Free Murder on a Girls' Night Out by Anne George Page A

settling down with a paring knife and a big Rome apple.
    “Through the junior college. They have a great food preparation and restaurant program, you know, and I knew I wasn’t going to make a living writing. I hadn’t even finished the course when Ed hired me. He needed a cook, not a chef. But I’m still in the class. I’ll graduate this semester. And you know what?” Henry’s face showed some real animation for the first time. “I really like it. I’m good at it, and I figure I can always get a job as a chef. In fact, one of the country clubs is already interested in me.”
    “That’s great.”
    “I won’t give up my writing, though.”
    “Good. How about a very literate cookbook?”
    “Why not?” Henry pared his second apple expertly and held it up, gazing at it as if it were a crystal ball. “You know, I can’t believe Ed was murdered like that. I keep thinking tonight’s pizza night at the Skoot and I need to get there early to see if we need extra crust. I make it ahead and put it in the freezer, but if we’ve had a lot of pizza orders during the week, I’ll need to make some more. But I guess it’ll be a while before we have pizza night, or anything else out there. Somebody really hated that old boy, didn’t they?”
    “Did the sheriff seem to have any ideas?”
    “If he did, he didn’t share them with me. He ran abackground check on me and asked me who some of the regular customers were and if I had seen Ed arguing with anybody.”
    “Bonnie Blue and my sister thought he had you handcuffed. ‘In chains!’ They convinced me, too. We were ready to come down and spring you.”
    “That’s what I heard. Bonnie Blue called me last night.” Henry grinned. “She’s wonderful, isn’t she?”
    “A hundred percent on your side, I’d say.” I put my peeled apple in the pan. “The sheriff didn’t give you any problems, did he?”
    “No. I told him all I knew, which wasn’t much. There are quite a few regulars there. Mrs. Crane and her boyfriend, for instance. And Ed had a lot of girlfriends, most of whose names I don’t know. I never saw anybody sinister hanging around, though, and haven’t even noticed any new faces in the last week or so. Like I told the sheriff, Ed just seemed like a pretty nice guy. You had to stay out of his way sometimes when he’d been drinking, but that wasn’t too often. He didn’t hassle the help, and if anybody got too loud or belligerent, he handled it easily. I was surprised he sold the Skoot, to tell you the truth. I think he had a real good thing going there.”
    “I understand he was going to Atlanta, that his parents were in poor health and he needed to be near them.”
    Henry shook his head. “That can’t be right. I remember telling Ed once that my father had died of lung cancer and that it cured me of wanting to smoke, and he said both his mother and father had died of lung cancer within a week of each other while he was in the Navy and his wife had to stay in Charleston to settle everything.”
    “Charleston?”
    “Absolutely. I remember because he was talking about some beach property they had and how he was glad they sold it before Hurricane Hugo.”
    We looked at each other. “Did you tell this to the sheriff?” I asked.
    Henry shook his head. “He didn’t ask and I didn’t think about it. You think I should?”
    “Well, Ed was lying about his reason for wanting to leave town. I guess that could be important.”
    “Or maybe he was just trying to get away from one of his girlfriends. Didn’t want her to follow him.”
    “Or one of the girlfriends’ boyfriends.”
    “Maybe.” Henry studied the peeled apple in his hand. “But I don’t think his murder had anything to do with jealousy, do you?”
    “You mean because it was so vicious and premeditated?” I shrugged. “Who knows, Henry? You’ve read your Shakespeare.” I dropped an apple into the pan, where it landed with a metallic thud.
    “That’s true.”
    The phone’s