Murder, She Wrote_A Date with Murder by Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain & Jon Land

Author:Jessica Fletcher & Donald Bain & Jon Land
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Penguin Publishing Group
Published: 2018-05-02T00:00:00+00:00

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Eve Simpson set me up at the currently unoccupied desk of one of her associate agents, logged on to his or her computer, and inserted a thumb drive onto which she’d transferred all the footage she’d shot at the Wirths’ Labor Day party. I didn’t bother asking what her actual intention was in filming all those interviews, because I assumed it was nothing more than a device to make her stand out at the party amid all those potential clients gathered in one place. I also figured Eve, being such a gossipmonger, might have hoped to get at least a few juicy tidbits from Cabot Cove residents, especially as the day wore on and they ingested more alcohol.

Eve wasn’t about to let her attention stray too far from my task, but she left me alone to sort through the footage. I even heard her cancel at least two appointments in a hushed voice to avoid having to either leave me here by myself or kick me out. In all, she’d conducted somewhere around sixty interviews, the average length of which was two or so minutes. Many of those interviews involved couples or were done as a group; more people speaking meant a few of the interviews went longer and the total number of people she actually spoke with might’ve been closer to a hundred.

I kept the sound very low, since I wasn’t interested in the actual interviews as much as what was taking place in the background. I focused especially on the parts of those recordings that contained Hal as he stood various distances away from those being recorded. Amid all this, black-and-white-clad Cabot Cove Catering personnel bobbed and weaved through the throng, hand-passing tiny hot dogs tucked into miniature buns, pizza strips, bite-sized sliders, and those famous lobster rolls it took only two bites to wolf down. Comfort food that had proved perfect for the occasion, not to mention those luscious bite-sized desserts I never could resist.

After an hour, I’d uncovered nothing of note, nothing to suggest anything nefarious had caused Hal Wirth’s death later on in the day. I didn’t actually know what I expected to find, and ninety minutes in, I began to see this whole idea as a fool’s errand that I was nonetheless committed to completing. This in spite of the fact that seeing Hal alive and entertaining his guests this way left me feeling like a voyeur, spying on a departed friend. I felt particularly guilty when I saw a quick shot that included Hal and Seth seated on the bench, engaged in the conversation during which Hal had confessed some of his financial plight. I did notice several places where Hal didn’t realize the camera was on him as he clenched his jaw and a worried expression settled over his features. He was clearly trying to put on a good show for Babs and their guests, but in the rare private moments the party afforded, his demeanor was strained with worry over the financial calamity hanging over his head.

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