Cast Iron Motive (The Cast Iron Cooking Mysteries Book 4) Read Online Free

pick Pat up. “Going far?”
    “Tell me you don’t usually pick up hitchhikers,” my brother said as he leaned in through the open passenger’s-side window.
    “Not as a general rule, but you look harmless enough,” I said as he opened the back and threw his bag in the back seat. As we headed north toward Gateway Lake, I asked him, “Do you have any ideas about how we should tackle this situation?”
    “Not really. Don’t forget, I’ve had just as much notice about this mess as you have,” he said a little grumpily.
    I wasn’t about to put up with that for the next two hours. I waited until his attention was distracted by his cellphone at the same time that the road was clear, and I jerked the Subaru’s steering wheel so that we would be directly in oncoming traffic, if there had been any. I returned the wheel to its proper place just as abruptly, and Pat involuntarily yelped out a little. “Annie, what just happened?”
    “Squirrel,” I said, doing my best to keep a straight face.
    “Well, next time, give me some warning,” he said as he looked back over his shoulder for the nonexistent bushy-tailed rodent.
    “Hey, he didn’t let me know that he was going to dart in front of me at the last second, so how could I tell you?”
    “Was there even a squirrel back there?”
    “Who’s to say it isn’t true, just because you might not have seen him,” I said. “Now that I have your attention though, I want to say something. Are you listening, or do I have to suddenly dodge something again to get it?”
    “I knew there wasn’t any squirrel in the road,” he said.
    “Pat, you have my blessing to fuss and fume for the next ninety-seven seconds, but after that, I expect you to get over your fit of pique once and for all. Your time starts,” I paused to wait for the clock on my dash to change over to the next minute before I continued, “now.”
    “That’s not fair. You have no way of knowing precisely when my time is up,” he said with a grin.
    “Is that really how you want to use your free complaint time?” I asked him, smiling back.
    “I don’t need it,” he said after sighing deeply. “I’m sorry. You’re right. I’ll do my best, but I can’t make any promises. I can’t seem to let this go.” I was about to crow over his confession that I’d been right, and he knew it, so he quickly added, “It was bound to happen sooner or later, so don’t gloat about it.”
    “I wouldn’t dream of doing that,” I said, trying my best not to laugh out loud. “Now that we’ve settled that once and for all…” I paused as I glanced over in his direction. “We have settled it for good, right?”
    “I said that I’d try,” he said. “I don’t know what else I can say.”
    “That’s all that I can ask, that you make an effort. We need a strategy.”
    “I’ve been thinking about that,” Pat said, “and I believe we have to treat this as though it’s a case that doesn’t involve someone we’re so closely related to. First, we need to establish if Della is lying to us, if she’s simply mistaken, or if she’s correct in believing that someone is trying to kill her.”
    “Why did you put the idea up that she might be telling the truth last?” I asked him. “Is there some significance to the order?”
    “Now you’re just sounding paranoid.”
    “Hey, sometimes paranoid people are right. Sometimes there really is someone out to get them.”
    “I promise you that I’m going to keep an open mind, but just because she’s family doesn’t mean that we have to take her word for everything.”
    “You sound like Ronald Reagan. Trust but verify, right?”
    “That was a little before our time, wasn’t it?” Pat asked me.
    “Sure, but I can read. Can’t you?”
    He grimaced a little. “This is turning out to be a fun field trip, isn’t it?” he commented sarcastically.
    “It has potential,” I said. I was glad that Pat was going to try to get back to his old self. I just hoped he