Free Iced to Death by Peg Cochran Page A

“Bradley is such a snob. Didn’t want to associate with us.”
    “That’s too bad.” Gigi tried to inject just the right note of sympathy into her voice.
    “Yeah. Well, Jimmy may not be a lawyer, but he does all right considering. Runs a body shop just outside of town. Nowadays they would have diagnosed him with a learning disability, but back then . . .” She shrugged. “But like I said, he does all right, and I bring in what I can working here at Keith’s.” She fiddled with the hoop in her right ear.
    “It’s not easy nowadays,” Gigi said, injecting even more sympathy into her voice.
    “You’re telling me!” Cheryl snorted. “If I hadn’t needed that operation . . . Keith can’t afford to offer us health insurance, and the same with the body shop where Jimmy works. Barbara”—she looked at Gigi as if to see if she was following the story—“is a decent sort, and when she heard the trouble we were in, wrote a check right on the spot.”
    Gigi nodded, again trying to present the appropriate level of interest without scaring Cheryl off.
    “Bradley insisted on drawing up some papers to show that we’d pay up as agreed. I know Barbara could care less about stuff like that.” Cheryl wiped her nose with the back of her hand. “Of course now with Bradley dead maybe it won’t make any . . .”
    The unfinished sentence hung in the air between them. Gigi cleared her throat and made noises about getting her coat and moving on.
    Cheryl smiled and held out her hand. “Nice to meet you.”
    Gigi smiled, nodded and shook the proffered hand.
    She fastened Reg’s leash, said good-bye again and went out the door. She couldn’t believe it—Cheryl had just admitted to a very, very good reason for murder.

Chapter 7
    “How are things going with your sister?” Sienna poured Gigi a cup of steaming coffee. They were settled into the coffee corner, as it was known, at the Book Nook.
    “Okay. I don’t see much of her given the hours she keeps.”
    “How long does she plan to—”
    “She said she has an appointment to go look at some apartments. I feel a little guilty, but I can’t wait to have the cottage all to myself again.”
    “That’s perfectly understandable.” Sienna stirred her cup of herbal tea. “I was really sorry to miss the big party and all of the excitement. Oliver’s mother called up out of the blue wanting to see Camille”—she smiled at the baby gurgling happily in the bouncy seat next to her—“and she offered to pay our airfare and everything. I must admit it was heavenly to get away to Palm Beach at this time of year.” She wiped a bit of drool from the baby’s mouth. “Although we think poor little Camille is cutting a tooth, don’t we pumpkin?” She cooed at the infant. “The first evening she had us up almost all night.”
    Gigi glanced at her goddaughter. She seemed perfectly content now, rocking in her bouncy chair, trying to stuff her fist into her mouth.
    “We were invited because Oliver’s friend, George Lawson, is an associate at Simpson and West. I think the whole thing was less of an engagement party and more of a business affair for Bradley Simpson.” A slight frown crossed Sienna’s face. “I’m sorry. I shouldn’t be speaking ill of the dead, as my mother would say.”
    Gigi cupped her mug of coffee. “It seems there were plenty of people willing to speak ill of him while he was alive.”
    Sienna cocked her head. “Really? I didn’t know him at all well. Oliver said he was a hard-driving lawyer and an incredible rainmaker for the firm.”
    Gigi told Sienna about her recording session earlier that day. “Cheryl told me that she and her husband had borrowed money from Barbara Simpson. They seem to think that with Bradley out of the way there won’t be any need to pay her back.”
    “She said that?” Sienna looked up from wiping another blob of drool off of Camille’s chin. She gestured at the cloth in her hand. “They say all this drooling means