An Uplifting Murder by Elaine Viets Page B

Alex’s singing—and Failoni’s food. The restaurant was one of St. Louis’s hidden gems.
     
    Josie applauded as the song ended. Ted took his arm from around her shoulder to join in the clapping. Josie admired her date’s rugged good looks. Tonight Ted had traded his green veterinarian scrubs for khakis and a blue cotton shirt. He still had that outrageously noble chin and deep brown eyes. They were eyes a woman could get lost in. Josie had been lost for months.
     
    “Would you like coffee or dessert?” Ted asked.
     
    Just you, Josie thought. We only have tonight and then I turn into a responsible mom again.
     
    “No, thanks,” she said. “The rosemary chicken was delicious.”
     
    Ted signaled for the check. Josie watched the other women in the restaurant eyeing him and thought, He’s mine.
     
    “You seem distracted,” Ted said. “Is something wrong?”
     
    “Do you think I need a face-lift?” Josie asked.
     
    “A what!”
     
    Josie was gratified by his surprise. She could hear it wasn’t faked.
     
    “What moron said you had wrinkles?” Ted said.
     
    “Dr. Hugo Agustino Martin,” Josie said. “He’s a plastic surgeon.”
     
    “He’s an idiot,” Ted said. “Why were you seeing a plastic surgeon? You don’t need one.”
     
    “Dr. Tino is the husband of Frankie, my former classmate.”
     
    “Oh, right. The murdered woman,” Ted said. “You discovered her body in the mall bathroom. Do you still believe your ex-teacher is innocent?”
     
    “I know Laura Ferguson is innocent,” Josie said. “The police arrested the wrong woman. I’ve heard the husband is supposed to be the main suspect when a wife is murdered. They didn’t arrest Dr. Tino. I wanted to know why.”
     
    “Was Frankie killed during his office hours?” Dr. Ted asked.
     
    “Between eleven twelve and eleven thirty in the morning,” Josie said. “How did you know?”
     
    “I see patients, too,” Ted said. “Mine have fur or feathers, but their appointments are all in the clinic computer. Dr. Tino’s appointments give him an airtight alibi. The police may have checked the times, interviewed his staff and patients, and concluded he wasn’t guilty.”
     
    “Oh,” Josie said. She could have saved two hundred dollars if she’d thought. At least she’d verified that Dr. Tino and Shannon couldn’t have killed Frankie.
     
    “The killer has to be someone besides Laura Ferguson,” she said. “I just need to find her.”
     
    “Before you suspected Frankie’s husband murdered his wife. Now you’re calling the killer a ‘her.’ Are you sure about the gender?” Ted said.
     
    “Frankie was found dead in a women’s restroom in the mall,” Josie said. “There’s a mall video showing a large woman in a dark coat and head scarf entering just after Frankie did. The head-scarf woman came out. Frankie never did, except dead.”
     
    “I saw that video on television,” Ted said. “The killer looks like a large woman.”
     
    “That describes Laura,” Josie said. “But it could fit many women. The police arrested the wrong person.” She reached into her purse and said, “Here’s my share for dinner.”
     
    “Put that away,” Ted said. “This is my treat.”
     
    Josie was secretly relieved. She was going to be short of cash for a while after her visit to Dr. Tino and her splurge for Amelia’s first bra. She enjoyed dating a man who wasn’t a nickel squeezer.
     
    “Shall we go?” Ted whispered in her ear. “My place?”
     
    “Definitely,” Josie said. “Amelia is staying with Mom tonight. That’s one less worry.”
     
    They left the warm restaurant, stepping into the cold night. Josie carefully picked her way along the shoveled walk. The air was crisp and the black sky looked velvety. They could see their breath. Failoni’s had been a Dogtown neighborhood institution for more than seventy-five years. An ancient sign on the brick building proclaiming Failoni’s “air-conditioned”