Marriage and Murder (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Book 4) by Dianne Harman Page A

were this afternoon. Kelly, I love you, and I worry about you.
Sometimes you go off half-cocked, and it could be dangerous for you. All of my
instincts tell me your absence from the coffee shop was one of those times.
Would I be right?”
    “All right Mike, you got
me. You’re probably not going to be too happy about what I did, but you have to
believe me when I tell you I was just trying to help you.” She told him about
calling Dave, the AA meeting, following Richard Larson, and finally researching
him on the Internet.
    For a long time Mike looked
at her. “I don’t know what to say. I can’t believe you took such a risk. Honey,
please, please, please don’t do things like that. I’m scared to death
something’s going to happen to you. What if he is the one who murdered Jesse,
and if he’d spotted you, who knows what might have happened? On the other hand,
I have to give you credit for coming up with a pretty ingenuous plan for
finding out the identity of this AA mystery man.”
    “See Mike, I’ve been
telling you that you need me. I really can help you.”
    “Let me say a couple of
things, and then let’s talk about something else. I want the information you
found out about the guy. I need to establish his whereabouts on the day of the
murder. Secondly, I want you to keep the gun I bought you in your purse, and I
want Lady with you at all times. If you can promise me you’ll do that, I’ll
forget about what you did this afternoon, and I won’t get angry.”
    “You have my word.
Remember, it’s not good to eat when you’re angry, and you probably wouldn’t
enjoy dinner if you were. I promise you Mike, Lady and the gun will be with me
from now on, but I don’t know exactly what I should be frightened of.”
    “I don’t either, but I
just have a hunch you need to do those two things, and I’ve been in this game
long enough to know that if I have a hunch about something, I better follow it.
Deal?”
    “Deal.”

CHAPTER 16
     
    The coffee shop was just as busy as
it had been during the previous two days. People wanted to find out what was
happening in the murder case and commiserate about the crime wave that had descended
on their sleepy little town of Cedar Bay.
    I need to take a break , Kelly thought, walking
into the kitchen to make sure Charlie had things ready for the lunchtime crowd.
She went over to a chair in the corner that was there just for that purpose.
She took her phone out of her purse, wanting to see if Mike had left a message
for her.
    No message from Mike, but
this is interesting. There’s a voicemail from Sophie this morning asking me to
call her . I wonder what she wants. I probably should go out in front, but first I
think I’ll return her call. I’m curious.
    “ Good morning, Sophie, it’s
Kelly Conner, oops, Kelly Reynolds,” she said when Sophie answered her phone. “I
received your message to call you.”
    “That was fast. Thank
you,” Sophie said in her soft voice with a heavy French accent. “I’ve been
debating about calling you, because I wanted to tell you a couple of things. I
don’t think very many people knew that Jesse owed money to his creditors. He
was getting panicked about where he could find the money to pay them back. He
told me they were making harassing calls to him day and night. I offered to
loan him the money many times, but he wouldn’t take my money. He told me that
only weak men took money from women. He said I would think the only reason he
was with me was because of my money. I didn’t tell you this, but the morning he
was killed we had a bitter argument over it. I went to see him at the store
after church, and I told him his refusal to accept my offer was affecting our
relationship. I could tell he was getting depressed, and I begged him to take
my money. I have more than I need, but he refused. Now I wonder if someone
killed him over some debt that he owed.” Kelly heard her sobbing softly on the
other end of the phone.
    “Do you know