Free Watchin' The Detective: A Mystery Dinner Romance by Louise Hathaway Page B

theater?”
    “Yes. I am. How did you know?”
    “I was there that night, too.”
    “Oh yes. I remember you, too. You were
dressed like Joan in ‘Mad Men’.”
    “And you were dressed like Audrey
Hepburn.”
    “Well, that was the look I was going for. I
don’t know how well I pulled it off. Your friend looked a lot more
like her than I did.”
    Isabella says, “Do the police have any idea
who killed your brother-in-law?”
    “If they do, they’re not telling the family
anything.”
    “It’s such a tragedy what happened. I’m so
sorry for your family’s loss.”
    “Thank you.”
    “How’s your sister holding up?”
    “She’s having a rough time.”
    “I’m so sorry. Tell her I’m praying for
her.”
    Isabella scolds herself: Why did I just
say that? Praying for her is the last thing I’ve been
doing.
    The salesgirl says, “Isabella was admiring
the shoes in the window.”
    “Yes. The ones my sister and I have.”
    Isabella pats herself on the back. Yes! I
knew it!
    Paula says, “I’m here to buy a pair in
another color.” She points to some shoes that she likes.
    “Great!” the salesgirl says. “I’ll go get
your size.”
    She comes back with a shoe box and helps
Paula try them on. Paula walks around in them to see if they’re
difficult to walk in.
    Isabella says, “Those look fantastic on you.
What a knock-out you are! Your husband had better keep an eye on
you when you go out of the house in those shoes!”
    Paula laughs, “Thanks for the encouragement.”
She says to the salesgirl, “Brenda, I’ll take them.”
    As Brenda rings them up, another salesgirl
enters the store and says to her, “Here I am at last. Sorry I’m
late. Thanks for covering for me.”
    “It’s okay.” Brenda tells her and grabs her
purse.
    “My shift is over,” she tells Isabella and
Paula. “Would you girls like to go out for a drink?”
    Isabella answers, “Oh, I don’t want to
interfere.”
    Brenda says, “We’d be happy to have you join
us. Wouldn’t we, Paula?”
    She says, “Sure. Come with us.”
    “Let’s go to Wolfgang Puck’s,” Isabella says.
“Their wine is half off tonight.”
    “Sounds good,” the others say. They take a
shortcut through the Macy’s Men Store and dodge the ladies standing
at the top of the escalator who are trying to get them to sample
cologne. When they enter the restaurant, the server says, “Hi,
Isabella. Your table is free.”
    Paula asks her, “You have your own
table?”
    “I come in here a lot.”
    “Then it has to be good.”
    They chit chat about clothes as they have
their first drinks. By their second drinks, their voices are
getting noticeably louder, and everything seems funny to them. The
wine makes Isabella bold and she decides to broach the subject of
Paula’s brother-in-law’s death. She says, “So do you have any idea
who killed him?”
    Paula answers, “Who knows? That man was
traveling all the time. He could have a whole other family for all
I know.”
    “Really?” Isabella says.
    “Well, he was an outside salesman for an
electronic distributorship. He was always going to Las Vegas. He
told my sister that it was for business, but I think he went there
to gamble.”
    “Interesting. So did he have a gambling
habit?”
    “My sister thinks so.”
    “Were they having financial troubles?”
    “Not that I know of. He was still spending
money like there was no tomorrow.”
    “Were they happily married?”
    “My sister loved him. I never could
understand why. He was a bastard, in my humble opinion.”
    The waitress comes over to their table and
asks, “Are you ladies going to have anything to eat?”
    Paula says, “Yes. We better get something in
our stomachs after all this wine.”
    They order a fennel sausage pizza.
    After the waitress leaves, Isabella asks
Paula, “So, why did you say your sister’s husband was a
bastard?”
    “We think he was having an affair.”
    “Really?
    “My sister found some credit card receipts
from The