The Murder Before Christmas (Charlie Kingsley Mysteries) by Michele PW (Pariza Wacek)

Author:Michele PW (Pariza Wacek) [PW (Pariza Wacek), Michele]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Love-Based Publishing
Published: 2021-11-08T16:00:00+00:00

Chapter 12

I watched Luke demolish the rest of the pie. He had been so distraught, I wasn’t sure what to do with him other than offer him a cup of tea and dessert, which he accepted. He didn’t seem too keen on the tea, but at least I wasn’t going to have to worry about any leftover pie.

He was younger than I thought when I saw him standing outside. He was also more muscular—the thin, pale-blue sweater that matched his eyes stretched across his well-developed chest.

“She couldn’t have done it,” he kept telling me between bites. “Courtney is absolutely the sweetest, most loving person you could ever meet. The fact that anyone thinks she could have done this to anyone, much less her husband, is ludicrous.”

I tried not to roll my eyes. Luke had been basically repeating the same thing since he first sat down in my kitchen.

“How long have you two been ... seeing each other?” I winced as the words came out of my mouth. It sounded like I thought there was nothing wrong with what they were doing, when in reality, I was trying to figure out if Courtney’s baby was Luke’s.

“A few years,” Luke said.

I tried to keep the shock from my face, although Luke was looking down at the pie instead of at me anyhow. A few years? That would be most of Courtney’s marriage. Maybe even before their marriage. Did this mean Dennis had been seeing Tiffany for years, as well? Were Courtney and Dennis even in an actual marriage?

“You’ve been having an affair for that long?” I asked.

Luke stopped chewing and looked at me, his expression slightly sheepish. “Well, no,” he admitted. “We’ve been friends for that long, but it wasn’t until this year that things shifted.”

“What changed?”

He gave me a surprised look. “What changed? She found out her husband was a lying, cheating bastard, that’s what. He doesn’t deserve her.”

His tone was so angry, I found myself wanting to push my chair back. I wondered if he was angry enough to do something about it.

“So, she started having an affair with you because her husband was having an affair?”

He dropped his fork onto his plate, the contact making a “clinking” noise. “It wasn’t like that,” he said forcefully, almost as if he were trying to convince himself. “Yes, she was upset, and yes, I was the person she turned to. I was the only one who listened to her. We were friends. But sometimes friendships can develop into something more, and that’s what happened. That’s all it was.”

I wondered if Courtney had the same view of their relationship. “How did you two meet?”

His whole body seemed to relax as his lips curled into a smile. “We worked together at Fit for Life,” he began.

It was all I could do to keep myself from interrupting with an “Are you kidding me?” How was it that everyone involved in this case seemed to have worked for either Fit for Life or F &

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