Red, White, and Blue Murder

by Kathleen Suzette

  “Why are you so quiet?” I asked.

  “I’m not. I’m just enjoying the view.”

  Dave Jones had been a surprise to me. Before Anita’s death, I never would have thought he might kill someone. Thankfully, I had my phone in the pocket of my windbreaker, and when he came toward me I hit the button to call Alec. Running in the sand isn’t one of my favorite things to do, but when your life is on the line, you do what you need to. As I heard his breathing close behind me, I made up my mind to get back to running regularly. Seriously. Thankfully for me, there was a lifeguard on duty and he was a muscle-bound college student on summer break. Dave didn’t stand a chance.

  “Did he tell you all his dirty secrets?” I turned my head to look at him.

  He turned toward me. “Anita threatened to tell his wife about the relationship. She wanted to leave Bill and marry him. Unfortunately for her, that wasn’t in his plans. That was why they argued.”

  “Wow. I guess it’s true what they say.”

  His brow furrowed in the dim light cast by the patio light. “What?”

  “Cheaters never prosper.”

  He chuckled and looked up at the sky again. “Nope. And sometimes they end up dead.”

  I sighed. “It’s a shame. I feel bad for Mike and Bill. Especially Mike. I hope he gets some therapy to help him deal with his anger.”

  “Me too. The kid has a promising career in college sports if he can get it under control.”

  “He’s that good?”

  He nodded. “I was talking to Bill, and the kid has had quite a lot of accomplishments in high school football.”

  “I hope he can put this behind him and learn to move on then. It would be nice if he could be one of those sad stories that turns into a happy one. Like when the Olympics are going. So many of those athletes have really hard backgrounds that they’ve overcome.”

  “Yeah, that would be nice.”

  “So, how did he pull it off?” I asked.

  “He said he didn’t plan it. He stewed over the argument for a couple of hours, and when he came across her sitting on the beach, he walked up to her and stabbed her.”

  “Just like that?”

  “Just like that. It was just a coincidence that he had a knife on him with a six-inch blade.”

  I snorted. “Yeah, I always carry a knife like that with me when I’m taking a stroll around the beach.”

  “That’s the first thing I thought. And like you said, he ran to the ocean to wash himself off, and tossed the knife into the water. No one spotted him. It was just a lucky break.”

  We were quiet for a while, each thinking our own thoughts and enjoying the night sky. Then I turned to him again. “You know what?”

  “What?” he asked without looking at me.

  “Mr. Winters thinks I’ve changed my mind.”

  He turned his head now. “Changed your mind about what?”

  “About marrying you. We haven’t set a date, and he thinks it’s because I’ve changed my mind about you.”

  He stared at me a moment, and then he started laughing. Loudly.

  “Shush, you’ll wake the neighbors,” I warned.

  But that only made him laugh louder. “Mr. Winters thinks you changed your mind because we haven’t set a date?”

  “Yes, now hush.”

  His laughter settled down to a low chuckle. “Well?”

  “Well, what?”

  “When do you want to get married?”

  I shrugged. “Weddings are a lot of trouble. I’m in no hurry.”

  “We don’t have to have a big wedding. In fact, I would rather not. I’ve had that, and I’m assuming you have, too. We can just get married right here in your backyard.”

  “Here?”

  “Sure. Why not?”

  “I don’t know. But Mr. Winters is going to make the balloon animals for the wedding.”

  He roared with laughter again.

  “Will you stop that?” I hissed when I saw a light come on at the house next door.

  “Sorry,” he managed as he wheezed in an effort to stop laughing. “I can picture it now. Balloon elephants and giraffes all over the place.”

  “I can’t picture it, and I’m not going to. We are not having balloon animals.”

  When he’d been quiet a few minutes, he turned to me. “Seriously though, why don’t we set a date?”

  I shrugged. “I don’t know. Maybe.” My fingers found the engagement ring on my left hand and I moved it back and forth. It was perfect. Strawberry gold band and chocolate and vanilla diamonds. Only Alec would think of something like that.

  “Well, you let me know when you want to get married. I’ll check my calendar.”

  I chuckled. “Of course.”

  When did I want to get married? It wasn’t like the thought hadn’t crossed my mind. I’d had a June wedding the first time around, with the big white ball gown and seven bridesmaids. I didn’t need that again. The important thing was to marry the man of my dreams. And I had him. We just needed to set a date.

  Sneak Peek

  Next up from Kathleen Suzette:

  Strawberry Cream Scream

  A Pumpkin Hollow Mystery, book 15

  Chapter One

  “I can’t believe it’s here,” I nearly squealed as I ran to Amanda to hug her.

  She laughed and squeezed me back. “Can you believe it? I can’t believe my baby is going to be here in a matter of weeks. I didn’t think my pregnancy would ever end, but now that I’m almost there, it seems like it flew by.”

  “I’m sure it did,” I said and held her at arm’s length. “I’m so happy for you, Amanda. This is so exciting.”

  She made a face. “I can’t believe how big I’m getting.”

  “You look adorable. Don’t even think about that,” I said, and we headed into her house.

  “Hey! What about me?” My sister Christy called from the back of her car where she was getting the party decorations for Amanda’s baby shower from the trunk.

  “Oh, sorry Christy,” I said laughing and headed back to her side. “I guess it would be nice if I helped, right?”

  She shook her head. “I guess I can carry it all in. It isn’t that heavy.”

  I grabbed four of the bags of decorations and she grabbed the rest, and we headed back to where Amanda stood on her front porch. We had been planning this baby shower for months and it was finally time. The guests would arrive at noon and we had just enough time to get the house decorated. We were serving a light lunch, and we’d play a few games and Amanda could open her gifts. I’d bought her a crib bedding set that had pink butterflies and flowers on it. I couldn’t wait for her to open it.

  “Amanda, you look adorable pregnant,” Christy said. “I just told you that last week though, so you already know that.”

  She was wearing a pink and black polka-dot dress with a black bow on the front. She shook her head. “I’ll have to take your word for it. I don’t feel adorable. I feel hot, and my back aches.”

  “Of course you’ll take my word for it,” Christy said with a chuckle.

  We headed into the house and I set the bags down on the living room floor. “I like what you’ve done with the place,” I said, looking around. Amanda and her husband Brian had moved into a small house a month earlier and she had decorated the place to look like a beach cottage.

  “Thanks. Brian insists that it’s two summery and that when winter comes, I’ll change my mind about it. He may be right. But for right now, I love the way it looks.”

  “I love it, too,” Christy said and set her bags next to mine. “Now, I guess we need to get started?”

  Amanda nodded. “All right, let’s get to work then.”

  “Oh,” I said as I caught sight of a huge centerpiece on her dining room table. “Did you already get a centerpiece?” My mother had mentioned having one sent from the florist, but I didn’t think this could be it from the way she described it to me.

  “Well, sort of. But not exactly. My mo
m’s boss insisted on sending the centerpiece for the baby shower.” She shrugged, and we went over to take a closer look at it. “It’s not exactly my style, but she at least she tried to incorporate the Pumpkin Hollow Halloween theme into it.” She frowned. “I’ll just say it isn’t my style.”

  She wasn’t kidding. The centerpiece was huge and made up of orange and yellow mums, black and orange ribbons, and pink daisies. There were a handful of tiny paper mache pumpkins strewn about the centerpiece, but the pink daisies threw everything off. Or maybe it was the black and orange ribbons. Amanda’s baby was a girl, and we had bought pink and white decorations. The centerpiece would clash with everything we had bought.

  “Sorry Amanda, but it’s awful. Do you really have to set it out during the baby shower?” Christy asked. My sister knew how to tell the truth.

  Amanda chuckled and shook her head. “I’m afraid we do. My mom said her boss would be offended if we didn’t.”

  “But it’s your baby shower,” Christy pointed out. “Why do you have to have something that you don’t like there?” She looked at Amanda pointedly.

  Amanda sighed. “Well, the activities will be held in the living room, so if we leave it here on the dining room table, maybe no one will notice it.”

  “But where are we going to set the food?” I asked. “We’ll need to put it on the dining room table, and then there’s no getting around this thing.”

  She bit her bottom lip in thought. “Why don’t we just get decorating, and maybe we can come up with a solution later,” she said and headed back to the living room.

  I didn’t want to bring Amanda down, so we followed her back into the living room and we’d worry about it later.

  “Did you get the nursery set up yet?” I asked Amanda, turning to her.

  She grinned and nodded. “We sure did. You want to come see?”

  “Of course I do,” said with a nod. She led the way into the spare bedroom she had set up as a nursery.

  “Awe,” Christy and I said in unison when we saw the room.

  “It’s perfect,” I said as I gazed at the crib.

  Amanda stood with her hands on her belly and looked around the toom, smiling. “Isn’t it cute? This baby had better like pink.”

  Christy chuckled. “Well, if she doesn’t like it, I sure do.”

  “Brian did the painting by himself,” she said proudly.

  The room was done in wide white and pink stripes midway down the wall, and there was a white chair rail going around the room. The bottom of the wall was painted solid pink. There were three adorable ballerina wall hangings, and a beautiful pastel rose fabric wall hanging above the crib. The crib was a white Jenny Lind and looked vintage.

  “Don’t tell me this was your crib?” I asked, walking over to the crib and looking into it. “Oh look, is that your grandmother’s quilt she made for you?” Amanda’s grandmother had passed away soon after she learned that Amanda was pregnant. She had just enough time to make a yellow quilt for the baby since she didn’t know if it would be a girl or a boy.

  She joined me at the crib. “It’s actually brand new. I didn’t think my old crib would be up to today’s safety standards, so I went with this one. Isn’t it cute? And yes, that’s the quilt Grandma made. I wish she would have gotten to meet her.” She ran her hand over her belly again.

  “I’m sorry she isn’t here to meet her.” I ran one hand along the top rail of the crib. “It’s adorable. Amanda, I’m so excited for you. I can’t wait for that baby to get here. It will be the most loved baby that has ever walked the face of the planet.”

  “Crawled,” Christy corrected.

  I chuckled. “Okay, she’ll crawl first, but then she’ll walk, and then run.”

  “Oh, don’t say that. You’re making my baby grow up before she’s even here,” Amanda said.

  “Did you come up with a name yet?” Christy asked her.

  She smiled shyly. “We’re still talking about names. One minute I think one name is perfect, and then the next I think, no, that isn’t it. I keep thinking as soon as I hear the right name I’ll know that’s it. But to be honest, we just haven’t made up our minds yet.”

  “That’s okay, you still have a few weeks,” I said. “You did a great job with the nursery. It’s really cute.”

  “Thanks,” she said. “I’m pretty proud of it.”

  “Let’s get working on the decorations before we end up with the guests arriving to find us still working on it,” I said.

  We all went back into the living room and began removing the streamers, flowers, and the items for the games we were going to play from the bags.

  “Why don’t we decorate this side table so people can put gifts on it?” Christy asked, heading over to a table that sat along one wall of the living room. She picked up the vase of fabric flowers that was sitting on it and the coasters and pictures, then turned to look at Amanda. “Where can I put these for now?”

  “Why don’t we put them in my bedroom?” she asked and came and took some of the items from Christy and led the way to her bedroom with them.

  There was a small aluminum ladder leaning against one wall, and I opened it up and climbed it so I could put the pink and white streamers up.

  “Where’s Brian this morning?” I asked over my shoulder when Amanda and Christy came back into the living room.

  “I told him to make himself scarce. I think he’s down at the coffee shop working.”

  Amanda and Brian owned the Little Coffee Shop of Horrors. They served the best coffee in town.

  “That’s a good place for him,” Christy said as she opened two of the packages of streamers. She twisted the pink and white streamers together and handed me one end. I taped it to the corner of the ceiling. Amanda had been my best friend for as long as I remembered. Holding her baby was something I could hardly wait to do.

  ***

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