Page 55 of Murder By Misdirection

“I finally really felt like a detective. The last couple of months with Tom, we’ve been closing cases and making a name for ourselves. He didn’t look at me like I was the rookie he was stuck with anymore.”

“I believe Tom thinks very highly of you.”

“And now this case, one friggin’ disaster after another. And my father is in the middle of it all. And you slept with him.”

“All right, that is enough,” Elisha exploded, and stood up suddenly, which caused Pro to fall back in surprise.

Elisha stepped over to the table and grabbed her glass of wine. “If you wanna sit there and complain about your lot and my choice to spend a very nice evening with my ex-husband, I gotta tell you to put a sock in it.”

“Momma?” Pro said.

“You haven’t thought for one minute how hard this has been for me. You think I like the fact that your father is pulling this shit?”

“I…uh—” was all Pro could manage. She had not heard her mother lay down the law like this since she was a teenager.

“And look, maybe you have issues with your father. Lord knows I do. But he’s your father, and you should be out there trying to prove that he didn’t do it. If you ever loved him you should at least be doing that.”

“I…uh—” was all Pro said again.

“He gave you one simple task: to go through those emails. Did you do it? No! You are too busy having the Prophecy Adele Martin Thompson pity party.”

Pro looked drunkenly at her mother. She believed it was the first time her mother ever used all of her names at one time.

Elisha went to her glass of wine and downed it.

“So,” Elisha demanded as she put down the empty wine glass, “you gonna help or what?”

“All right,” Pro grumbled. “But can I do it in the morning? I’m pretty worn out right now.”

“Go to bed, and we’ll sort through these emails then. I’ll help you.”

Pro got to her feet a bit clumsily, with the decision that maybe she’d had enough wine. “I’ve never seen you so mad before.”

“That’s because your father has pissed me off and so have you! Now get to bed. You have work to do tomorrow!”

15. Phantom Vanish

The next morning, Pro dragged herself from the spare bedroom to the kitchen and turned on the machine that would prepare her coffee. Once the light changed color to announce the water was hot, she put a plastic cup of something called “House Blend” in the convenient chamber and started it to brew.

As the machine hissed and gurgled, it occurred to her that something was different. She peeked out into the dining room/living room area and found the number of blossoms had been seriously reduced from the previous evening.

The potted palm was in a corner, but the flowers were merely covering a few side tables, and the floors were unobstructed by any decorative plants. As she contemplated this, the front door opened and her mother came in.

“Where did all the forestry go?”

“The flowers? Oh, I consolidated what I liked and tossed the rest. I was just dumping a trash bag down the chute. Leave it to Max to go for a grand gesture that was not very practical.”

“You liked it yesterday.”

“I did. I liked the idea that Max wasn’t playing games for once. Of course, with him breaking out of jail and following you, it appears I was wrong. I can only guess that he just can’t seem to help it; he has to be the smartest person in the room.”

Pro nodded and got her coffee, hoping the caffeine would help relieve her pounding headache. She took a sip and sighed.

Her mother crossed her arms. “Good thing I stopped you at the first bottle of wine. You were going for the second when I yelled at you.”

“You haven’t yelled like that in years,” Pro said and shook her head. “Since this whole thing started, you’ve yelled at me and threatened to spank me.”

This got a smile from her mother. “You had your bad times. After Max left, you acted out, and I thought I was going to have a real problem with you. But then I met Joe, and once he moved in, you straightened right out.”

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