A Dead Sister (Jessica Huntington Desert Cities Mystery) by Anna Burke Page B

taking it with me.”
    “This is Peet’s. It’s not cheap, but you would save money if you fixed it yourself, and brought it with you. Another thing for you to do with all that spare time you have on your hands.”
    Jessica sipped her own coffee, savoring the dark roasted Sumatran beans, flown in monthly. There weren’t any Peet’s stores in the Coachella Valley. In a pinch, she could buy a bag at one of the local grocery stores, but the selection wasn’t always great. Sometimes all they carried was ground coffee, a taboo for her inner coffee snob. Soothed by the warmth of the delectable brew, Jessica ventured back to the topic of what to do about Kelly.
    “Frank, it mattered to Laura that Roger’s killer was brought to justice. In her case, though, she was on the list of possible suspects. Laura got closure on some pretty important issues. It’s also a matter of justice, in the larger scheme of things. There’s also the fact that, if Kelly was murdered, that person is still out there and could do it again. I also get it that you don’t want to stir things up unless there’s a damn good reason. That’s a judgment call, and it sounds to me like we don’t have enough information right now to make that call.”
    “That brings me to the second reason I wanted to talk to you, Jessica. You’re a lawyer. You could talk to whoever’s representing this guy in the public defender’s office and get a better read on how far gone he is. Or maybe they’d let you interview the perp. If it is Kelly, I’m going to have to keep my distance, given that she’s family. I don’t want to create even the hint of impropriety. Or do anything that could be used later to claim that the investigation was tainted because a family member was involved. Uncle Don is in the same boat in Palm Springs. So, how about it?” He paused, watching Jessica intently as he went back to drinking his coffee.
    Jessica wasn’t certain. She picked up her coffee and sipped it, buying time. If she could do anything that would, belatedly, help her friend Kel ly, then she should. Like Frank, she also wanted to protect Tommy and his parents from reliving that dreadful event. Or from false hope that someone might be held accountable for Kelly’s death, whether an accident or on purpose. Jessica looked at Frank and knew she had made her decision. She had to try to find out the truth.
    “Okay, Frank. How about this? Let’s do what we can without bringing the rest of the Fontana family into it, for the time being. I’ll check it out, as you ask, while you get Art to go another round on his end. We’ll take this a step at a time, and if it looks like we’re getting somewhere, we’ll break the news to the rest of the Fontanas. Does that make sense?” Jessica offered Frank more coffee.
    “It does,” he said, sliding his empty mug closer to her so she could refill it. Then she poured herself another cup. “Thanks Jessica. This just sort of dropped into my lap, so I feel compelled to follow up. How bizarre is that?”
    Jessica’s skin prickled, recalling that earlier conversation with Bernadette. “This is odd, I’ll give you that. Not just the way you found out about it. But why on earth would anyone have wanted to kill Kelly?”
    “I have no idea. We may find out some things about Kelly we’d prefer not to know. She was pretty high-strung and gave her parents plenty of grief. I just presumed that was teenage stuff and she’d grow out of it.”
    “My last encounter with Kelly was not a very pleasant one either. I feel bad about that, but it’s also left me wondering what on earth was going on with her. I owe it to her as a friend to try to face the truth, even if it turns out to be unsettling.”
    “I had a similar reaction to her death. I had this uneasy feeling that something was not quite right with Kelly, but by then it was too late to do anything about it. I was so preoccupied with my own studies, and my relationship with Mary, that I