Free Deadly in High Heels by Gemma Halliday Page A

a strangled little gasp beside me. "But don't pageant officials check to make sure the contestants fall within the age range?" she asked
    Dempsey shrugged. "Sure, but there's always a way around that. Fake a birth certificate, bribe the judge…" He trailed off.
    Dana gasped again, and I caught Marco elbowing her out of the corner of my eye
    "Is that what Whitney did?" I asked.
    Dempsey put his hands up in a surrender motion. "I'm not pointing any fingers at anyone. I'm just saying that some of these older girls are desperate to hit that big title while they still can. Desperate ."
    I pursed my lips together. If I didn't know better, I'd say that Dempsey was pretty pointedly not pointing any fingers. I wondered if it was because he truly thought Whitney had something to do with Jennifer's death, or if he was trying to deflect attention from someone else.
    "I have to ask…you don't know if Jennifer was seeing anyone, do you?"
    He raised one eyebrow. "Her boyfriend just came in from Montana."
    I sucked in my cheeks, trying to find a way to put this delicately. "I saw him arrive yesterday. I was wondering if maybe Jennifer was close with anyone else? Possibly associated with the pageant…?" I left the question hanging there like last season's mullet-cut dress on a clearance rack.
    Dempsey's eyebrows drew together as he tried to read between my lines. "Like who?" he finally asked.
    "Well…" I said drawing out the word. Quite frankly Dempsey himself was in an excellent position to be Mystery Boyfriend. Who spent more time with a contestant than her coach? However I had a hard time putting him in the role of leading man. I knew young girls often had a thing for older men, but Dempsey was hardly the distinguished rolling-in-dough type. In fact if I had to categorize him, I would say he was the midsection-looks-like-dough type. Besides, Dempsey's eyes were brown.
    "What about Jeffries?" Marco spat out. "We know he has a bit of a reputation with the ladies."
    But Dempsey shook his head violently from side to side. "No, you've got it all wrong. Jennifer played by the rules. There is no way she would've been seeing a judge. Fraternization between contestants and judges is strictly prohibited."
    Dana shot me an I-told-you-look.
    I bit my lip, remembering the scene I'd witnessed last night with Miss California at Jeffries table. While I wouldn't exactly call their interaction inappropriate, it did border on the fraternizing.
    "We have a witness who says she saw Jennifer sneaking out the night she was murdered," I told him, figuring it couldn't hurt to come clean.
    Dempsey paused, his eyes narrowing. "Who said they saw this?"
    "We're not at liberty to say," Marco jumped in, sounding like he'd just watched an entire season of The Good Wife .
    "Well, whoever it is must be mistaken. Like I said, winning meant everything to Jennifer. She knew that violating curfew was against the rules. And nothing would've made Jennifer jeopardize her title." He shut his mouth with a click, signaling that he'd said his last word on the topic.
    "Did Jennifer seem distressed about anything to you?" I asked, feeling distinctly like we were losing him. "Anything in particular on her mind?"
    But Dempsey shook his head. "I'm sorry. Jennifer was as happy as could be at this pageant. Everything was going her way. In fact, I believe she was even in the running for Miss Congeniality."
    I opened my mouth to follow up on that, however I never got the chance as Dana's phone started singing from her purse.
    "Sorry," she said pulling it out and sliding her finger along the smart screen. She glanced at the readout. "It's a text from Laforge."
    Before she could say more I heard a vibration going off in Dempsey's pocket as well. He looked at the readout and said, "He's calling an all hands meeting in the auditorium."
    We all silently looked at each other, knowing what this meant. The final verdict on whether or not there would be a Miss Hawaiian Paradise Pageant this