You Bet Your Life by Jessica Fletcher Read Free Book Online Page A

elegant, the size of a very large one-bedroom apartment. The chapel staff had delivered some of the flower arrangements from the wedding, and the delicate scent of roses perfumed the air.
    Martha gleefully showed me the three bathrooms—his, hers, and the guests’. “I think our bedroom in Cabot Cove was almost this size,” she said. There were marble floors and counters throughout, along with gold fixtures for each sink, including one in a small kitchen and bar just off the vestibule. A silver tray holding wedding cake, covered by a glass dome, had been left in the kitchen. Plates, forks, and napkins were arranged next to it.
    Taking me on what she called the “ten-cent tour,” Martha pointed out the custom-designed gold carpeting in the bedroom that was echoed in an area rug in the living room. “See how the colors are picked up in the cornices and the wall panels? Don’t you love it?” she asked, not expecting a reply. “Everything is luxurious without being fussy. I could live here forever. There’s even a dining room, sort of.” She indicated a round marble table and four chairs under a crystal chandelier. “And look at this,” she said, opening the doors to an armoire that held an array of entertainment and technological equipment, VCR, tape, and CD deck, fax machine, and large-screen television. “There’s another one just like it in the bedroom.”
    Everything to satisfy the needs of vacationer and business traveler, I thought, but perhaps not a temporarily abandoned bride.
    Martha had been winding down as she walked around the suite, pointing out its amenities. She was less ebullient now, more wistful. She pushed a button on the wall, and the drapes parted, revealing floor-to-ceiling picture windows with a panoramic view of the city and the mountains beyond it. Martha walked to a window and pressed her palm to the glass.
    “Walt and I always dreamed of staying in a place like this, but we never found the time. He was too busy to travel, he said. First it was because he was building his practice, and we had no money anyway. Later it was because he was a popular surgeon, his time booked weeks in advance. Then he became sick, and our days were filled with running from one specialist to another, hoping for a miracle. Always too busy to take a trip. And now too late. All those dreams never came true.”
    “I’m sure that’s the case with a lot of couples,” I said. “But you had a good life together. You were happy and loved each other.”
    “Yes. We did have a good life together.” She stared out the window. I had the feeling that she didn’t even see the blaze of colorful neon lights and brilliant images advertising the attractions of the city. Her thoughts were with another time, another man. “Seth thinks I’m crazy to have married Victor,” she said, looking at me over her shoulder. “No, don’t deny it. I could see it in his face.” She pulled a chair out from the table and slumped into it. “Please sit down.”
    “I think Seth misses Walt, as do you,” I said, joining her at the table.
    “I know.”
    “He would like things to be as they were, but he recognizes that that’s not possible any longer. He only wants you to be happy, Martha. How you find that happiness is your choice, as it should be.”
    “I’m not sorry I married Victor. He may be crass from time to time, but he’s a good man, and he truly cares for me.”
    “And you care for him.”
    “I do. Really, I do. It’s funny, you know. He’s so different from Walt. But apparently I’m very different from the previous Mrs. Kildares. Or so I’m told. Victor is a businessman, but at heart he’s a gambler, a very successful one. He’s a self-made man, and every move that put his business ahead was a gamble. He says what he risks at the craps table is nothing to what he bet when he and Tony started the business.”
    “What business are they in?”
    “Venture capital, whatever that means. But I gather he and Tony