Smoked (The Alex Harris Mystery Series) Read Free

the Kravecs’ backyard, standing just outside the yellow tape.
    Someone had taken all the burned leaves and there was just flat blackened earth where the fire had been. The grass looked trampled all the way up to the woods, which backed up against our yards. If Mrs. Kravec had died from an allergic reaction to the burning leaves, it seemed odd it was marked as a crime scene, but of course they needed to find out exactly what happened and I didn’t think the police had tape that said, “just checking the facts.” I still wanted to know how Mrs. Kravec dying from an allergic reaction might translate into a crime and I hoped John would share the final outcome with me.
    Poor Mrs. Kravec. What did I really know about her? I hadn’t lived in this house very long but I had stopped to talk with her several times while out for walks during the summer. I knew she had been a professor at one point but had changed careers at the end of the school year. She had mentioned some sort of blog and I now felt ashamed I had never checked it out. Most of our conversations were easy banter about our lawns and various plants or what was going on in the neighborhood, which wasn’t much. And now she was gone and I would never get a chance to know her. And who would attend to the beautiful flowering bushes and plants scattered across their property? Her husband? I didn’t see him very often, though I had stopped by his shop a couple of times. His cuts of beef were superb but costly and John and I only splurged a few times.
    The air had taken on a sudden chill and I had left the house without a jacket. Plus my stomach was rumbling despite the fact it had been well fed at noon. My plate of leftovers was probably cold by now. With one last look at the remnants of the fire pit, I turned toward my house. And that’s when I screamed.

 
     
     
Chapter Four
     
     
    “Wow! Hey, are you all right? I didn’t mean to scare you like that.”
    From my position on the ground, where I had landed when I bumped into the young woman who now stood towering over me, I looked up and shook my head. “No. I’m okay. You just scared the daylights out of me.” I stood up and wiped grass and dirt from the butt of my pants. My new pants, in case anyone wanted to know, which I picked up at a terrific sale. I turned to look at the woman. “Who are you?”
    “Oh, sorry. Ellery Kravec. Maria Kravec was my mom. I came by to see if my dad was back from the police station yet and I saw you out here.”
    “Geesh. I never heard you.”
    “You looked like you were deep in thought. Are you sure you’re okay?”
    “Yes. Thank you.”
    “What are you doing out here in the dark? Do you want to come inside? By the way, who are you?” Ellery Kravec asked me in a direct way though not sounding very concerned about a stranger in her parents’ yard.
    “I’m Alex. Alex Harris Van der Burg. From next door. I’m so sorry about your mother. I called 911,” I said and realized how woefully inadequate it sounded.
    In a sudden move Ellery wrapped her arms around me. “Thank you so much,” she said into my shoulder.
    “I didn’t do anything. I’m sorry I couldn’t save her. I just called 911.” I felt terrible. I didn’t know what else to say. Standing next to Ellery made me feel totally useless. Maybe if I had known CPR or had one of those prefilled injectors I could have saved Mrs. Kravec, but of course at the time, I had no idea she was in anaphylactic shock. “Really. I just called for help. I wish I could have done more.”
    Ellery released me and smiled. “If you hadn’t found her she might still be lying out here. You did more than you know. She would have been out here all night. My father was gone and who knows when she would have been found.”
    I gave Ellery a weak smile. “I was just about to go in for some dinner. Would you care to join me? It’s just leftovers?”
    Ellery looked over her shoulder at the house. It didn’t look like Mr. Kravec had