Dead Is a State of Mind Read Online Free Page B

looking for Duke, but there was no sign of him. He must have slipped out when we weren't looking.
    "I made peach ice cream," I coaxed. It was Poppy's favorite, so we were soon headed back to our house.
    Rose and Mom still weren't back when we got home. Mom always said she worked late on this or that case, but I wondered if she spent some of her time doing something else. It had even crossed my mind that she was dating Chief Mendez on the sly. They did spend a lot of time together, but somehow I just couldn't quite picture it, especially since I was dating his son.
    And a part of me didn't like the idea of someone replacing my father, even though he'd been the one to leave. Or vanish, to be completely accurate. One minute, my father was a devoted, loving husband and dad; the next, he was just ... gone. The rumors swirled that he'd abandoned us for another woman, but we never found out for sure.
    Maybe that's what Mom was up to. Whatever she was doing, I was sure she was hiding something.
    I combed our bookshelves looking for a book on tea reading, but I couldn't find anything.
    "Poppy, have you seen a book about fortune-telling anywhere?" I called out. "I was sure Mom had one here."
    "Mom isn't some hack like your friend at the diner," Poppy said, emerging from the kitchen, her mouth full of peach ice cream. "She's a professional." I guessed my sister's infatuation with Duke was over. Poppy could be temperamental, but she was usually a pretty good judge of guys.
    I continued scanning the shelves. Mom had tons of books on the paranormal, a couple on police procedures, a few novels, and Dad's old textbooks. I avoided those, then finally found what I was looking for. The Big Book of Fortune-Telling told me that a broken chain did indeed mean a hidden enemy. But did that mean Duke was the real deal or just good at research?

    The next morning, I saw Ryan in the quad during the mid-morning break.
    "Daisy, there's something I want to talk to you about," he said.
    Duke Sherrad's arrival interrupted Ryan's train of thought.
    "Daizee, how are you this morning? I was unavoidably detained last night and couldn't return to continue our talk."
    "It's okay, really," I said.
    "What conversation?" Ryan said.
    "Poppy and I ran into Duke at Slim's last night."
    Ryan frowned but didn't say anything. I could tell he was upset.
    When the bell rang, Duke walked with me to class. Ryan didn't. He stomped off in the other direction, with a curt "See you after school." I wanted to remind him that he'd see me in gym class, but I didn't think he was in the mood for any smart remarks.
    I could count on the fingers of one hand how many months we'd been dating, but he was taking me for granted already?
    I sulked my way through statistics and then stomped off to enjoy lunch by myself, but Duke caught up with me.
    "Daizee, please allow me to take you to lunch to apologize for abandoning you. I did not mean to leave you or your charming sister." He looked so earnest that I couldn't say no. I didn't have any plans with Ryan or anything. Besides, it was a bit of a pleasure to get Penny's nose out of joint. She was hovering so hard that I finally took pity on her, though.
    "Penny, would you like to join us?"
    She shrugged but then trailed after us to stand in the lunch line. To my surprise, Ryan was right in front of us. He grabbed my hand. "Hey, sorry I was so grumpy earlier. I'll buy you lunch to make up for it."
    Why was everyone suddenly trying to feed me? "I'm having lunch with Duke—and Penny," I added hurriedly when his face started to cloud. "Why don't you join us?"
    He grabbed his tray and went to pay without a backward glance. I sighed. I wasn't any good at this relationship stuff. Where was Samantha when I needed her? She had Sean wrapped around her well-manicured finger, and I needed boyfriend tips.
    Luckily, Ryan and I had a standing date on Tuesdays after school—it was the only day he didn't have baseball practice. Today we were going to have the