A Match Made for Murder by Iona Whishaw (top 10 best books of all time txt) 📗

December 1946

Martinez pulled the car in front of his house and let the dust settle. He could hear his son and daughter playing outside on the swing he had built for them in the backyard of their small adobe house. He was struggling. He had wonderful, improbable news for his wife, Rosario, and yet that same news had sparked an anxiety deep within him that he could not articulate.

“Mi vida,” he said when he kissed her. She’d been standing in the kitchen watching the children and had turned, smiling, when he’d come in. He held both her hands.

“What is it?” Her face took on a worried cast. “Has something happened?”

“Sit.” He sat down and pulled her down to sit opposite him, still holding her hands, kneading them. “Something amazing. I can hardly believe it. I’ve been promoted. I never thought when I took the exam that it would make any difference; you know how they are about us. But the assistant chief called me in to tell me today. Sergeant. Effective immediately.” He didn’t tell her how Galloway had gone on and on about how he’d had to go against the chief and the board to push the promotion through.

“I knew you would do it!” Rosario leapt off her chair and sat on his lap, throwing her arms around him. In the next moment she was up, pacing the kitchen. “We will celebrate, go out. I don’t feel like cooking anyway! Dios mio!” She crossed herself and held her hands momentarily in a position of prayer. “I must phone Marta!”

“Rosi, just let’s enjoy it. Don’t phone anybody just yet. We can go out, sure, but . . . I don’t know.”

She came to sit opposite him. “You don’t seem that happy. Do you understand what a big thing this is? It’s everything. You always said there’d never be a Mexican sergeant. What are you afraid of? I hope you don’t think you don’t deserve it! I won’t listen to that. You are their best officer, and you know it.”

What was bothering him? “It will probably mean longer hours,” he said.

“I know, but it’s going to be okay. I’m here. I’ll look after things. I’m so proud of you, viejo.” She leaned over and kissed him again. “Okay, I won’t tell anyone, only when you’re ready.”

He lay awake long into the night. He knew he was being ridiculous. It was something he’d dreamed about since joining the force and had watched as Anglo police officers—some not as competent as he was—were promoted around him. The thing he couldn’t shake was, why him? And he couldn’t forget Galloway’s voice: “I took a big risk for you, buddy. I hope you appreciate that. You better not let me down.” Why did Galloway seem to doubt his loyalty? Of course. They don’t trust us. Well, he’d show him. He’d be the best, hardest working, most loyal damn sergeant in the history of the Tucson Police Department.

“You were gone a long time.” Rex Holden, usually unperturbed by his wife’s coming and goings, was worried. She’d been gone for four hours. He normally didn’t mind her little shopping jaunts. He had observed that she needed to be up and doing more than he did, and she never really went overboard.

“Oh, sweetie, don’t be upset with me. I was so surprised. I was just looking at a cute handbag on sale here and my cousin Bernie turned up all upset, looking for me. You remember him from the wedding. He said my sister Lola was in trouble. I told you I have a sister here, didn’t I?” A tear splashed on Meg’s gloved hand, and she wiped it away hurriedly. She took off her gloves and collapsed on the love seat.

“My dear, whatever is the matter?” Holden got off the bed where he’d been reading the paper and sat by her, taking her hand.

Meg turned to him, unable to contain her tears. “It’s so awful. My sister’s husband left her high and dry. He cleaned out the savings and left her and the two kiddies with nothing. Her landlord has told her she has to be out by the end of the week, and her sitter said she won’t work until she gets paid. I hate to ask you this, honey, but could we give her something to tide her over? Two hundred dollars would help her just get through this. I know it’s a lot to ask. She has a job and everything, so it’s really all she needs to get a sitter and that.”

Rex Holden felt his heart swell. It wasn’t too much to ask. Nothing was too much to ask, if he could just get her smiling again.

“Come on,” he said, standing and pulling her up. “We’ll give Rog something to do. He can drive us to the bank, and then we’ll go buy you something nice to wear, and we’ll have a cocktail before dinner and look at the sunset. We can drop the money off to her on the way back. What do you say?”

“Oh, sweetie! You’re a doll! It’s going to mean so much to her.” She pulled him close and kissed him. “Where would I be without you?” she whispered. She would have to tell him that Lola was too embarrassed to have anyone see the way she lived.

Chapter Three

Darling found Lane stretched on a lounge chair by the pool under a striped umbrella. He pulled up a chair and removed his hat and jacket. “I don’t care if it is only seventy something, it’s hot. It’s that relentless beating down of the sun. How was your morning?”

“Exceedingly interesting.” Lane put her book open and face down on the round table next to her and sat up, looking around to make sure they were alone. “I’ve discovered something disquieting about our neighbours in the villa,” she paused, looking into his eyes. “You know, I’d forgotten how handsome you are.”

“Try to stick to