'Til Death Do Us Part by Kate White Read Free Book Online Page B

said. “We have our best people on it.”
    The two detectives said good-bye to Peyton and nodded in my direction. Obviously they didn’t have any additional questions for me.
    “Have you found anything out?” I asked before they could leave.
    “We aren’t at liberty to say right now. As I said to you before, please be careful until we know further.”
    “Did they tell you
anything
?” I asked Peyton after the two detectives had stepped out into the storm.
    “All I know is that they’re going to be over at the silo for the rest of the afternoon and maybe tomorrow. I tried to explain to them that this could be very damaging for business, but they don’t seem to care.”
    “How much later are you planning on staying?”
    “I’m getting out of here
now
. Mary’s staying on in the office, and she’s going to make sure things get locked up after the police leave. They asked that we not open up until tomorrow afternoon. I can’t imagine how we’re going to pull off the party.”
    I hit her with my request to spend the night at her place.
    “Of course,” she said. “I’m sorry you even had to ask—but you were so adamant earlier about getting back.”
    “What about David? Have you called him?”
    “I’ve left a million messages for him, but he’s apparently en route from New Haven and his cell phone isn’t picking up. I tried his partner, Trip, too, but he’s gone off somewhere and no one knows where he is.”
    I stepped closer and touched her shoulder. “And what about
you
? How are you doing, anyway?”
    “Not good. Look, we had better get out of here.”
    A few minutes later I was in my Jeep, headed past several police vehicles in the parking lot. My windshield wipers groaned as they worked, shoving more than an inch of snow to each side. I glanced at the silo one last time. It turned my stomach to imagine Ashley’s body inside, being photographed and pored over by crime scene experts.
    I’d never been to Peyton’s house before—it had been under renovation at the time of the wedding—but I knew it was just a few miles from the farm. I followed carefully behind her green Range Rover, fearful that even with my four-wheel drive on, I’d end up skidding or getting stuck in a snowdrift.
    My jaw dropped when we finally pulled through the stone-and-wrought-iron gate and I caught a glimpse of the house through the snow. It was colossal, a mansion, really—white-painted brick, black shutters, and endless rows of shining windows. I knew David was loaded, so I should have realized Peyton was living like a princess. But I was still stuck in the single-girl, one-bedroom-apartment mind-set, and my brain hadn’t stretched far enough to imagine this for her.
    She pulled up directly in front of the house, and I jumped out of my car right behind her. “Just leave your car here,” she yelled as she unlocked the door. “Someone will get it later.”
    Inside, the house looked like an English manor, the kind I’d seen while writing a travel article about the English Cotswolds. There was an enormous hall with a six-foot-high fireplace hosting the proverbial roaring fire. I wouldn’t have been surprised if a couple of corgis had come bounding in our direction. Instead, a middle-aged housekeeper appeared, dressed in a simple black dress.
    “Is David here, Clara?” Peyton asked impatiently.
    “No, Mrs. Slavin. I haven’t heard from him today.”
    “All right, then, I need you to show Miss Weggins to the guest room and then bring some chilled white wine to the library.
    “Can you make do without me for a while?” Peyton asked, turning to me. “There are calls I’m going to have to make. But I’ll join you later in the library. Clara will tell you where it is.”
    As Peyton flounced off toward the back of the house, I was led up a huge staircase. The house appeared to be decorated fairly classically, but with some quirky touches that kept it from being stodgy. The guest room, or at least the guest room