Page 106 of Killer on the First Page

Edgar cleared his throat. Miranda waited. Edgar cleared his throat again. (Whenever Edgar wanted to avoid a topic of conversation, he would suddenly develop a severe case of scratchy throat. When NBC canceledPastor Fran Investigates, it had taken him a good twenty minutes of throat clearing before he could tell her.)

“Is there something you wanted to say?” she asked.

“Just that, y’know, even though you drive me crazy and everything, I do worry about you. I just wanted you to know that.”

He left quickly on some uncertain task.

“I worry about you, too, Edgar.”

The coin had come up tails, but Miranda had ignored the verdict. As she herself might have put it, life is a coin to be flipped, not a coin to be kept! And no matter how the coin landed, Miranda Abbott would always win the toss.

* * *

AFTERMIRANDA HEADEDout, with Emmy bounding in every direction, the bell above the bookstore’s front door jangled loudly and a tired but eager man burst in. He stood beaming in the middle of the store, looking like a cross between Sean Connery and an elf.

“Welcome to I Only Read Murder,” said Andrew. “How might I help you?”

“I made it! Took me a while, but I made it.”

“I’m sorry. You are...?”

“Larry. Larry Block. I was supposed to be here for the writers festival, but got off-course along the way. But I’m here now!” He looked around the room expectantly. “So,” he said. “What did I miss?”