Killer Crab Cakes Read Online Free

street, next to the water.
    “Good Lord!” Nick said. “What happened? Did he fall in and drown?”
    Kate asked, “Is that Mr. Fletcher sitting there? Is he okay?”
    “He’s just winded from pulling Mr. McKenna out of the water.” Phyllis turned to Nick. “But he didn’t drown. Sam and I think he must have had a heart attack. I suppose the police and the medical examiner will have to determine that.”
    “Have you called the cops?” Nick asked.
    “No, I was just on my way to do that.”
    Nick took her arm and steered her toward the front door. “Why don’t you let me call them?” he suggested. “Kate, take Mrs. Newsom into the parlor and sit down with her. No offense, Mrs. Newsom, but you look a little green around the gills.”
    “I feel a little green,” Phyllis admitted. “I told Sam I’d be right back, though . . .”
    “I’ll go over there and wait for the cops with him,” Nick said as he reached into one of the big pockets of his khaki cargo shorts and pulled out a cell phone. He flipped it open, punched in the three-digit emergency number, and as Phyllis went into the house with Kate she heard him saying in a brisk voice, “Yes, we need the police and an ambulance. I believe a man here has died of a heart attack.” He was giving the address as the door closed behind Phyllis and Kate.
    The big parlor/living room was empty. Kate took Phyllis over to one of the comfortably upholstered sofas and sat her down. “Can I get you something?” she asked. “A cup of coffee, maybe?”
    Phyllis nodded. “That would be nice. Thank you, dear.”
    Kate hurried out of the room. Phyllis took Dorothy’s hat off and placed it on the sofa cushion beside her, then closed her eyes and rubbed her temples. You didn’t get to be her age without becoming well acquainted with death. It stalked friends and family and collected its inevitable toll.
    And yet it was still shocking when it happened unexpectedly, even to someone you didn’t know that well, like Ed McKenna. She had seen too much unexpected death in recent years, Phyllis thought.
    Hurried footsteps sounded nearby. Phyllis opened her eyes and looked up as Carolyn and Eve came into the room. “Don’t tell me you’ve stumbled over another dead body, Phyllis!” Carolyn said with her characteristic bluntness.
    “Carolyn!” Eve said. “That’s hardly comforting.” She added to Phyllis, “You do seem to have a way of finding them, though, dear.”
    They sat down on either side of her. Eve patted her hand. Phyllis said, “I suppose Kate told you what happened.”
    Carolyn nodded. “She said you and Sam fished Ed McKenna’s body out of the water. What happened to him?”
    “A heart attack, I suppose,” Phyllis said for what already seemed like the dozenth time, even though she knew it wasn’t, of course. “Or possibly a stroke.”
    “That man looked like a candidate for a heart attack,” Carolyn said. “Always with a sour look on his face and not a good word for anybody. You could tell he was in poor health.”
    Phyllis hadn’t gotten that impression of Ed McKenna. He wasn’t friendly, true, but he had seemed to be healthy enough. You couldn’t always tell by looking at someone, though. She recalled numerous cases over the years of even professional athletes dropping dead unexpectedly from some undiagnosed, unsuspected ailment.
    Kate Thompson came back into the room carrying a cup from which tendrils of steam and an enticing aroma rose. “Here you are,” she said as she handed it to Phyllis. “I’ve seen you fixing your coffee before, so I know you like it with cream and a little sugar.”
    “Thank you so much.” Phyllis took a sip of the hot brew and was grateful for the bracing effect of it.
    Consuela and her two daughters followed Kate into the parlor, all of them wearing concerned expressions. Theresa was in her early twenties, Bianca only eighteen. They crowded around the sofa, Consuela asking, “You are all right, Mrs.