Cast Iron Motive (The Cast Iron Cooking Mysteries Book 4) by Jessica Beck

not. I’m sorry to go against your wishes, but it’s how it has to be.”
    “If your gut is telling you that, then I’ll have your back,” Annie answered quietly. “You know that.”
    “Even against Della?” I asked.
    “Even against Kathleen,” she replied. It was the only answer I would accept from her. It had been the two of us against the world since our births, and I hoped that it would end that way in the end, but not until we were both old and gray, a pair of ancient, cranky geezers.
    “Thank you. Now, let’s go see if Della can clear things up for us any.”

Chapter 10: Annie
    I wasn’t all that thrilled with the prospect of asking our aunt such hard questions about the things she’d recently told us, but I knew in my heart that Pat was right. We couldn’t let Aunt Della off the hook just because we were family. What we had to ask her might alienate her from us again, but it was a risk that we had to take. I was steeling myself for the confrontation when I was surprised to see someone leaving Della’s house as we arrived.
    I was getting ready to introduce myself when the older, rail-thin woman turned and found us approaching. She frowned for a second, and then sunlight appeared on her face. “Annie! Patrick! I’m so glad to finally get to meet you!”
    She was certainly enthusiastic. “It’s good to meet you, too,” I said. “And you are?”
    She blushed a little. “I’m Henrietta Long. Your aunt and I have been great friends forever.”
    “You ran the Winter Wonderland together,” Pat said. “She’s told us about you, too.”
    “Only good things, I hope,” she said with a giggle, though she was clearly older than Della. It sounded odd coming from her.
    “What brings you by the house?” I asked her.
    “We were going to settle up all of the accounts from the fundraiser, but silly me, I left the ledger books at home. None of those fancy computers for me! Given your visit, we’ve decided to wait until tomorrow to go over the final numbers. Are you staying long? She’d really love it if you could. I know it’s probably a huge imposition, but it would mean so much to her.”
    Wow, this woman was good. We’d only just met her, and here she was making us feel guilty for planning such a short stay with our aunt. I had to laugh. “We’ll stay as long as we can, but we have a business to run.”
    “She’s told me all about the Iron. It sounds delightful. I’d love to see it someday.”
    I didn’t see how that was possible, given the fact that our aunt had never stepped foot in the place, but I was willing to go along with the ruse just to get this woman gone. “We like it,” I said. “Sorry to cut this short, but we really need to talk to our aunt now.”
    “Of course. I was just on my way. Have a wonderful day.”
    “You, too,” Pat said, shaking his head a little as he did. After Henrietta was gone, he looked at me and rolled his eyes, something that never ceased to make me laugh. I knew my brother’s opinion of the woman without him having to say a word.
    Della was surprised to find us back so soon. “That was fast.”
    “We need to ask you a few things,” Pat said gravely.
    “That sounds serious. What have you heard?”
    He didn’t answer her question, and neither did I as I asked her a question of my own. “Della, do you honestly believe that Davis is in love with you?”
    “It’s clear by the way he looks at me, and the man’s certainly asked me out enough times! Why, did he deny that?”
    “No, he made it perfectly clear that he asked you, but he said that when you weren’t interested, he dropped it.”
    It was clearly a blow to her ego to believe that any man couldn’t fall helplessly in love with her, and then just cast her aside. “You said yourself that he might have done that just to be near me.”
    “And you explained that it was more to get a house by the lake than to be close by,” I reminded her. This line of questioning had been my brother’s