Love Can Be Murder

B.J. shifted until she was lying next to him. "That was tremendous," he murmured into her ear.
    "Mm-hm," she said, her eyes barely open. "Let's go to my bed."
    He grinned. "I thought you'd never ask."
    "Carry me?"
    He laughed and stood, then pulled her to her feet and threw her over his shoulder. "This isn't what I had in mind," she said, hanging upside down and being jarred with every footfall into the bedroom.
    Still holding her, he leaned over and pulled down the covers. "Penny...do you have a pet snake?"
    She scoffed and smacked him lightly on the behind. "No, but I'll adopt yours for a while."
    But he didn't laugh. "I'm not kidding. Don't move. Where's the light?"
    She froze, her heart thumping wildly. "B-back up."
    "I'm going to have to set you down."
    He backed up, hit the light switch, and swung her to her feet in one movement. But when she tried to stand, she nearly fainted from the head rush. She blinked the bedroom into focus and wished she hadn't.
    The only thing more scary than seeing the man you love face off with a full-grown venomous snake is seeing the man you love naked facing off with a full-grown venomous snake.

Chapter Twenty-six

    Stir with an olive branch...

    "WELL, THAT WAS A BIG waste of time," B J. said as they left the police station.
    "Allyson doesn't trust either one of us," Penny said. And she had to admit, in the light of day, the allegations that someone had broken into her apartment and left a snake in her bed were pretty outrageous, especially with new locks and no signs of forced entry. Allyson had said in that infuriatingly reasonable voice of hers, since the snake's fangs had been removed, it was more likely that one of the snakes from the peristil had escaped and climbed up a tree to her balcony, then crawled in through a window.
    More reasonable, for instance, than putting stock in Jules's prediction about serpents being underfoot.
    "Then it's a good thing we trust each other," he said with a wink. "What was all that business about where you grew up?"
    "I don't know," she said lightly. "Detective Maynard asked where I grew up and I told him, but he keeps getting it wrong."
    "Kingsville, Tennessee?"
    Penny nodded but dropped her gaze. Did she truly trust B.J.? She hadn't told him everything because it would only muddy the water and implicate her further. And some secrets were just better kept. Last night had been wonderful...until he'd had to kill the snake, of course. She wanted to leave it at that.
    "I'd feel better if you went with me to the city," B.J. said, nodding toward his car.
    Penny glanced up at city hall next to the police station and up to Mona's office window on the third floor. "This is something I need to do."
    "I can wait," he said lightly.
    She looked into his eyes, saw the invitation. Fall for me... we'll have fun...for a while...
    "That's okay. I might not get in to see her for a while. Besides, my employees are going to wonder what's happened to me, and I don't think I should leave town right now, even if it's just overnight."
    He nodded. "Okay. I have a lot of things to run down, and I have to stop by the agency to do some paperwork. I'll see you tomorrow?"
    She smiled. "Sure. Call me if the video is...enlightening."
    "Will do."
    But as he pulled away from the curb, she couldn't help thinking that if something on that tape would incriminate someone else for Deke's murder, she was letting the one piece of evidence that might exonerate her drive away. Then she chided herself—she was projecting her own behavior onto B.J.
    It was safer to believe he couldn't be trusted rather than acknowledge that he just might be worth loving.
    She sighed and walked into the city hall building, then pulled the ring that Deke had given her from her pocket—a gold ring with a black onyx cross. A family heirloom, he had said. It was a lovely piece, but she'd rarely worn rings because of her garden work. She had almost forgotten about it, rediscovering it after the phantom maid had rearranged her apartment, including her jewelry.
    It was only right that Mona have it back. Maybe the woman would see it as a peace offering, would realize they had both loved and lost Deke, and that Penny had had nothing to do with his death.
    She rode up to the third floor and smiled at Mona's clerk, a timid, plain girl of about eighteen. Immediately, the girl looked terrified.
    "I'm Penny Francisco—"
    "I know who you are," the girl said, her eyes wide.
    Great—now she was scaring young girls.