Elizabeth C. Main - Jane Serrano 01 - Murder of the Month by Elizabeth C. Main Page A

the interests of your child . Hah! Easy for him to say. He wasn’t being forced to read about two corgi detectives. Bipsy and Mr. Potts were well on their way to sinking their sharp little teeth into the murderer’s plans when Nick’s voice startled me back into the present.
    “Want me to take over so you can go listen?” Nick looked around at the empty store as he descended the stairs. “I think I can handle the mob.”
    “No, thanks. That group doesn’t particularly interest me.”
    “Me either,” he said. “A couple of those women are ready to man the barricades.”
    “Is one of them a young blonde?”
    “Tall? A real stunner? Yeah, she has a lot to say.”
    I nodded. “My daughter, Bianca. She’s a good kid, but …”
    “… she has more opinions than experience? Don’t worry. She’ll grow out of it. It’s actually refreshing to hear such enthusiasm.”
    “Bianca does not lack enthusiasm,” I answered.
    “Well, that’s good. Take my kids, for example. Theo and Pete are twenty-three. They’re busy ripping up and down the California beaches right now, but I expect they’ll settle down and be decent citizens eventually. Most kids do. But, from what I read, boys are easier on the nerves … if you don’t mind a few trips to the emergency room, that is, and frogs in the toilet bowl.”
    “Your wife must have loved that.”
    “She mostly left the boys to me,” he said, his smile fading. “She had other priorities. And then she left us entirely about ten years ago. Worked out pretty well in the long run though. We did okay and they’re great kids.” After an awkward silence, he slapped one hand on the counter decisively. “Well, if you don’t need me here, I’ll get going. Harley’s speech about opportunities for women in the law isn’t exactly riveting.”
    “Gil was supposed to be the speaker today. Harley’s just doing him a favor “
    “So he said. Still doesn’t make his speech more interesting than a trip to Elk Lake. Too heavy on ‘poor Gil’ and not enough facts.”
    “You’re like Joe Friday. ‘Just the facts, ma’am.’”
    “That’s me.”
    After Nick left, the store fell quiet again until a burst of chatter preceded the departing WEG group down the stairs. The animation evident in the snatches of conversation I heard suggested that Harley’s presentation had gone over better with the others than it had with Nick. I was glad since Harley had made a special effort to be here.
    I gave him the thumbs up sign as he went out the door in the center of a group of women asking him questions. Behind them came Linda Sanchez and Bianca in deep conversation. I didn’t even want to think about Bianca talking to someone in Gil’s office, but, short of tripping and gagging Bianca, I couldn’t think of a way to stop her.
    The store cleared at last and I was left with the nauseatingly clever corgis again. Not another soul entered Thornton’s, even to browse. Tuesdays were normally better than this, but Megabooks Plus! was hosting a book signing today for Mimi Lexington, a Seattle romance author famous for her scorching love scenes. The reviews of her latest book, Caress My Heart , left no doubt that the heroine’s heart wasn’t the only part of her anatomy being caressed.
    I struggled through a few more pages of Prove It, Puppy! but when I reached the part where Miss Pittimore invited all the doggy friends of Bipsy and Mr. Potts to a gala party in the corgis’ honor, I gave it up for the day.
    Casting around for something better to do, I dialed Laurence’s number to see how he was getting along today. Yesterday morning he’d been under the weather, which I’d discovered only by accident when Tyler had slouched into Thornton’s while I’d been unpacking books.
    “ Hi, Tyler. Where’s your grandfather?” I’d asked. “I expected him a while ago.”
    “ He seems sort of out of it this morning. Not exactly sick, just … I don’t know.” Tyler shrugged and looked at his