Free Braking for Bodies by Duffy Brown Page A

she’d have stripped a long time ago.”
    Irma fished in her apron and pulled out a squishy figure in a black tux with white tie. Eyes bulging and staring at her son, she compressed the bride in her right hand and the groom in her left. “Fix this now!”
    â€œMe?” Sutter took a step back.
    Irma’s nostrils flared. “I don’t remember being in labor for twenty-three hours with anyone else on this island. You know weddings, and you solve crimes. Solve this!”
    Sutter put his hands on Irma’s shoulders. “Mom, I got a murder going on and—”
    â€œAnd there’s going to be another murder real soon,” she grumbled deep in her throat. She pointed at me. “Or maybe even more. I want to get married and you two are going to make it happen, and I don’t give a hoot who’s belly-up in that meat keeper over there at the medical center. Do something!”
    Irma stomped off, and Sutter and I stared after her. “She’s your mother,” I said.
    â€œAnd she’s bonkers. I’ve never seen her this way. Even when I painted the cat green for Saint Patrick’s Day and ran the snowmobile into the lake. And why is she harping on me when you’re the one who lost the dress?”
    â€œBrides and Bliss lost the blasted dress, and I had nothing to do with the aphid plague, and you’re the one responsible for the twenty-three-hour thing so you win the prize.”
    â€œI should have stayed in Detroit,” Sutter mumbled as he climbed up on his horse. He held out his hand to me. “I’ll drop you at the conservatory and you can check out when those ladybugs are coming in and how fast they gulp down aphids. I’ve got to get up to the Grand. Zo said she saw Fiona talking to that singer lady, Idle Summers. They’re both from L.A. Maybe there’s something going on with those two and Idle knows where Fiona is.”
    The sun caught in Sutter’s hair and for a second—just a second—I forgot about dresses and dead bodies. His silhouette was tall and lean and he looked as if he belonged in the cast from
Young Guns
. I think this all happened because it had been a while—a long while—since I had anything to do with any kind of guns.
    â€œHey, are you listening to me?” Sutter grumped. “Fiona? Where she is? Earth to Bloomfield, we got a situation here, remember?”
    â€œWhy would you think I know where Fiona is? Was it my time to watch her? Does she have a bell around her neck? We are not joined at the hip and—and—why don’t you check on the aphids and I’ll talk to Idle?”
    â€œBecause I’m the freaking police and do the questioning around here, not that anyone cares!” He pointed to the patch on his jacket.
    â€œFine, I’ll walk up to the Butterfly Conservatory.” Mostly because putting my arms around sun-in-his-hair Sutter right now was not a great idea with my brain and other body parts already in mush mode.
    Sutter trotted off and I refused to consider any morehunky cowboy references coming to mind. What was wrong with me? Sutter was over the hill, forty-three years old. He took life too serious, ate healthy, and most important of all had called me a total of five times—just five, I tell you—all winter, proving beyond any doubt that he wasn’t interested. At least he wasn’t interested in me. He was back and forth to Detroit, but that’s no excuse. They have phones in Detroit!
    I stomped inside the bike shop as Fiona poked her head out the door that led to the kitchen. “Is he gone?” She had two ice cream cones, one in each hand, and a split lip and a red knot on her forehead.
    â€œFor the moment he’s gone,” I said, coming into the shop. “He’s hunting everywhere for you, the guests at the Grand think Peep’s murder is a mystery game and you’re tops on their suspect list, so that means