Page 10 of Chosen Path
She reminded herself she had to play nice. It wouldn’t do to get shut out of the village’s decision-making body by being labeled hard to work with. The last council member to get the boot had been Nikolas Lundgren, and look at how that turned out for him.
As if she were having the exact same thought as Kimberly, Corrine hurried to assure them, “As it happens, I just had an appointment with her today—for my blood pressure, which, by the way, is perfect.”
“She say anything about that cough?” Greg asked.
Corrine waved her hand. “She wondered if it might be connected to Nikolas’ death, of all the ridiculous notions.”
Kimberly felt her eyes widen and her pulse speed up as a jolt of adrenaline zinged through her body. Before she could ask any questions, Greg was leaning across her to peer worriedly at Corrine’s face.
“Why would she think that?”
Corrine sighed. “She said the death rate seems kind of high and wonders if there’s a disease going around that she missed.”
Greg frowned, but Kimberly nodded. “I’m not surprised. She’s been here six months.”
Greg nodded. “That’s right. She came in November.”
“And we’ve had seven dead since then.”
Greg lifted his eyes to the ceiling, thinking. Kimberly watched him mouth the names as he counted silently. What the heck did he have to think about? They all knew every detail of those seven deaths, intimately.
“Yep. Seven,” he confirmed unnecessarily.
“Which you have to admit is a lot,” Corrine agreed.
“It is, and it isn’t. You know these things tend to clump up. Remember back in 2012? We had five in three months and then none the rest of the year.”
Kimberly dismissed the concern, but Greg had latched on to it like a dog with a bone.
“But she doesn’t know that,” he fretted. “What if she starts digging into things?”
Corrine hacked into her vile tissue again. Kimberly plucked the box of tissues from the table behind her and thrust it at the coughing woman.
“Thanks,” Corrine gasped between coughing fits, then gripped the edge of the table as if to steady herself and took a deep, rattling breath. “I think she’ll leave it alone. I told her that Doc Larson was never worried about the death rate. It might help if someone else mentions that we do have an aging population. You know, the kids are moving away more and more.”
“That’s true,” Greg allowed. “I heard the Morgan family went to visit Laura Gardener’s daughter and son-in-law in Connecticut last weekend and liked it so much they contacted a real estate agent down there.”
Kimberly raised her eyebrows, peeved that Greg had heard the latest gossip before she had. “Really? And who told you that?”
“Laura’s other daughter. The one who works at the library.”
“Oh, Hope. Well, we don’t have to worry aboutherpulling up stakes. She’s made for small-town life.”
“Do you think?” Corrine asked. “She’s pretty young, and we aren’t exactly overrun with eligible bachelors.”
Kimberly and Greg exchanged a look.
“What?” Corrine demanded.
“I’m not sure Hope’s in the market for a bachelor,” Kimberly told her.
“What do you—?” Corrine’s question was swallowed by another violent coughing fit.
When she’d finished, Kimberly gave her a careful look. “I sure hope that cough clears up soon, Corrine.”
“Me, too,” Corrine responded.
Then the warning in Kimberly’s words registered, and the color drained from Corrine’s face. “It will,” she said urgently, searching first Greg’s face and then Kimberly’s for some understanding.
