hmmm. Well . . . there’s Ten Easy Steps to Turn Your House into a Home , Sew Deadly , Misery , Peter Rabbit , and—get this— Keep Your Man Lusting .”
    “ Keep Your Man Lusting ?” Leona asked through lips that twitched. “You can’t be serious.”
    Margaret Louise pulled the bottom book from the pile and held it in the air. “I can and I am. See for yourself.” She set the book back down on the counter and slid it across to her sister. “Maybe there really is a man.”
    “There is. And has been for quite some time. He just resides in her head,” Rose offered as she, too, peered at the book Margaret Louise had placed in front of Leona. “That one is—and will always be—a strange duck. Or should I say bunny.”
    Giggles erupted among the group.
    “Who?” Tori asked feeling more than a little left out. Sure, she’d only been in Sweet Briar less than six months, but the circle members had done a fairly good job of getting her up to speed on the who’s who of the tight-knit town. Ella May Vetter, though, was a name she hadn’t heard before.
    She watched as Leona slowly scanned the library, her heavily lashed brown eyes darting from one face to the next before coming to rest squarely on Tori. “Now dear, we realize you’re used to lunatics every five feet where you’re from and, in all fairness, I’ve certainly seen my fair share while traveling . . . but here, in Sweet Briar, we have just one. And her name is Ella May Vetter.”
    Choosing to ignore the comment about her years in Chicago, Tori leaned closer. “Lunatic?”
    Three heads nodded in unison with Nina grudgingly adding her own silent affirmative.
    “Oh, c’mon, how bad can she be?” Tori asked.
    “Well, she lives in that big old Victorian off Lantern Drive. You know . . . the white one with the—”
    “Polka-dot mailbox?” Tori supplied as a picture began to form in her mind.
    Margaret Louise nodded, taking over where Rose left off as she simultaneously sifted through the rest of Ella May Vetter’s books. When she found the title she was searching for, she turned it so Tori could see, tapping her finger on Beatrix Potter’s name. “Lest Ella May be known as the clichéd cat lady, she raises bunnies . A whole mess of bunnies. She sits on her porch for hours hand-feeding each rabbit their very own organically grown carrot.”
    “Which, of course, she buys. Oh, and we can’t forget the frilly gloves.”
    She looked at Leona. “Frilly gloves?”
    Everyone nodded in sync as Leona offered the explanation that made Rose’s eyes roll upward. “Of course. We can’t have the carrots carrying any harmful oils from our fingers to the bunnies, now can we?” Leona lowered her voice to a near whisper. “But that’s not all. The last time I was in Leeson’s Market she was there, gushing about you-know-who as usual.”
    “You-know-who?” Giving up on any hope of shelving, Tori simply settled on the stool. “Who’s that?”
    “That, Victoria, is the million dollar question.” Rose bent forward at the waist ever so slightly as a deep cough rattled her frail body. “For going on ten years now we’ve all heard about this amazing man she’s been dating. He’s smart. Good-looking. Funny. Charming. Well traveled. Even famous. He is—to hear her talk—the epitome of every woman’s dream.”
    She looked from Rose, to Margaret Louise, to Leona, to Nina, and back again. “I don’t get it. So what’s the problem? I mean the mailbox is funny and the bunny thing is definitely a little weird. But what’s wrong with this—this Ella May Vetter woman having a great guy? Milo has certainly made my life a lot more special.”
    Just the mere mention of Milo