Free Real Estate and Murder (A Port Grace Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Emily Page Page B

dizzying speed, making the connections and putting it all together. She’d solved it! And all she could do was mutely follow Cooper through the gate. Her excitement had caught the words in her throat.
    “We’re here to ask you a few more questions,” said Cooper. “In fact, we were going to stop by all three of you lovely ladies’ houses, but you’ve saved us the trouble.”
    “We’ve answered all your questions, Chief,” said Victoria. “Yours and hers.” She shot a less-than-friendly look at Georgia. “I just want to be left in peace to mourn my husband.”
    “I find that hard to believe,” said Georgia, making all eyes lock on her, “since you killed him.”
    Victoria’s mouth gaped open.
    “How dare you?” she said just as Cooper pointed a thumb at her and asked Georgia, “She did it?”
    “Not just her,” said Georgia, her heart racing as she looked at Cooper. “They’re all in it together!”
    Victoria shrieked in outrage and dropped her jaw even farther, Cynthia burst into tears, and Delia looked Georgia right in the eye and said, “Prove it.”
    Cooper observed all three women’s reactions, and his hand went to the cuffs on his belt.
    “Explain it to me, Georgia,” he said. “How do you know? I have to have probable cause to arrest them.”
    “Arrest us?” said Victoria, her blue eyes narrowed in anger. “This is ridiculous. She isn’t even a cop.”
    “Please sit down and remain quiet, Mrs. Fowler,” said Cooper, “or I’ll take all of you down to the station right now to finish my questioning.”
    “Well, I’d had suspicions for a few days now,” said Georgia, “because three of our best suspects having the same alibi when so many things pointed to them was really fishy to me. But I know for certain now. Casual acquaintances don’t have brunch.”
    “Really, you’re basing all this on us having brunch?” said Delia, crossing her arms and raising a skeptical eyebrow.
    “Yes, actually,” said Georgia. “See, there’s no other reason for you all to lie about being friends. Victoria claimed she invited you out for drinks on a whim. You, Delia, claimed you barely knew Cynthia, but we found out you went to the same high school and that Cynthia used you as her personal reference to get the secretary job. Why would the three of you lie about something as innocent as being friends unless you were trying to distance yourselves from each other in order to distance yourselves from the crime?”
    Cynthia let out a particularly loud sob in response while Delia tried her best to remain stoic and Victoria stammered nonsensically. Georgia zeroed in on Cynthia as the weak link.
    “Cynthia, how did they convince you to do it?” said Georgia, her tone sad and sympathetic. “You loved Bruce more than either of them, didn’t you?”
    “Yes!” wailed Cynthia. “But he didn’t love me back. He kept saying he was going to leave Victoria, but he never did. And then he cheated on me with Delia!”
    “Whoa, hold on,” said Cooper. “Delia was sleeping with him, too? How old was this guy again?”
    “Delia didn’t love him, though, did she, Cynthia?” said Georgia.
    “No! Neither of them loved him like I did.”
    “Delia was just using him to advance her career,” said Georgia, fixing the young blonde with an icy stare.
    Delia stared right back with a defiant glare of her own.
    “How did you know he had an affair with Delia?” said Cooper.
    “It was just a hunch,” said Georgia. “If they all did it together, then Delia’s secret boyfriend wasn’t a hit man. My dad said Bruce had a thing for Delia, and Delia was keen for a higher position in the company. I put two and two together.”
    “This is insane. You have no proof,” said Delia, “just the sniffling lies of a ditzy secretary.”
    Cynthia’s cry of outrage made a small smile tug at Georgia’s mouth. If she played this right, they would all tear each other apart.
    “You just wanted a pay raise, maybe a senior