Chapter 296: Suspects

There's something about the offering of food when life's going down the drain that seems to unify people, no matter how much they seem to hate each other. Mom, being the expert parent and retired principal/child wrangler she was, understood that and, shortly after I exited the exploding argument, my amazing mother appeared with a giant tray of fragrant, fresh bread and a determined look on her face.

"Breakfast!"

Funny, she only had to say it once.

I hid in the kitchen to eat, Bill staying with the others to keep them in line, though he left Moose with us. Jill appeared a few minutes later, collapsing onto a stool and waving off Mom's first attempt at feeding her, only accepting when my mother-who always gets her way-plunked a heavy plate of pancakes and scrambled eggs in front of her.

"No arguing," she said in her best Lucy Fleming voice. Maybe she should have handled the interrogations. "Eat, miss."