Free Dying for the Truth (A Rockcrest Cove Cozy Mystery Book 4) by Emily Page

arrived with the desert menu, Maddie was concerned about how to get the conversation back on the case so that she could get her questions answered.
     
    She passed on the desert and so did Michael, and while they waited for the waiter to bring the check, she said, “Michael. You never told me what was the cause of you and your wife breaking up.”
     
    Michael looked startled at the question. “I suppose it was an accumulation of things over the years. You may not know that my business has been bleeding money for several years now. A string of bad investments, you know.” He wiped his mouth with a napkin and pulled out a credit card and placed it into the folder the waiter had brought.
     
    “Has it been that bad?”
     
    “Maddie, you already know that. You said it yourself. This type of restaurant is far from my taste in establishments.”
     
    “True, but there could have been a number of reasons why you would want to come here.”
     
    “Not really. I love money and I love being able to spend it—and so did my wife. When she learned that she was going to have to cut her spending, she wasn’t too happy about it.”
     
    “So, have you been trying to recoup some of your losses?”
     
    “Oh yes, I have.”
     
    Michael stopped to sign the check the waiter brought. “Shall we go?”
     
    “Oh yes.”
     
    The two walked out of the restaurant together and headed for the door. They stood next to the valet parking service to wait for their separate cars. Michael handed the valet a ticket. “It’s the silver blue Mercedes.”
     
    “Yes, sir.”
     
    Maddie pulled out her ticket to hand to the valet, but she suddenly felt something cold and hard sticking into her back.
     
    “Oh!” She said with surprise and turned to see the barrel of a gun aimed directly at her.
     
    “The lady will be coming back for her car,” Michael told the valet.
     
    “Yes, sir,” he said and went off toward the parking lot.
     
    When they were alone he turned to Maddie. “You’re a very smart lady, Maddie, and I knew it was just a matter of time before you would be able to piece everything together and connect me to Evan’s murder.”
     
    “How did you know?” Maddie asked.
     
    “I knew as soon as you called. Your being accused of a crime that I committed was not something I could feel comfortable about. You’re like a tenacious bulldog. You won’t stop looking until you uncover every little detail about the crime. That’s just the kind of person you are.”
     
    “But lots of people have seen us together tonight Michael. There’s no way you’re going to get away with killing me.”
     
    “Don’t be ridiculous, Maddie. I’m not going to kill you; you’re just going to skip town for a while. When they realize that you didn’t want to face trial, they’ll forget all about our little dinner tonight and they’ll automatically assume that you were guilty.”
     
    “No one would believe that I would leave behind my family and business because of this case.”
     
    “We’ll see about that. You’d be surprised what people will believe when fed the right amount of information. You see, Maddie, it’s about how you tell them the story. People aren’t really interested in finding out the truth. They just want to know about …” Michael’s voice stopped in mid-sentence. It appeared that his body went completely limp, the gun fell from his hand, and his body began to crumple to the ground as if in slow motion.
     
    Maddie looked on in surprise, not sure what had happened until Michael’s heap of a body fell, revealing Bailey standing over him with a cast iron frying pan she had swiped from the kitchen.
     
    “Wha! What?” was all Maddie could say.
     
    “We saw the two of you leaving together and figured that it was all ok. But then when I noticed that Michael didn’t put his coat on when he left the restaurant, I knew something was wrong. When I got closer, I saw the gun so I did what I had to do,” Bailey