The Llama of Death
by Betty Webb
Zookeeper Theodora "Teddy" Bentley takes Alejandro, the Gunn Zoo llama, to a Monterey Bay-area Renaissance Faire only to discover the still-warm body of the Reverend Victor Emerson, owner of the local wedding chapel, dressed in his royal robes as Henry the Eighth. At first it appears as if Alejandro stomped the man to death, but a closer look reveals a crossbow dart in the man's back. Teddy's investigation proves the "reverend" isn't really a reverend at all—he's an escaped convict, and every marriage he's performed in the past twenty years is null and void. Teddy's mother Caro, a spoiled ex-beauty queen, becomes the chief suspect and is immediately jailed when she causes a riot in the courtroom. The "reverend" had twice married Caro to wealthy men, and when both marriages failed, Caro received large financial settlements. Now she may have to give all that money back, certainly a good enough reason to commit murder. But Caro wasn't the only person gunning for Victor...