Free Murder for Bid by Susan Furlong Bolliger

mean?”
    “I hate to say. It’s just speculation.”
    He hesitated, his gaze focused downward. I could tell he didn’t want to tell on his friend. For some reason, his loyalty made him seem vulnerable. I resisted an intense urge to reach out and comfort him.
    “I understand that Richard is your friend, but if you know something you should tell me. It may be important to the case.”
    He met my eyes, and once again I was caught off guard by his striking good looks. “I’m sure it’s nothing, but I was golfing with Richard that day. We’ve been getting together more often lately because Richard was taking the high road on a building moratorium that the city wants to enforce along the boundaries of the historic areas downtown.”
    “I understand.” Blah, blah, blah. City politics were soooo boring. I was anxious for him to get to the point.
    “Anyway, he seemed … well … I don’t know. I guess I would say that he seemed agitated that day. I thought at first it had to do with our disagreement on the moratorium, but now looking back on it, I think it really had something to do with Amanda.”
    “Why do you think that?”
    “He had a call while we were on the fifth and I’m pretty sure it was her.”
    This was more information than I had hoped to get. I could hardly wait to tell Sean. “Did you hear any part of the conversation?” I asked.
    “No, not really. I just assumed it was her by the tone of his voice. Things became quite heated. After the call, his mind wasn’t much on the game.”
    That’s funny; I thought Jason, the caddy, had said that he had a great game that day. I held my thoughts, though, not wanting to detour Greg’s story.
    “I’m sure it was her on the phone,” he reiterated. 
    “Just as I thought,” I piped up. “She’d probably discovered the affair and was calling him out on it. I think he left the club angry and went home to confront her. They must have had an argument and he lost his temper. I’m pretty sure he used one of his clubs to do it.”
    “No!” Greg gasped. “That’s really hard to believe. I’ve known Richard for a long time and I just don’t think he’s capable. I mean an affair, maybe; but murder, there’s no way he did it.”
    “Yes, but people do unthinkable things when it comes to love,” I said, in my most sage-like voice. “My theory is that he beat her to death with the club and then removed her jewels to make it look like a robbery. He then put her body in the hot tub to buy time while he cleaned himself and disposed of the murder weapon and jewels. They’re probably somewhere near the murder scene. Maybe buried in the back yard or hidden in a secret panel in one of the house’s walls. They’re definitely not in his shed,” I added, wishing I hadn’t.
    Greg squinted, but thankfully didn’t ask me to explain. “I don’t know. It doesn’t really seem possible.”
    “Did your building plans call for any secret compartments in the home?”
    “No, but that doesn’t mean that they didn’t have one constructed later on.”
    “Sure, that could be it. More than likely, he put it somewhere outside. I just can’t figure out where. If he had buried it, there would be evidence of freshly turned soil.”
    “You know, I’m not sure I’m buying this theory about Richard. You don’t know him the way I do. He’s just not the murdering type. Besides, the press is saying that Amanda got in the way of an intruder. Whoever that was, could have dumped the murder weapon anywhere. It could be out in the middle of Lake Michigan for all we know.”
    “Maybe so. Although, usually in crimes like these, the first suspect is always the husband. Or, in this case, it could also have been Richard’s mistress.”
    “You think that Madeline Reiner is that woman?”
    “Isn’t it obvious?”
    Greg shrugged.
    “Anyway,” I continued. “If it was Richard or Madeline, and my bet’s on Richard, the police will be able to pin it on him with the trace