Excerpt of Foul Play at the PTA by Laura Alden

Yvonne broke her M&M cookie into four pieces, picked up
one, and covered the other bits with her napkin. She
finished the first piece and reached for the second. Though
she’d said she needed to talk to me, she didn’t seem eager
to begin the conversation.

Which could only mean there was something she didn’t want
to tell me. I considered possibilities. Due to seasonal
affective disorder, she never smiled when it was cloudy.
Or, thanks to family issues, she’d need to bring—I
scanned her face, trying to estimate her age—her
daughter to work three times a week. Or, due to a bizarre
medical problem, her doctor had said she shouldn’t operate
a computer keyboard. Or—

"I was in jail."

Or she’d been in jail. If I’d had a month, I might have
come up with that possibility, but probably not.

"Actually, it was prison." She gave me a darting
glance. "There’s a difference."

Prison. Yvonne? She didn’t look as if she would swat a
mosquito that was poking its pointed nose into her skin.
What could she possibly have done to end up in prison?

She pulled out the third piece of cookie. "I was convicted
of murder."