Brides, Bribes, & Binoculars: A Camper & Criminals Cozy Mystery Novella by Tonya Kappes

Author:Tonya Kappes [Kappes, Tonya]
Language: eng
Format: epub

6

While I waited patiently for Jean to bring me the list of guests at the bridal retreat, I went through Sloan’s bridesmaids in my head. One by one I tried to come up with a possible motive.

Katherine was her best friend, and I didn’t see a ring on her finger. Was she not married? An always-a-bridesmaid-never-a-bride situation? Jealous? Both Sloan and Katherine told me how they’d been friends since elementary school. That’s a lot of years for envy and jealousy to accumulate. Best friends kill best friends all the time. I’d just seen an episode of a crime television show where this happened.

What about Justine, the coworker? Did the bosses skip over her to give Sloan a promotion? Better yet, a job Justine was promised but didn’t get? Talk about motive. If Sloan was out of the way, Justine could easily slip into the role.

I couldn’t discount Pippy, the sister-in-law. After all, where did Parker stand in the family inheritance? If there was one. What about Pippy’s husband? Did her parents like him? Was Pippy upset with the family dynamics? I mean, Sloan said she was insistent on bringing her here. After all, we were in the middle of a national forest, where you could hide just about anything and it would never be found.

Like a body.

I jumped when my phone rang.

“Hank.” I was so happy to see his name pop up. “You aren’t going to believe this.”

“How you found another dead body?” He half snorted on the other end of the phone.

“You make it sound like…” I searched for the right word.

“You’re a murder magnet?” He finished the sentence for me. “You are. Granny told me about Sloan, and I did a bit of digging around.”

“Stop. Seriously. I was just going through the list of friends she has—had—with her, and I was just thinking about the cousin. Angie.” I made it sound like Angie had a high stake in the motive, but honestly I was coming up with nothing for her.

“I was calling because I’m going to forward you a little video.” Hank was a private detective with a lot of resources at his disposal. “I’m not sure who it is with Sloan, but I was able to dig around in her bank account, you know, see if she’s got money or why anyone would have a motive.”

“Money. I never even thought of that one. I was picturing jealousy, envy, bridesmaid-never-a-bride theory.” I rambled, but Hank just glided on over what I was saying.

“There’s a video of Sloan at an ATM, taking out some money. It looks like she’s having an argument with the woman with her. I don’t know if it’s one of her friends there. I reached out to the bank, and the teller told me they were arguing about money. The thing is it was five hundred dollars, and I can’t imagine someone killing for five hundred dollars.”

He might not be able to imagine it, but five hundred dollars could do a lot of damage in a store.

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