Free Vegas or Bust: An Aggie Underhill Mystery by Michelle Ann Hollstein, Laura Martinez Page B

the cruise.  And she had received a reply that sort of confused her a bit.  Bianca had mentioned wishing she’d been of more help and asked if she’d call her sometime.  Aggie wondered what she meant by being more helpful.  She probably meant she could’ve given her recipes to the gluten free meals on the ship.  That would’ve been really helpful.  But after that email, Aggie sort of lost contact with Bianca.  She wasn’t the best at keeping in touch with people who weren’t in her daily life.  And she didn’t really like to chat on the phone.  She was more of a once a year Christmas card sender.
    Bianca gave Aggie a curt nod with no hint of a smile.  This was pretty much what Aggie had expected.  She hoped Bianca wasn’t upset with her for not keeping in contact.  It was hard to say.  From what she could tell, Bianca wasn’t the sort of person to normally break out in a smile.  She then wondered if that was why the rest of the group hadn’t sent her friend requests on My Corner because it wasn’t within her nature to be chatty with everyone.  Aggie smiled and nodded back at Bianca.  And to her surprise, Bianca winked.  Quickly, Aggie turned in her seat.  This time she wasn’t imagining things.  She was winked at.  There was no mistaking it. 
    “I told you she likes you,” Roger said, nudging her with his elbow.  “I told you that on the cruise.  You were the only person she was nice to.”  Roger was sitting to Aggie’s left and Betty was sitting on the other side of him.  Aggie hadn’t realized he was turned around in his seat, admiring the beautiful chapel, too.  “Remember when I told you that on the cruise?”
    “Oh, hush,” Aggie said.  “I’m sure she just had something in her eye.”
    Just then a man dressed as Elvis in white leather pants, matching jacket and dark sunglasses, accompanied by a flamboyant woman in a red feathered Vegas Showgirl costume flounced down the aisle arm in arm.  Jack followed closely behind them, smiling shyly at his guests.  Elvis stepped up on the stage and ran a comb through his slicked back black hair.  The Showgirl retrieved a microphone from a stand at the left side of the altar.  She switched it on and handed it to him.
    “Hello everyone,” he said, in his best Elvis impersonator voice.  “Uh, hum.”
    The room grew silent.
    Aggie smiled.  This was more like what she expected out of a Las Vegas wedding.  She beamed at Elvis and the Showgirl.  Her hands clasped together, excitedly.  This was going to be fun.
    “Let’s begin, uh huh,” Elvis said, and did a funky little dance move, shaking his hips, and then stopping with his index finger pointing up in the air signaling the music to begin.  The Wedding March floated on the air from the speakers above.  Jack stood at the altar waiting for his beloved Miriam to enter the chapel.  The wedding guests all turned in their seats and stared at the doorway waiting to see the lovely bride.  Midway through the song, the guests began to whisper to each other.  Eyes were darting to the entrance of the chapel, to Jack who was nervously wringing his hands together and then back to the entrance.
    When the Wedding March ended there was still no sign of Miriam.  Elvis switched his microphone back on and made a bad joke about brides being hung up with wedding jitters.  Everyone chuckled.  Jack’s face flushed.
    “I told you that woman was no good!” shouted a short stout woman with lots of really tall black hair and gobs of bright blue eye shadow that looked to be straight from the 1960s.  She hopped up from her seat in the front row and firmly planted her hands on her hips.  “You’re better off without her!”
    Aggie figured the woman must be Jack’s mother.  She then looked over at Jack who glanced around the room at his guests.  “I’m sure there’s some mistake,” he muttered, apologetically.  “Someone should go see what’s holding Miriam up.  She’s probably