Love Can Be Murder

tired?" Guy asked, nodding toward the dancers whirling to the music of flutes.
    "Apparently not," Penny said. And as far as she was concerned, the festival couldn't be over quickly enough; when the crowds left, the news media would lose interest in the "Voodoo Murder." To think that the festival would go on for the rest of the week was almost unbearable.
    The bar was just starting to get crowded in anticipation of happy hour and free appetizers. Gloria and Liz were sitting at a table, but Liz stood when Penny walked up.
    "Penny, could I talk to you, in private?"
    "No," Penny said, her voice deadly. "I have something to talk to you about, and I want witnesses."
    Liz sat down hard, her face tight with apprehension. "So you know?"
    "About you and Deke?" Penny asked. "Yeah, I know."
    Liz's eyes rounded. "Me and Deke? No—it was Wendy and Deke who had the affair."
    Penny practically fell into one of the vacant chairs and put her head in her hands. " Wendy and Deke? When? For how long?"
    Liz sighed, and her shoulders rounded. "In college. You were off on some field trip, and the two of them hooked up." She wet her lips. "When I found out, I was furious with both of them."
    Penny closed her eyes. "How...how long did it go on?"
    Liz hesitated. "A year or so."
    Penny inhaled sharply at the stabbing pain behind her breastbone. "And since then?"
    "Not that I know of," Liz said. "But Deke called Wendy after your separation, wanting to see her. She called me asking for advice, and I told her to stay away from him."
    "So you both knew I was getting a divorce before Marie called you about the party?"
    Liz nodded.
    Humiliation burned her from the inside out. "And the dinner you had with Deke in the city?"
    Liz looked surprised, then apologetic. "I asked Deke to meet me. I was hoping I could appeal to his morals." She made a rueful noise. "I asked him to leave Wendy alone, that she wasn't as strong as you are, that when he eventually left her, she wouldn't be able to recover like you have."
    That still remained to be seen, but warm appreciation washed over Penny at Liz's confidence in her emotional fortitude. "So that's why you were always so antagonistic toward Deke?"
    "I didn't realize it showed," Liz said. "But yeah, I couldn't stand him. He didn't deserve you."
    Liz's eyes grew moist, and Penny's chest welled with fondness. She reached across the table and touched Liz's arm. "You have to tell me what happened Friday night. Did you stop to see Deke on your way out of town?"
    Liz hesitated.
    "I saw your car sitting in the parking lot across the street from Deke’s house," Guy said.
    Liz puffed out her cheeks and nodded. "Yes—Wendy insisted. She'd met someone in Atlanta, and she said she wanted to see Deke, that she wanted to get him out of her system."
    Penny shook her head in disbelief. "Was it Deke calling her on her cell phone?"
    Liz nodded. "Once. Wendy had left him a message on his cell phone that she wanted to see him, but when he called her back, he told her not to stop by, that he was expecting a client to come by the house."
    "But she wanted to stop anyway?" Gloria asked.
    "Right," Liz said.
    "That's what you were arguing about as you left the bar," Penny said. "I saw you."
    Liz nodded. "I shouldn't have let Wendy talk me into stopping, but I was hoping that seeing him would be the release she needed to move on." She looked at Penny. "I'm so sorry."
    "Did Wendy kill him?" Penny asked thickly.
    Liz gasped. "What? No, of course not! Deke wouldn't even let her inside the house. I watched from the parking lot. He came to the door, they talked for a minute, then Wendy came back to the car. She was angry with herself. She said she couldn't understand why she'd ever been hung up on him and she was glad you were rid of him, too." Liz reached into her purse and pulled out an envelope. "Wendy wrote you a letter—that's what I wanted to talk to you about. It's all in here, for you and for the police. She couldn't face you."
    Penny recalled Wendy's claim that she was ill when she'd called, but in hindsight, Wendy could have been crying.
    "And you're willing to take a polygraph test?" Gloria asked Liz.
    "Sure," Liz said, lifting her hands. "Wendy and I agreed—anything to help clear this up. Deke was definitely alive when we left."
    Penny took the envelope, her chest tight with mixed feelings. The affair had occurred before she and Deke had been married, and if Wendy had carried a torch for him all these years, she had certainly