Elizabeth C. Main - Jane Serrano 02 - No Rest for the Wicked by Elizabeth C. Main Page B

someone he knew, was in any way alarming.
    “ I can’t leave Grandpa now. Honest, I’ll explain everything later. ” The sweat pouring down Tyler’s cheeks wasn’t from heat or exertion. He was seriously agitated. “ Please, Jane, ” he breathed. “ I’ll work every Saturday. I’ll never ask for another favor. I’ll — ”
    “ Are you in some kind of trouble? Do we need the police? ”
    “ No! ”
    The genuine shock in his voice convinced me to forget the police .
    “ Can you trust me on this? ” Tyler’s frantic plea, his uncharacteristic display of emotion, won the day. Trust was an element that had been sadly lacking in his young life before his arrival in Juniper. He needed me to be a friend.
    “ Okay, okay. I’ll go to Thornton’s and you finish … whatever it is you’re doing. But you owe me a major explanation. ”
    “ You’ll get it, I promise. ”
    Shaking my head, I raced back to the car and made straight for Thornton’s. First Alix’s bombshell, then Nick’s surprise trip, and now Tyler’s mystery. Everyone I knew seemed to have something to explain to me when things stopped whirling by so fast. They might have to take numbers, like in a shoe store. I was afraid to even think about Bianca and Minnie on the loose this morning, presumably hunting down Alix. Meanwhile, I had to deal with the people waiting at the store for the SOS meeting , though I felt l ike sending an SOS myself.
    Phil and Eileen Hedstrom were peering in Thornton’s window when I finally arrived. As usual, they wore matching blue jogging outfits, their bowling pin shapes suggesting that they did more sitting than jogging, and confined most exercise to strolls between couch and refrigerator. Beside them stood the omnipresent Velda Kubek, who never missed an occasion involving Minnie, whose zest for detective work Velda greatly admired. Even though this meeting was about elder abuse and had nothing to do with Minnie’s highly debatable skills as a detective, Velda would be here. Hard to feature Minnie attracting a groupie, but Velda’s role as caretaker to her invalid aunt, Eleanor McKay, wasn’t exactly a thrill a minute, so Minnie’s somewhat spotty record as a detective no doubt sounded glamorous by comparison. Even before coming to Juniper a year ago, Velda had kept house for her elderly f ather in Key West , Florida, so she probably hadn’t had this much fun in years.
    I glanced at my watch. Twenty-five minutes past ten. “ Sorry I’m late. ”
    Phil and Eileen turned in unison, their round faces breaking into broad smiles as they tripped over each other’s words.
    “ We thought we had . . . ”
    “ . . . the wrong date or time, but of course . . . ”
    “ . . . it wasn’t likely we’d both written it down wrong and . . . ”
    “ … Velda thought the store opened at ten, but we all agreed that the meeting wasn’t until ten-thirty. ”
    Velda spoke for the first time, her voice sounding even softer than usual in contrast to Phil and Eileen’s energetic duet. “ I’ve been looking forward to this meeting, so I was especially careful to write down the time. ” Her brow creased. “ Minnie will be coming, won’t she? ”
    “ Yes, I’m sure she’ll be here soon. She’s bringing some treats and … ” I trailed off, not wanting to mention whatever else Minnie might be doing this morning, like grilling Alix about her murdered ex-husband. I rooted in my bag for the keys. Naturally, they had gone to the bottom. Bianca kept telling me to carry a slim wallet on a chain, but I couldn’t seem to manage without the half dozen extra items I always seemed to need.
    “ Can I help? ” Velda held out her arms to take this week’s armload of bedside reading. A bestselling thriller, a new biography of Frank Lloyd Wright, and a slender volume by a hopeful local poet who called herself Swaying Willow.
    “ Thanks. ” I handed over the books and dived into the bag again. In addition to lipstick, wallet, and