Cupid's Corpse: A Cozy Mystery (Gemma Stone Cozy Mystery Book 3) by Willow Monroe

phone. It was somewhat grainy and the sound was tinny, but there was Mr. Muzak extolling the virtues of love and his wife. Gemma was reminded of how they didn’t seem to fit together. He was short and heavy set. She was as tall as him and slender. Also, he was holding her hands oddly, as if she might try to escape.
    One minute he was talking and the next there was an arrow sticking out of his chest. Natasha looked as surprised as her husband, and was almost pulled down to the floor when he fell. Gemma backed the video up until just before that and watched it again.
    “Well, I’ll be,” the sheriff murmured. “Where did you find this?”
    “In a very unlikely place.”
    Gemma stared at the screen, watching the video again just to make sure. “His plan was to kill her but, at the last minute, he couldn’t do it. He pushed her out of the way,” she finally said.
    Sheriff Burton and her deputies crowded around Gemma’s chair as she backed the video up one more time. “Look at how he’s holding both of her hands instead of just one. Now she’s looking at the floor making sure she’s standing on her X. Finally, sure she’s in the right place, she looks up and to her right. That’s where Joel was standing.”
    “Their affection for each other was obvious,” the sheriff said. “It’s one of the first things everyone has mentioned to us.”
    Gemma nodded. “Maybe Mr. Muzak didn’t see it until that last moment, but he knew he didn’t stand a chance. But look, right there,” Gemma touched the screen with the tip of her finger. “He takes a tiny step and places one leg in front of hers. She knows she has to stay on that X so she’s pushing back. She had no idea he was trying to save her life.”
    “You’re right,” Sheriff Burton said after a few minutes. “You’re absolutely right.”
    Somehow knowing she was right didn’t make Gemma feel any less sad at the loss of Mr. Muzak.
    “Boris and I met in Florida....in jail.” Joel said from the doorway where he stood, his hands cuffed behind him.
    Everyone turned to look at him.
    “I had stolen some money from a man I worked for,” Joel continued. “We were both very lonely. We became friends, and then we became much more than friends. For him it was an emotional attachment. For me it was just needing something to help me cope. Boris loved easily and deeply.”
    “Go on,” Sheriff Burton said, motioning for her deputies to step aside and let him come further into the room.
    He didn’t move, but took a deep breath and then plunged on into his story. “Boris was one of those people who could say they were in love with more than one person at a time and actually believe it. I only knew how to survive.”
    He hesitated and looked from Gemma to Sheriff Burton as though he expected someone to judge him, either for his bisexuality or for the lack of passion. No one stopped him. They were all listening carefully.
    “Boris got out first and came up here to start this business. He wrote me love letters every week until I got out, promising me a job and a wonderful new life together. When I got here, I found out he had a wife, Natasha. He loved her very much but he still wanted me, too. I needed the job, so I let him keep believing the feeling was mutual. It really didn't matter much to me one way or another.”
    Joel sagged against the door frame as if he might fall. “I never understood it was possible to feel the things he talked about until the first time Natasha kissed me. After that, I couldn't let him touch me anymore. I finally knew what it was supposed to mean to be with somebody. And we both had started to realize that there was something really wrong with Boris. He had a dark side that believed in love against all odds and any cost.”
    Gemma hadn’t thought of Mr. Muzak as having a dark side but, if Joel was telling the truth, it was like he was talking about a completely different person.
    “Natasha and I knew we had to get away from him, but we