Free Died with a Bow by Grace Carroll

bid on me. You said you would, but somebody else did. Whoever sheis came up to me last night and said she was sorry she couldn’t make it but she’d given her ticket to you. So do we have a date? Call me on my cell. I’m at the hospital treating seizures, chest pains, vomiting, overdoses, and one psychotic patient who just threatened to kill me. Just another beautiful Sunday morning at the hospital.”

Five

    I was glad to hear a friendly voice. Someone who didn’t suspect me of murder. Someone who was healing the sick and the crazy but didn’t even know his supposed date for an evening at the Starlight Room had been murdered. I thought it was better he should hear it from me than from the police. Especially if he didn’t have an alibi. Although Jack surely wouldn’t suspect an ER doctor who devoted himself to keeping people alive and who didn’t even know Vienna, or would he? I still wanted to know why she’d bid so much money on him. Sure, he was a great-looking guy, but so were some of the others.
    I called Jonathan, but he didn’t pick up. Maybe he was taking out someone’s appendix or else that crazy person had possibly made good on his threat. So I left a message. Pushing the moving boxes aside, I made myself a cup of tea and sat down at my authentic French bistro table with thecast-iron base and aged white marble top. My dining room table was folded up in the hall. Opened up, it would seat eight, but I’d never had eight people to dinner. I’d never even had one person to dinner, but one day I would.
    Instead of an iPad, I took out an old-fashioned pen and paper and drew a circle with Vienna’s name in the middle. Then I made a list of everyone I knew who was associated with Vienna. Radiating from the circle I drew lines and put a name on each line.
    First there was her family. Her father, Lex, who would have no reason to get rid of his darling daughter. I put a plus sign next to his name. Her stepmother, Bobbi, who seemed, judging by my one phone call with her, a bit resentful of Vienna. I put a minus next to hers. Next came her mother, Noreen, and her stepfather, Hugh, each name on a separate prong. Then I wrote “Geoffrey” on a spike leading from Vienna’s circle, and three more spikes with blanks for the names of other men she might be dating. At the very least, I knew there were the guys who’d picked her up from work at night, and I wrote the type of car each drove—van, sports car and SUV. Then Danielle, her roommate, who definitely deserved a minus based on my conversation with her. No love lost there. But what good would killing Vienna do Danielle when she seemed to be most interested in the rent? Maybe she had someone else who wanted to move in. Still, it seemed like a weak motive for murder.
    I finished by adding both Dolce’s and my names to the diagram, although I knew we hadn’t done it. At least I knew I hadn’t, but I wanted to be an equal-opportunity fingerer of suspects. I had to be if I wanted to be an unbiased aide to the police whether they wanted my help or not.
    I was about to give up and go to bed when Jonathan called me back.
    “Rita, I just heard the news about that woman. Is it true?” he said.
    “You mean Vienna being murdered? I’m afraid it is,” I said. “I’m the one who found her this morning at the boutique.”
    “She was murdered while you were at work?”
    “No, no, we’re not open on Sunday. I went there to return my dress on my way to my health club and there she was. Lying on the floor in the same dress she was wearing last night with the p-p-pink…b-b—” My voice started to shake as the whole scene came back to haunt me. The sight of her body, her dress with the pink bow, the marks on her neck, the police, the accusations.
    “But what was she doing there?” he asked.
    I bit my lip and tried to stay calm, but my eyes filled with tears. I found a tissue and blew my nose. “I don’t know. I keep asking myself that.” I didn’t tell him what