Free Deadly Valentine (Special Releases) by B. J. Daniels

like the thing to do. High school sweethearts and all that crap. Everyone kept saying we were so perfect for each other. Especially my parents. What could I do but marry her?’’
    Jack could see how Oliver might have gotten swept up in that. A lot of young couples did—and later regretted it. Probably the reason divorce rates were so high. It was hard to decide what to do with your life at eighteen—let alone who you wanted to spend the rest of it with.
    ‘‘How long had you been having the affair?’’ Jack asked.
    Oliver stared at the paper on the table, no doubt thinking it was all written down in the date book. ‘‘About six months.’’
    ‘‘Is there any chance Mitzy found out?’’ Jack had to ask.
    Oliver looked up in surprise. ‘‘No, I mean...you don’t think Mitzy....’’ He shook his head. ‘‘Mitzy can be a real bitch, but murder?’’
    ‘‘How do you think she’d have taken the news about you leaving?’’
    He shrugged and looked away. ‘‘I don’t know. I thought she might be relieved, you know. She would have been pissed. At first. But she doesn’t need me. She never has.’’
    ‘‘And Peggy did?’’
    ‘‘Yeah.’’ He looked as if he might cry again.
    Jack still wasn’t sure he believed the first breakdown, but he was one suspicious SOB and he knew it. ‘‘So who do you think poisoned Peggy?’’
    He wagged his head. ‘‘Maybe Peggy decided to take things into her own hands, you know—’’ he stopped as if horrified by the idea ‘‘—kill Mitzy, but then got confused or scared and accidentally mixed up the boxes of chocolates.’’
    Jack loved the way Oliver was trying to make it look like Peggy killed herself—accidentally, of course. Tempest had a look of disgust on her face.
    ‘‘Or maybe that was the plan all along?’’ she said to Oliver.
    He looked confused.
    ‘‘To kill Mitzy,’’ she clarified. ‘‘You sent your secretary out to buy your wife Valentine’s Day presents, why not send your secretary out to kill your wife?’’
    ‘‘What?’’ Oliver cried. ‘‘I didn’t want to kill Mitzy. But who knows what Peggy might have been thinking.’’
    ‘‘Yes, who knows,’’ Jack agreed, as disgusted with Oliver as Tempest was by her expression.
    Oliver was tearful again. ‘‘I didn’t want to hurt either one of them.’’
    ‘‘But Mitzy was bound to be hurt when you told her you were leaving her for another woman,’’ Tempest noted. ‘‘Surely you didn’t really think Mitzy was going to take it well.’’
    Oliver shrugged. ‘‘I guess I just hoped...’’ He put his face in his hands again.
    ‘‘Maybe Peggy didn’t believe you would leave your wife,’’ Tempest suggested.
    ‘‘No.’’ Oliver raised his head. ‘‘She knew I was going to tell Mitzy last night. That’s what makes it all so awful.’’
    ‘‘So what was the point of buying Mitzy all the expensive presents if you were dumping her?’’ Jack asked.
    ‘‘Just keeping up the pretense one last time,’’ Oliver said. ‘‘Everyone in this town knows us, knows when we sneeze. I wanted people to think Mitzy and I were just fine. I guess I wanted to spare her any humiliation, especially on Valentine’s Day.’’
    ‘‘But you were going to tell her you were leaving her,’’ Jack said.
    ‘‘Yeah, but no one would have had to have known,’’ Oliver said as if it made perfect sense to him.
    It did to Jack, too. ‘‘Until you’d left town. Then she would have been humiliated, but you wouldn’t have been here or what would you care, right?’’
    Oliver looked at him. ‘‘You of all people know I’ve never been good at facing up to things.’’
    No, Jack thought, remembering the cheating incident only too well.
    ‘‘Peggy must have put the poison in the chocolates,’’ Oliver said as if to himself.
    ‘‘The thing is, Oliver, I don’t believe Peggy mixed up the boxes of candy,’’ Tempest said. ‘‘I’ve seen her work area and