Elizabeth Zelvin - Bruce Kohler 04 - Death Will Save Your Life by Elizabeth Zelvin Read Free Book Online Page B

said.
    “He said he didn’t need her or her brother’s money,” Barbara said. “He said he knew a thing or two, whatever that meant. I asked, but Feather didn’t know, because that’s when she called him a self-centered phony, and he slapped her. That’s why she was crying. Her cheek was still bright red.”
    “The bastard!” Jimmy ruffled up and growled like an outraged grizzly bear. “Did you tell her she should leave him?”
    “Jimmy!” Barbara sounded shocked. “You know I can’t tell other people what to do. I’m in Al-Anon.”

    An unusually large crowd packed the Can that night. Everybody wore wispier and more fluttery clothing than usual, longer dangly jewelry and more of it, and an awful lot of feathers in the hair.
    “Why is everyone all dressed up?” Barbara asked.
    “It’s Midsummer Night,” a woman at the next table said.
    Her friends chimed in.
    “There’s a ceremony down by the lake at midnight.”
    “You’ve got to go, it’s the best part of the summer.”
    “It’s sort of Native American and sort of medieval and Druidic. Well, it’s hard to describe, but you’ll see.”
    “Oh, God,” Jimmy muttered into his organic apple juice, “taking the name of the Celts in vain again.”
    “And there are morris dancers.”
    “Oh, we have to go!” Barbara bounced.
    “We wouldn’t want to miss the morris dancers,” I said.
    “Are we having fun yet?” Jimmy muttered.
    “Hey, look who’s here.” I turned to greet Honey. She looked particularly pretty in a lavender nymphs-and-dryads kind of dress. She wore her hair loose except for a few random tiny braids bound at the ends with amethyst beads.
    “You look great,” I said.
    “Do you think I should be wearing black? I couldn’t find anything in the store.”
    “You look terrific,” Barbara said.
    “Have you heard about Midsummer Night? It sounds like so much fun! But maybe I shouldn’t go.”
    “A little fun won’t kill you,” I said. “Come and sit down.”
    I pulled Honey down onto my lap and wrapped my arms around her slender waist. I felt as happy as I’d ever been for about thirty seconds. Then Callaghan and another policeman clomped in. As they breasted their way through the noisy crowd, people skittered away like a school of small fish with a shark on their tails. They came straight to our table.
    “We need to ask you some questions, Mrs. Markowitz.”
    Honey jumped up, looking terrified.
    “Are you arresting me?”
    “Not at the present time, Mrs. Markowitz, but we’re asking you to come with us to the station and answer some questions.”
    “I want to go with her,” I blurted.
    “You have no standing, Mr. Kohler,” Callaghan said. “But it seems you do have an interest.”
    Stupid, stupid, stupid. Still walking right into trouble. By falling for Honey, I’d given her a motive for murdering her husband. And from Callaghan’s dirty look, he thought I had a motive of my own.
    “No!” Honey said. “He—they have nothing to do with this. They’ve been nice to me because I’ve lost my husband, that’s all.”
    “But you knew each other before you came up here,” he insisted.
    Jimmy, thank God, remained calm.
    “You’ll find that isn’t true, Detective.”
    “You can be sure I’ll check that out personally,” Callaghan said.
    I’d be okay, because there was nothing to find. Nobody conspired to commit murder on the basis of two days’ acquaintance. But whether he saw Honey as a mercenary trophy wife or a victim at the end of her tether, he might think that meeting me had pushed her over the edge.
    “I’ll be fine.” Honey stuck her chin out. “I have my lawyer’s number in my bag.”
    She might have lacked backbone while Melvin was alive, but she had found her courage since he died. I hated to let her go. But I didn’t want to make things worse. As they escorted Honey out, she cast a despairing glance over her shoulder. Not so brave, then. But “acting as if” like a champ.
    Jimmy put