Molly Dox - Annie Addison 01 - Color Me Crazy Read Free Page B

solve.
    “Eh, I like the easy life. That’s why I work here.” Frisco , on the other hand, wanted to sit in his car and listen to the latest ball game. The quieter the workday, the better in his eyes.
    “Come on,” Nick said, heading to the register. He tossed a couple of bills on the counter and headed to his car. Frisco followed suit.
    Poison. Wow. She was murdered. This changed everything. At eighty, everyone just assumed her time was up, but it turns out she predicted her own death. The day prior she’d commented that somebody would take her out. Annie just thought she was being paranoid. Was there a reason? Her mind ticked while her hand dug into her purse to pull out a few bills to pay for the coffee and the snack she grabbed off the cooler shelf.  She begrudgingly chose two hard boiled eggs and celery sticks. What she wanted was a box of soft chocolate chip cookies, but she was determined to stick to her lifestyle changes until she couldn’t stand life without cookies anymore.
    Getting to the shop, she was still noodling on the news of the day. Patsy had been murdered. It was hard to think about work when all her brain wanted to do was play amateur sleuth. Pulling out a piece of paper, she jotted down a list of people that she knew at the bar, all the people Patsy had talked about that she could remember, and put a big question mark at the top.
    If insurance was involved, the obvious person might have been her son, but that didn’t seem likely. They appeared to have a good relationship, even if Patsy did complain about him, she still went to visit him at work every night to sit and talk. He was her world. Annie didn’t know about her past or Greg’s father. She’d never asked. Maybe it was time to see if there was an ex-husband in the picture. Annie was more than annoyed with her own ex-husband enough times to at least play with the idea of incapacitating him a little bit, not that she’d actually follow through.
    When Trish came into work, Annie whispered as if others might overhear. “Did you hear about Patsy? She died last night, and now they think it was murder.”
    Trish gasped. “Our Patsy? Oh dear. Do they know who did it? What happened?”
    “She dropped at Uncle Buck’s last night. Charlotte and I were there at the time, we saw it happen.” Annie continued to fill in what little detail she knew.
    “Wow, that’s scary. Are they sure it wasn’t just a heart attack or something? She was up there in age.” Trish’s voice trembled with curiosity.
    “No, I don’t think so. I shouldn’t say anything, but I overheard the cops talking while getting coffee. They think somebody poisoned her.” Annie was still whispering.
    “Huh. I wonder who wanted old Patsy gone?” Trish turned to put her lunch in the small refrigerator in the back room.
    The door jangled as Mrs. Bushmiller walked in. “Did you hear? Patsy died.”
    “Yeah, I heard.” Annie didn’t say anything else.
    “News travels fast on this little island,” she said, miffed that she wasn’t the one to get to share the news first. She loved having the best details and gossip. “Well, anyway, I’ve got to run, I just wanted to say good morning and share the news.”
    “Have a good day,” Annie said, catching Trish out of the corner of her eye as she came back into the room. “Trish? Are you okay? Something seems off.” Trish’s arms were tightly crossed over her belly.
    “If I tell you something, you have to promise not to tell anyone. I mean it. I just need to say it out loud.” She dreaded admitting it, but she just had to get it off her chest.
    “Go on,” Annie said, wondering what had gotten into her co-worker.
    “I’ve been sleeping with Greg,” she said, almost too quiet to hear. “Rich has been slacking in the boyfriend department, and I’ve been secretly seeing Greg on the side. What if they think I’m involved somehow, because she was his mother?” Her hands started shaking, and she pulled them tighter to