Terror in Taffeta by Marla Cooper Read Free Book Online

Spanish. “I understand perfectly, but I must insist.”
    â€œSurely there’s something you can do,” I said, feeling the panic mounting in my voice. “Checkout time is four o’clock, and we have a private plane chartered to take us home.”
    Officer Ortiz looked unmoved. “A young woman is dead, and we have a lot of questions. I’m afraid we can’t allow you to leave.”
    â€œWell, surely we get some say in the matter,” said Mrs. Abernathy. “I mean, you can’t make us stay here.”
    â€œThe way I see it, señora ,” said Officer Ortiz, “either you can cooperate with us now and do what we ask—”
    â€œOr what ?” Mrs. Abernathy challenged, eyes flashing.
    â€œOr I can assume you are guilty and arrest you for the murder of Dana Poole.”

 
    CHAPTER 5
    â€œSo let’s recap,” said Brody. I had texted him to meet me back in my room so I could update him on the situation. “You voluntarily called the police about a robbery and now you’re a suspect in a murder? That doesn’t make any sense!”
    â€œRight? What kind of murderer calls the police and says, ‘Hey, why don’t you drop by later and see what else I’ve been up to?’”
    â€œWhat did they say?”
    â€œI already told you: they said we can’t leave.”
    â€œI mean specifically. Did they say you can’t leave?”
    â€œYep.”
    â€œDid they say I can’t leave?”
    â€œNo, they don’t even know you exist, but I’m stuck here, at least for the next few hours.”
    â€œCan they even do that?” Brody asked. “Can they really make you stay?”
    â€œThey haven’t charged us with anything, but we should probably try to stick around long enough for them to talk to us all so they can see we didn’t have anything to do with this.”
    There was a knock at the door. It was Officer Ortiz, who had come to fetch me for questioning. I followed him to the dining room, which he had commandeered as an impromptu interrogation room.
    â€œSo you’re the … wedding planner?” he asked, flipping through his notepad.
    â€œThat’s right,” I said, nodding helpfully.
    â€œHow long have you known the deceased?”
    â€œJust a few days. She was a late addition to the wedding party.”
    He jotted down notes while I talked. “Do you know anyone who would want to harm her?”
    Pretty much everyone, I wanted to say but didn’t. What I actually said—and which was very diplomatic of me, I might add—was, “Well, Nicole loved her. Beyond that, the rest of us didn’t really know her all that well.”
    â€œMmm-hmm,” he said. “Did she have any enemies?”
    â€œProbably,” I said before I could catch myself. “I mean, who doesn’t these days?”
    He looked up from his notepad, his face inscrutable. “What about the sister, Zoe? How did they get along?”
    â€œAbout like the rest of us.” I was intentionally vague, not wanting to implicate anyone. “Why?”
    â€œI’m trying to establish who might have had a reason to want to kill her.” He peered at me intently, trying to gauge my reaction.
    â€œKill her? Do you really think it was murder?” I’d hoped he’d been bluffing earlier, throwing around the M word to get our attention, but he certainly didn’t seem to be bluffing now.
    He tapped his pen impatiently on the table. “Miss McKenna, did you witness anything out of the ordinary between Zoe and the victim?”
    My mind flashed back to several catty exchanges I’d heard over the past few days, but it was all typical bridesmaid stuff.
    â€œNo, I’m sorry. Zoe and Dana weren’t best friends, but believe me, there wasn’t anything between them that I haven’t already seen at a thousand other weddings.” Whatever he was trying to