Prosecco Pink by Traci Angrighetti Read Free Book Online

the kettle black , I thought as I flipped through the pictures.
    "Who did they think poisoned her?" Veronica asked.
    Delta exhaled deeply. "Knox blamed Antoinette, the house slave who'd served her the tea, and the police agreed. Of course, she fled the plantation, and the case was closed. Nevertheless, a rumor persisted that Knox had done it."
    I looked up at Delta. "Why would anyone suspect Knox?"
    "Because the day before the French tart was killed, he found out that she was planning to run off with his brother," she explained with a pointed look. "Apparently, he came across a letter she was writing to Beau that detailed their sordid affair. And everyone knew about it, too, because Knox woke the whole plantation that night."
    "What for?" I asked.
    Delta snorted. "He was tearing the place apart looking for a pink diamond Beau had given Evangeline."
    Veronica leaned forward, her eyes sparkling like a precious gem. "There was a pink diamond?"
    "Yes. In the letter Evangeline mentions an emerald-cut diamond that Beau had secretly given her as a promise of his intent to marry her. Like her beloved oleanders, it was that tacky coral pink," she said with a dramatic eye roll. "He told her he would come for her as soon as he'd made enough money from smuggling to buy some land and build her a house."
    Veronica sighed. "That's so romantic!"
    Delta threw her head back and gave a raucous laugh, revealing a row of yellow teeth that clashed with her alabaster skin. "Foolish, if anything. But men are blind when it comes to a beautiful woman."
    I instantly thought of Bradley and Pauline and grudgingly found myself agreeing with her. "What ever happened to the diamond?"
    "No one knows," Delta replied. "The only record we have of it is what Evangeline wrote in the letter. She said that she would sit on the balcony holding the stone in her hand while she waited for Beau's ship to come down river. And that's where we usually see her, on the balcony."
    I shuddered. Was that what I had seen? The spirit of Evangeline waiting for her buccaneer beau, Beau?
    "What happened to Knox and Beau after Evangeline's death?" Veronica asked as she resumed typing.
    Delta picked a white hair off her blouse. "Knox died in 1838, presumably of a broken heart." She straightened in her chair and raised her chin. "But Beau died valiantly in 1862 in the capture of New Orleans, trying to defend our beloved city from those dreadful Union forces during the Civil War."
    I got the distinct feeling that Delta was prouder of the pirate than the general.
    "Today, Beau's spirit roams the grounds of Oleander Place looking for Evangeline—Knox had the trollop buried in an unmarked grave, naturally. And Knox storms the halls looking for Beau."
    Great. A ruthless pirate and an angry general , I thought as I studied a photograph of Ivanna's body. Can't wait.
    "Do you know where Evangeline was buried?" Veronica asked.
    "I don't, nor do I care to," she replied, crossing her arms.
    The more I looked at Ivanna's body, the more something seemed off about the picture. And then it hit me. "You said that Ivanna was found in the exact same position as Evangeline, but I don't see an oleander flower."
    Delta clutched her creepy cameo. "Oh yes. That's because she was holding a bottle of lip gloss."
    Veronica began turning the pages of the police report. "That's mentioned here, but it says the bottle was unmarked. Do you know who made it?"
    She shrugged. "Who knows?"
    "Wait a second," Veronica said, returning to the first page. "The report has a business listed as Ivanna's personal address. Lickalicious Lips. I wonder if it was one of their brands."
    I sat up straight in my chair. "Hey! They make that flavored lip gloss I used to wear in college, remember? The one I had to stop buying because I couldn't stop licking my lips?"
    "Yeah." Veronica grinned. "That was the semester you sprained your tongue on Bailey's Irish Crème Brown."
    Delta curled her lips in disgust. "The victim made