A Body to die for

table housed a couple rats. They squeaked desperately. I fought the paralyzing grip of heebie-jeebies.
    “I’ve only had this space since yesterday,” Larry said. “I had to throw it together after, well, after something changed at my last lab. Now if you’ll give me my notebook, I can see what I’ve been forgetting to do in reconstructing my formulas.”
    I reached in my bag and touched the metal spiral. There could be a free sample of the chromium compound in it for me. But before I handed over the notebook, I said, “First I want to ask you something: Who else had access to the kitchen besides you and the staff?” I asked.
    Molly asked, “Why?”
    “The knife that was stolen—”
    “You mean?” she asked, appalled. I nodded. “Great, now I’m going to get pegged for Barney’s murder. Well, better me than Larry.”
    “Molly, don’t be silly,” said Larry. “You’re innocent.”
    “At least one of us will make it to Hawaii,” she said. “You know I couldn’t go without you,” he said. “Honey,” she said. They smiled at each other.
    I said, “You can kiss now.”
    Larry shook his head. “Oh, no. We can’t do anything romantic in public.” Molly rolled her eyes. She must love him a lot, I thought.
    Alex said, “And I suppose you’ll say that anyone, but anyone, could have gone into the kitchen, taken this knife and used it to kill Barney Cutler minutes later?”
    “Yes. It’s entirely possible,” she said.
    “But what’s more likely—and allow me to blather on for a bit—is this scenario,” I started. “Larry turned over the chromium compound and super steroid samples to Barney in Ameleth’s suite as planned.” I turned to face him. “Yeah—I know all about it. Barney talked you into turning over your notebook along with the samples, but you didn’t mind because you had copies of everything back at the lab they bought for you. You took the thirty thousand and left. But when you got to your lab, you found that it’d been sealed off. Your copies of the formulas were lost. You knew Barney did this to you. You were full of rage. You went back to the club and grabbed Molly’s knife. I don’t know how you got up there, but you made it to the suite.
    “Barney was relaxing in the Jacuzzi,” I continued. “He laughed when you demanded the notebooks back. You became blind with rage and killed him. Shall I go on to explain why you had to beat up poor Leeza, too?” Actually, I had no idea how that was related, but I was on a roll. Alex didn’t know about the chromium/steroid stuff. He raised his eyebrow. I sent him a telepathic message that I’d explain later.
    Larry held up his hand. “You can stop now,” he said. “I admit that it sounds reasonable, but the problem is I could never kill anyone. It would damn me to hell.”
    “Oh, great,” I said. “The Christian defense.”
    “I’m serious,” he protested. “I did get hoodwinked by Barney. I admit to hating the man, but I didn’t kill him. I forgave him his sins. I was resolved to figuring out the formulas from memory. They were flawed anyway. The samples I gave him might have caused some weird side effects if anyone took them. I warned Barney that they were for the FDA researchers only.
    “As far as the money goes, I spent every last cent he gave me to set up this lab and to buy the raw materials to manufacture diet aids for Molly to sell at the club. And to test my new formulas. I realize what I’m doing is wrong—selling drugs, manufacturing steroids without a pharmaceutical license—but I’m doing it to help people. I’m a people person. To see them be the best they can be. I can’t let my training go to waste. The Jehovah organization paid good money to get me an education. And I’d rather work on formulas that will improve people’s health than do the Jehovah’s bidding and figure out how to better preserve dried food for the apocalypse.”
    A voice from the other side of the Bibles boomed, “Oh, Lord—forgive Lawrence. He knows not what he’s done, and, boy, has he really messed up this time.”
    Larry’s eyes went wild. “Brother Samuel!” he mouthed.

Kiss My God

    “Gosh dam it,” said Larry. “Lord, why do you punish me?” he quickly added.
    Brother Samuel, a tall man in a short-sleeve, pinstriped shirt and blue tie, stepped out from behind the wall of Bibles. “I’ve come to pray for you, Lawrence, not judge you. But if I had to judge, I’d say you’re acting like a