Read Online High Heels Are Murder by Elaine Viets - Free Book Online

leaned forward, and began talking in a whisper, as if the news was too horrible to say at full volume.
    “Mrs. Mueller was at Cheryl and Tom’s house yesterday, watching Ben, the baby. Such a darling child. Do you know he’s slept through the night almost since birth? Cheryl had a committee meeting. She’s such a good mother. She doesn’t like to leave her baby with a sitter.”
    Mom can’t keep from giving a Perfect Cheryl Report, even at a time like this, Josie thought. But then the report took a sudden, delightful detour.
    “Before Cheryl could go to the meeting, two homicidedetectives showed up at her front door,” Jane said. “The whole neighborhood could see what they were. They didn’t try to hide it.”
    Being a homicide detective is nothing to be ashamed of, Josie wanted to say. But she knew better than to interrupt.
    “The detectives insisted on seeing Cheryl. She explained that she had an important committee meeting. The detectives said she could talk to them there or they could talk downtown. They were quite nasty. They treated that poor girl like a criminal.”
    Jane paused dramatically, waiting for Josie to come to Cheryl’s defense. Josie still didn’t trust herself to comment.
    “Well, naturally, Cheryl invited them in,” Jane said. “What else could she do? But she didn’t offer them any coffee. They’d acted like such bullies, they didn’t deserve it.”
    That showed them, Josie thought.
    “Those two detectives talked to Cheryl in her living room for almost an hour. Mrs. Mueller stayed with Ben, but she could hear the conversation.”
    I bet, Josie thought. Mrs. M probably had her ear glued to the wall.
    “Mrs. Mueller said it was degrading. The things those detectives said! They claimed Cheryl’s car had been at that Mel person’s house the night of his murder. They told her an eyewitness saw it at Mel’s. Of course, that couldn’t be right. They asked Cheryl why she was at Mel’s house. Cheryl is a married woman. She’d never go to an unmarried man’s house alone.”
    “Oh, come on, Mom,” Josie said. “Even Mrs. Mueller can’t believe there’s something wrong with a grown woman going to a man’s house without a chaperone. What century is this?”
    “Maybe it isn’t something you worry about,” her mother said. “But Cheryl guards her good name. Mrs. Mueller always says you can’t be too careful. People have dirty minds.”
    “You mean Mrs. Mueller does,” Josie said.
    “I’m talking about the police.” Jane’s voice was buildingin outrage. “They wanted to know the nature of her relationship with that Mel person. They actually said ‘relationship.’ Mrs. Mueller thought they were implying that Cheryl had sex with Mel.”
    “Eeuuw,” Josie said. She couldn’t help it. She thought of Mel’s oily hands on the snobbish Cheryl and shuddered. As much as she wanted to believe the worst of Cheryl, Josie couldn’t see her in bed with Mel. She couldn’t see any woman sleeping with him, except maybe a pro for pay.
    “That’s not possible, Mom,” Josie said. “It’s just not.”
    “I knew you’d defend a fellow woman,” her mother said. “Really, one look at Cheryl and her lovely home, and I don’t know how those detectives had the nerve to ask that question.”
    Josie agreed with her mother. “It does sound farfetched.”
    “The accusations didn’t stop there,” her mother said. “Next, they asked if Cheryl knew anything about Mel’s interest in kinky sex.” Jane lowered her voice and looked around the kitchen, in case Amelia was lurking nearby. She was reassured by the blasting music coming from the kid’s room.
    “The detectives said this Mel had an unnatural thing for women’s feet and shoes.”
    Maybe Mel had asked Cheryl to tiptoe through his tulips, and she’d killed him, Josie thought. Nah, that didn’t make sense. A princess like Cheryl would know how to stomp a worm like Mel. Killing him would be a waste of her energy. Cheryl would