Free Love You to Death by Melissa Senate Page A

say.”

    For those five minutes I was a bride-to-be. A woman with a crappy track record, but in a good relationship of one nice month. Things had been looking up. I’d cut myself a break and let myself pretend I was one of them, even if I didn’t have the paper or the pen. Or the ring. Or, say, a grip on reality.

    I headed over to the registry computer and typed in Darling and Puck. Eight sheets came out.

    Huh. Maybe she had been there for three hours.

    “Excuse me,” I said to a salesclerk who was straightening candlesticks on a display. “I’m looking to buy a gift for this person.” I held up the registry. “I was wondering if you could help me choose—”

    The guy put his hand on my arm. “I am so sorry to tell you this, Miss, but didn’t you hear? The groom was murdered. ”

    “Yes, I know,” I said. “I’m a friend of the bride’s, and I thought I’d buy her something that she wanted for their life together, something to commemorate what they would be sharing. Something more for her, or perhaps decorative. I think she’d like that.”

    I sure wouldn’t.

    “That’s a lovely idea. Let’s see,” he said, glancing from the registry sheets to displays. “She did register for that adorable old-fashioned alarm clock, the one with the pug on it.”

    That was actually a relief. Maybe she was a dog person. A pug person, at least. Clinton might be in good hands.

    “Wow, she really picked out a ton of stuff,” I said. “She must have been here for hours.”

    He nodded and began straightening glass vases. “Oh, she was. I helped her for most of it. She said she wasn’t too good at this kind of thing.”

    “I hope she took a break for coffee or something. Three hours of straight shopping isn’t easy on anyone, even an excited bride.”

    “You’d be surprised. Some brides are in here from opening to closing. But come to think of it, I did see her leave about an hour after she arrived. Then she came back about a half hour later. She probably went for coffee.”

    Bingo. Got you, cousin Mary! You’re toast.

    “Probably,” I said.

    Or she might have, say, slipped out to murder her fiancé for no reason I could think of right now.

    I couldn’t wait to tell Ben!

Chapter 7
    I was still sleeping when Ben buzzed the next morning. Either he had ESP or he had another round of questions. Why he had to come at seven in the morning was a question I’d ask him. Probably to catch me off guard.
    I buzzed him in and had just enough time to brush my teeth before he knocked. As I headed to the door, I glanced at myself in the hall mirror. Once again he was getting the real me. My pink velour sweats and a freshly scrubbed face.

    His eyes went straight to my Winnie the Pooh slippers, a gift from my dad.

    “The floors are cold,” I said, giving Winnie’s ears a little shake.

    He didn’t smile. In fact, he looked downright…grim. “I need to talk to you.”

    My smile faded. “I need to talk to you, too,” I said fast. “And me first, okay?” Because if he was about to arrest me, the news about Mary-Kate just might keep those big silver bracelets off my wrists. “It’s about Mary-Kate Darling. I think you’d be very interested to know that she left after the first hour of registering for gifts at Crate and Barrel the night Ted was murdered. The clerk who was helping her said she came back a half hour later. The timing checks, Ben. She could have slipped out and killed Ted.”

    He took off his coat and held on to it. “It’s looking more and more likely that you slipped out and killed Ted, Abby. Would you like to know why?”

    “I really wouldn’t,” I said. “Would you like to know why?”

    He crossed his arms over his chest. “Yes, I would.”

    “Because this is such a colossal waste of your time. I didn’t kill Ted. I didn’t even think of it. Not for a second.”

    “Well, then,” he said, “maybe you can explain this coincidence— two of your former boyfriends,