Dead Ends (Main Street Mysteries Book 2) by Sandra Balzo Page A

first snowfall.
    ‘Morning,’ Josh echoed, wiping his palms on a rag before shaking hands with her through the driver's side open window. His blue eyes were sad. ‘I'd like to apologize for my friend's behavior yesterday at Mama's. Suze was upset.’
    ‘She has reason to be,’ AnnaLise said.
    ‘Yes, ma'am, but not at you, and I told her that. Suze said to tell you she was sorry when I saw you.’
    Suzanne hadn't looked ‘apologetic’ when she and AnnaLise had practically run into each other at the top of the stairs at the inn, but given the affair AnnaLise'd had with the girl's father, she had no right to criticize Suzanne's behavior. Or, for that matter, her protective clan instincts.
    ‘That's a very nice gesture, Josh, but truly neither Suzanne nor you has anything to apologize for. How is she holding up?’
    He gave a little head-tilt. ‘Hard to tell, I have to say. I don't know a lot of people from the Midwest, so maybe they handle this manner of thing different. She just seems . . . mad? Says her mother killed herself.’
    AnnaLise's heart stopped. ‘Killed herself? Like in . . . suicide?’
    ‘That's what I thought at first, when Suze said it, but no. Turns out her mama,’ Josh looked around to see if anyone was passing by and therefore could overhear, ‘she liked to drink.’
    ‘Oh.’ AnnaLise didn't have anything else appropriate to contribute.
    ‘According to Suze, her mother was always telling her not to drink alcohol and not to drive too fast, but she didn't take her own advice.’
    ‘I guess a lot of us don't practice what we preach.’
    ‘That's just what I told Suze.’ Josh's blue eyes turned sadder. ‘I also said she was lucky to have had her mama for as long as she did, but that just made Suze, like, more . . . bitter?’
    Poor Josh. Despite everything, he showed signs of maturing into a good guy. AnnaLise feared he be no match for Suzanne's biting intellect and, if half of what Ben said about his daughter was true, legendary temper tantrums.
    AnnaLise touched his arm. ‘Suze is very lucky to have you.’
    ‘Thank you, ma'am, but I'm not sure she's feeling that way right about now.’
    ‘Some people find it less painful to be angry rather than sad. She'll get past it.’ AnnaLise checked her watch. Five more minutes late. ‘Well, I'd best go. I'm due at Hotel Lux in ten minutes.’
    ‘Don't think you're going to make it, less'n you fly.’
    ‘I crawl, more like it. Which reminds me,’ AnnaLise couldn't believe she'd forgotten, ‘I'd like to pay for any damage to your dad's truck from yesterday afternoon. That way you won't have to report it to your insurance company, especially since my mother already told the police officers at the scene that we hit the rock wall, not another vehicle.’
    ‘That's good, because that's exactly what you did. Don't you remember?’
    ‘No, actually, I don't.’ Great, now the town would be talking about AnnaLise's memory quirks as well as Daisy's. ‘I think I must have closed my eyes.’
    A grin twisted the corners of Josh's mouth, despite what seemed his best effort to control it. ‘That's not a real good thing to do when one's behind the wheel.’
    ‘I may have been behind the wheel, but I wasn't driving,’ AnnaLise said. ‘My car stalled in the middle of the road.’
    ‘Well, that might be so, but when I came up on you, that little car of yours jumped right across the road, bounced into the rock wall and back again to the edge.’
    ‘Huh,’ AnnaLise said, thinking. ‘Now that you mention it, I remember putting the car into park and finally getting it started. I must have hit the accelerator in panic.’
    ‘Sure looked that way to me, ma'am.’
    AnnaLise kicked herself for thinking at the time that Josh had fled the scene, when he'd simply been a Good Samaritan, stopping to help and call 911.
    ‘Well, I'm very glad I didn't damage your father's truck. How do you like working for him?’ She was already going to be late, so might as well