Read Online Lucy and the Valentine Verdict by Rae Davies - Free Book Online Page B

Claythorne and Mandrake know each
other?” I asked in a whisper.
    “Not the characters... the real people. They
have the room next to ours. She was telling him what he could and
couldn’t do, which was, say, everything. I thought Harold worried
about how I come off, but he has nothing on that young woman. You’d
think they were about to meet the queen instead of...” She flicked
her eyes toward Lady York who held up both hands.
    “We’ll take a fifteen-minute break and then
meet back here for the reveal! Correct answers with motive and
means will be entered into a drawing for a return visit!”
    Woohoo
. If I hadn’t
wanted to beat Peter, that would have been enough to make me throw
this thing. But I did want to beat him,
badly
.
    As everyone else wandered off for coffee and
bathroom breaks, I stayed with Mrs. Peabody. “Do you have your
cards?” I asked. “Could I look at them?”
    “Certainly.” She pulled the folded cards out
of a pocket and slipped them, hidden, into my hand. Then she got
up, standing in front of me for a minute to further hide our
somewhat dishonest collaboration.
    Somewhat, because while I was sure no one
else would appreciate out collusion, it had not been specifically
forbidden either. So, I wasn’t cheating. I was being
resourceful.
    Unfortunately, the cards didn’t contain
anything too world-shattering, nothing that Mrs. Peabody hadn’t
already said or acted out.
    She was a rich socialite widow with a newly
syndicated advice column and took joy in using that power to help
various causes and bring down others. She was to comment on my
weight loss... and complain about the new diet supplement not
working. There was also a drawing of the bottle she’d described
with the man’s arm making a muscle.
    Nothing new. I slipped the card into my
pocket and thought.
    One by one, people returned to the room. As
each did, I consulted my notebook to see if anything new popped out
at me.
    It did.
    I not only knew who dunnit, I knew how and
why. I looked up at Peter and grinned.

Chapter 7
    Peter walked over and stared down at me.
“You know who did it, don’t you?”
    My grin widened. “I hear Minnesota is lovely
in the spring.”
    He grimaced. “I hear it’s humid.”
    I tilted my head to the side in
acquiescence. Compared to Montana, everywhere was humid.
    Lady York clapped her hands and motioned for
everyone to take a seat. After handing out “official” slips of
paper for us to write our guesses on, she gathered them up and
repositioned herself back in the middle.
    One by one, she read the slips. When she was
done, she tallied the “votes.” Maid Ann with her history with the
victim and access to the martini glass got zero votes.
    “Too obvious,” Mr. Blore offered. “Christie
never picked the obvious choice.”
    Plus, it turned out I wasn’t the only one to
get a card declaring Maid Ann’s innocence. Half of the guests had.
The other half had gotten one saying Sir Arthur with his African
connection was guilt free.
    He also got zero votes.
    Captain Egg got one vote but with no motive
or means mentioned.
    “I’m a long-shot gambler,” Mrs. Peabody, who
had taken her place back beside me, whispered. “Besides I thought
it would be a hoot if the detective dunnit.”
    Her husband seemed to come from the same
camp. His vote was for Mrs. Peabody herself. “Her headache masked a
terminal condition, but she had a double indemnity clause if she
died by someone else’s hand and she wanted to continue her fame and
support of her causes by naming one of them in her will. Means...
she poisoned herself.” He puffed up as he said the last, glancing
around and obviously expecting the rest of us to throw ourselves
onto the ground in shame for our own stupidity.
    None of us did. We nodded politely and tried
to avoid eye contact with anyone else to keep from rolling our
eyes.
    Lady York was the big winner with Emily
Brent, Mandrake and Miss Claythorne all casting their votes for
her. They