Free Braking for Bodies by Duffy Brown

and stared at me, the thin lines at the corners of her mouth pulling tight, her eyes chilly. “You’re the one who ran into the dead guy on the path. You need to mind your own business, missy. You’ve caused enough trouble.”
    â€œTrust me, getting involved in the Peep Show wasn’t a planned event.”
    â€œLeave Fiona alone. Her father would be heartsick if he knew all . . .” Mamma shook her finger at me. “Look, the guy was slime and he deserved what he got.” Her eyes narrowed. “I have everything under control now, so let it be. No one hurts my family, you understand me, no one. We don’t need your help. We’ll fix this.” The woman tramped off and called over her shoulder, “That’s what parents do, they take care of their kids no matter what.”
    Well, dang. Rudy said Walt was really protective of Fiona, and it carried right over to Mamma Bear. Whatever Peep had on Fiona, the parents knew what it was, or at the very least they had their suspicions.
    I started back across the street to the bike shop and spotted Irma coming out the front door of the Good Stuff. Sutter on horseback trotted down Main with his pissed-cop face firmly in place. Both of them headed straight for me, and was that Fiona peeking out the window at Rudy’s Rides? How’d I get so popular? It was at times like this that living on an island had definite disadvantages. There was noescape!

6
    â€œT hank heavens you’re both here,” Irma wailed as I met up with her on the porch of Rudy’s Rides. Sutter climbed off his horse and tied the reins to the railing as Fiona ducked back down inside the shop.
    â€œThe wedding’s falling apart.” Irma’s apron was splattered with white icing, a smear of chocolate streaked her cheek and she smelled like crème de menthe. Irma looked good enough to eat.
    â€œMom,” Sutter grumbled in a low voice. “We’ve got a serious problem over at the medical center, and the instigator of that problem is running around here and I have to find him and find Fiona, and your wedding needs to take a backseat to . . .”
    Irma glared up at her son, and his words trailed off. Was that smoke curling from her ears and was her hairactually on fire? Irma took a pink The Good Stuff order pad from her apron and smacked Sutter on the arm. “Backseat?”
    â€œOr,” Sutter added, “maybe not.”
    â€œThere’s still time to find your dress,” I rushed in. “I’ve made some calls.”
    â€œIt’s not just that. It’s worse.” Irma fished around in her apron pocket again and this time pulled out a little white bride figure made of foam and started squeezing it. “This is a stress ball . . . actually it’s called the stressed-out bride. Brides and Bliss sent it to me; they thought I might need it. A case of gin would have been a better idea, but this is what I got.”
    â€œLook,” Sutter said in his
I know everything
cop voice. “It’s just a dress. You can find another dress; they’re everywhere.”
    That got him three more whacks with the pink order pad along with, “Who raised you, Nathaniel Sutter! You don’t just replace a wedding dress! It took months to find that dress, and it’s not just the dress that’s got me going. Now I need to find another place besides the Butterfly Conservatory to have my wedding. How do these things keep happening?” Irma gave the bride more squeezes.
    â€œThe butterflies escaped?” I asked.
    â€œInfestation.” Irma squashed the little bride faster. “It’s an aphid outbreak. No one’s allowed in or out until the ladybug shipment arrives to eat the aphids. Margaret Ingram had to strip buck naked and leave all her clothes inside. Word has it she’s got a great butt and now hastwo marriage proposals. She said if she knew men were that easy,