A Commitment
to Murder...Selections from chapter seven:
"Have a seat and I
will tell you a tale of the wicked queen who left a dirty chore for the put-upon serf to do."
Faye
looked pleadingly at Muriel. "What is she talking about?"
"Jackie brought by her genealogy
and then literally dropped it into Lydia's lap. Afterward, as only Jackie can do, she brusquely walked off into the sunset,"
Muriel explained.
"No way!" Faye squeaked in disbelief just as she pulled out a cup from the cabinet
above the sink. She poured herself some hot water and grabbed a tea bag. "What a bee."
"Eh,
it's okay. I was kind of snotty to her anyway. I told her I would look at her project, but only gave her a week." Faye's
eyes grew large as she contemplated her friend's sudden moxie. Lydia shrugged her shoulders. "I have stuff to do and
she's always so demanding. I just wanted to set a time limit, so if she got really annoying I would have an out. She isn't
Julia after all."
"No she isn't," Faye agreed, tipping her chair back. Lydia was waiting
for her to fall--just once. Lucas used to do it all the time and like a good mother she would always warn him. Then one day
she gave up and just let nature take its course. Needless to say he never did it again. Lydia figured Faye would get it eventually
on her own too, although a few years too late. "Do you think she'll accept whatever you find?" Faye asked.
"If I document everything just right, I should have a better chance at convicing her than her cousin did. But then looking
at what she gave me, she either didn't get complete copies of what the woman found, or she dismissed it until she could have
it proven to her satisfaction. "What I'm not real clear on either is why she isn't doing this herself. Why did she ask
me? She flat out said she thinks I'm an amateur." Lydia looked to her two compadres for an answer. Their response was
a blank stare.
"Maybe she thinks she's too old to do such intensive research," Muriel interjected
sarcastically.
"Maybe, but that doesn't sound like Jackie. She'll be steamrolling people until the
day she dies," Lydia said as she waved her hand over the stack of papers. "I'll just follow through and just so
the best I can. I need to make a list of what needs to be done and then just dive in. I'm sure I'll have to take a day off
work to get to the Family History Center, and the way work has been getting that may take a few days. If so, and I hate to
admit it, I may have to postpone the week--at leas until all the things I need arrive and then start the clock. Think she'll
mind?"
"Nah. If she's waited this long, she can wait another week or two," Faye assured her
as she picked up her cup and walked it to the sink.
"Lydia?" Muriel started.
"What?"
"Did she say how her cousin died?" Muriel's eyebrows rose up into an arch. Lydia knew by that look that Muriel was
contemplating something she shouldn't be.
"Don't
even go there," Lydia warned.
"Just asking,"
Muriel said innocently.
"How did she die?" Faye
asked, jumping on the Muriel bandwagon.
"The one
thing related to her cousin that was included in the stack of papers she gave me was a police report from her cousin's local
paper. As we all heard, the woman lived up in Northern California, and Jackie was on a visit there. According to the report,
she had one of those older houses, with a basement and missed a few steps on the way down. Jackie heard her fall and was the
one who called 911." Lydia couldn't miss the sudden look of shock and then skepticism on their faces. "Now
you guys...she may be many things, but she isn't a killer."
