Love Can Be Murder

Grant stepped in front of me and eyed Mrs. Bingham’s casserole as if it contained a grenade. “You killed Daniel Hale because he made too much noise ?”
    “And the man who lived upstairs,” I added, horrified. “She shot him.”
    Mrs. Bingham made a face. “That was ugly, though. I used a knife this time. Less mess.”
    “For the cleaning service,” I murmured.
    She smiled. “Vivian gives me a two hundred dollar referral fee. That’s a lot of money for someone on a fixed income.”

    ***

    AFTER THE POLICE led Mrs. Bingham away, Detective Salyers filled in the holes. The intern Julie had confessed to using my PDA to send Leora the message to keep both of us busy while she and Daniel went to a hotel for “lunch.” Leora suspected he was cheating on her, and followed him when he dropped her off after the charity dinner. Poised for a confrontation, she’d used Daniel’s key to enter my apartment, found him on the couch, and picked up the bookend to kill him. When she realized he was already dead, she left in a panic, knowing she couldn’t report it without incriminating herself.
    It seemed Daniel had been doomed to die that night.
    After Salyers left, I sat in the hallway cradling Mrs. Bingham’s casserole in the woman’s perennial oven mitts—the reason she hadn’t left fingerprints in my apartment. Grant sat down next to me, and I burst into tears.
    “It’s okay now,” he soothed, putting his arm around my shoulders.
    “I’m sorry I even thought you could commit murder, Grant.”
    “I’m sorry I thought the same about you. Besides, you were right to be suspicious. I was acting…strange.” He made a rueful noise in his throat. “I’m going to sell the house. That’s why I finally did all the things to it you’d always wanted me to do.”
    “You’re moving?”
    “Moving, and moving on. I gave my notice at the firm.”
    I was suddenly concerned. “Are you dying?”
    He laughed. “No. I owe you an apology, Renni. I let you shoulder the blame for ending our marriage, when I was the one who didn’t have the guts to tell you how trapped I felt.”
    “You, too?”
    Grant nodded. “I loved you. I still do. But the pressure of being a husband, it changed me. Suffocated me.”
    It was my turn to laugh. “Me, too.”
    He smiled and shook his head. “What a pair we are.”
    “What did you mean by moving on?”
    “I bought a sailboat. She’s sea-worthy. I was thinking of taking a few months to explore the east coast.”
    I looked up at him with new eyes. “Did I ever tell you I used to sail with my dad?”
    “No,” he said, picking up a lock of my hair. “One of many conversations we should’ve had.”
    And would.

    The End

A note from the author

    Thank you so very much for taking the time to read the books in my boxed set of humorous romantic mysteries! I hope you enjoyed them.
    If you liked the stories in LOVE CAN BE MURDER and feel inclined to leave an Amazon review, I would appreciate it very much.
    And are you signed up to receive notices of my future book releases? If not, please click here to enter your email address . I promise not to flood you with emails and I will never share or sell your address. And you can unsubscribe at any time.
    Also, although I can’t count the times this book has been edited and proofed (this one especially, which is so long!), I and my helpers are human, so if you do spot a typo, please email me at [email protected] to let me know. Thanks again for your time and interest, and for telling your friends about my books. If you’d like to know more about some of my other books connected to the books in this collection, please scroll ahead to the next section.

    Happy reading!
Stephanie Bond

Other works by Stephanie Bond

    If you enjoyed PARTY CRASHERS, you might enjoy the books in the BODY MOVERS series, which feature Carlotta Wren and her brother Wesley as they take on an interesting second job! The first six books in the BODY MOVERS series are published by Mira books and are available at all online book retailers. I also released a sequel novella titled 6 ½ BODY PARTS:

    "This series was recommended to me by someone in one of my yahoo groups. I bought them for my Kindle, but due to the huge to be read pile, it was a while before I read them. And when I started, I was hooked. Stephanie Bond is an amazing writer. The Plum series books read like outlines, but the Body Movers series has the full meat and potatoes." —Kindle reader S.