The Body in the Basement Read Free Page B

flowers. She had no doubt that every year would be better than the last, because no memory could equal the impact of that palette stretching out—in some parts of the island, as far as the eye could see.
    â€œNo scandals? Come on, Mother, you’re slipping,” Pix chided.
    â€œLet me think. You heard that the manager of the IGA is keeping company with his ex-wife’s sister? And the two sisters have, of course, stopped talking to each other and the ex-wife has to drive clear off island now every time she needs a quart of milk.
    â€œAnd what else? Oh, I know. It will probably be in the paper this week, but Gert told me about it this morning. They had a real scare at the nursing home. When Karen Sanford went to open up the common room, she found glass all over the place, and she’d left it spick-and-span the night before. Obviously vandalism. So she called Earl to come investigate. Turns out the vandals were a Yoo-Hoo bottle that had exploded and knocked over a tray of dishes!”
    â€œIt will definitely make ‘Police Brief,” Pix said when she finished laughing. What a change from reading the news at home, she thought to herself. Sgt. Earl Dickinson was the one and only law-enforcement official on the island—and so far, the only one needed. It reminded her.
    â€œDo you think Earl and Jill are going to get married?” Jill Merriwether was the proprietress of a gift shop in Sanpere Village.
    â€œIt’s certainly about time, but they seem to be content the way they are and so long as they both feel the same, it’s fine.”
    â€œI know what you mean. If one or the other starts getting itchy for the altar, then there could be a problem. Still, I don’t
know why they don’t. It’s nice being married.” Pix had no regrets.
    â€œThen, as you might imagine”—her mother continued to catch her up—“there’s a lot of talk about the Athertons. I didn’t want to say too much in front of Samantha, but their house is finally finished and everyone’s calling it ‘the Million-Dollar Mansion,’ which is quite likely close to the truth. I don’t think there’s a person on Sanpere who doesn’t know they have six bathrooms, three with bidets.”
    â€œThe bidets may have taken some explaining.”
    â€œTrue, but the gold-plated faucets didn’t.”
    â€œWhere did Jim get all his money? The fees at the sailing camp have always been pretty steep, yet nothing that would produce an income like this.”
    â€œHis mother’s father invented scouring pads or some such thing and money made money. Keeps on making it, if the house and those boats of Jim’s are any indication.”
    â€œSo they really intend to live on the island year-round. I’m not so sure I’d want to be here all winter. It gets pretty quiet.” Pix thought of her constant round of activity in Aleford and realized with a start that she’d miss it if she moved.
    â€œYour father and I considered living in The Pines when he retired, but when it came down to it, there were too many things and people we didn’t want to leave.”
    The two women paused in their conversation and looked out across the water at the sunset. They could see Samantha silhouetted against the horizon. The Pines had been built to take advantage of “the view.” There was a large front porch and one extending off the second-floor bedrooms. It was an ark of a house, with rooms added to the rear as needed. By modern standards, it was dark. The windows were small and the interior pine paneling old-fashioned. The only remodeling that had been done since it was built was to the indoor plumbing and the addition of a gas stove and other modern appliances in the kitchen. The old woodstove was still used for
heat and Gert kept it blackened, its chrome sparkling. Pix had seen a similar one for sale in an antiques shop for five hundred dollars. Her