Braking for Bodies by Duffy Brown Page A

the soul of grace and decorum, in handcuffs of all things by the best man and someone they’ve known since he was in diapers?”
    Sutter pulled the yellow bag from his jacket. “Fiona put the olive oil bottle in this, and it was found at the scene of the crime, and people saw the purple hat last night at the crime scene, and she has motive.” He gave me a hard look. “I bet you saw Fiona on that path last night, didn’t you? I should lock you up too.”
    â€œAnd if you’re not guilty,” Zo said to Fiona, “why are you running all over the place and not talking to the police like I did?” She jutted her 36-Bs and added a superior smirk. “You’re just like making excuses.”Zo shook her finger at Fiona. “You did it, I know you did.”
    Sutter looked mutinous, but he did put away the handcuffs—thank you, Lord—and said to Fiona, “We as in you and me will walk casually and together out of this hotel and all the way down to the police station.” He turned to me. “You get Shakespeare.”
    â€œSometimes I get Shakespeare, sometimes he mystifies the heck out of me,” I said, having no idea how
Macbeth
played into this, but I needed time to figure a way to help Fiona.
    â€œMy horse. He’s around back, and Fiona and I will meet you in the front by Sadie’s. Don’t try anything cute,” he said to me. “I’m not in the mood.”
    Sutter took hold of Fiona’s arm, tossed the flag over her arm and then hauled her out the door as Zo called, “Justice is served.”
    I grabbed a pillow and swatted Zo upside the head, adding more feathers to the occasion, then headed for the back stairway. As much as I was hell-bent on helping Fiona, she was the one with all the info. She knew what was on that phone, who was tickled to their toes that Peepster was out of the way, and she knew the island and the people here way better than I did. Fiona was loved, trusted and accepted, and people would tell her what was going on. I was still a come-here, and the trusted part was up in the air.
    Sutter hadn’t locked Fiona up yet, but I knew he had enough circumstantial evidence to do the deed. Being from a family of Chicago lawyers, I’d been exposed tomore than my share of legal chitchat over breakfast, lunch, dinners, any and all family gatherings. From time to time the brain-numbing information actually came in handy.
    In my own personal preferences of island transportation, horses were one step behind bikes. The only time I’d ridden a horse was on a horse’s rump behind Sutter with my arms around his rock-solid chest and bouncing up and down. Truth be told, I’d had dreams of Sutter, his chest and the bouncing-up-and-down part, but it did not involve being on a horse.
    â€œHere you go,” I said, handing the reins off to Sutter as we stood in front of the ice cream parlor with carriages and walkers and bikes maneuvering around us. “And once again in case you forgot, you’ve got the wrong person in custody.”
    Sutter let out a deep sigh and cut his eyes to Fiona. “I don’t like this any better than you, and maybe you had every right to knock off this Peep guy. That should count for something in court.”
    â€œLike twenty years behind bars instead of thirty?” Fiona wailed to Sutter, and then she said to me, “You’d better get to the bike shop. I put a
Be back in thirty
sign on the shop, but that was hours ago. You’ve got a business to run.” She grabbed my hand. “Thanks for believing in me.”
    I stuck my tongue out at Sutter as the group of three headed down Cadotte, fading into the crowd of tourists enjoying the evening. Okay, the tongue thing was childish, I’ll give you that, but I was ticked off and itwas the only thing I could think of to do or . . . or was it? The Yankee bike I’d dropped off earlier was still parked where