Read Marriage and Murder (Cedar Bay Cozy Mystery Book 4) for Free Online

aren’t you? I’m Sophie Marchant,” she said, holding out
her hand.
                “Yes, that’s who I am. May I come in? I’d
like to talk to you for a few moments.”
                “Please. I see a dog in the front seat of
your van that seems to be watching everything you do. Would you like to bring
him with you?”
                “If you don’t mind, yes, and it’s a her.”
                She returned to her minivan to get Lady,
and the two of them walked into the house.
                “What a beautiful little girl,” Sophie said,
holding out her hand so Lady could sniff it. “Would you mind if I give her a
treat? I have a dog of my own, so I always keep treats on hand. Unfortunately I
had to leave Amelie in Portland this weekend.”
                “Of course. I’m sure Lady would love it.
Thank you very much. I’m afraid I have some bad news for you. I understand that
you were acquainted with Jesse Allen, the owner of The Crush.”
                Sophie jerked her head up from where she’d
been giving a treat to Lady. “Has something happened to Jesse?” she asked in a
soft voice with a heavy French accent.
                “Yes. My husband and I discovered his body
earlier today. He’d been killed, apparently the victim of a vicious murder.”
                “ Mon Dieu. Non. I don’t believe
it.” Tears began to stream down her cheeks. “What monster could possibly do
this? Why would someone do this? Did you know we were thinking of getting
married? Mon Dieu .”
                “I am so sorry. I’m a friend of Mrs. Allen’s,
and I didn’t want her to hear about her son’s death from the town gossips, so I
went to her home a little while ago and told her. That’s when she mentioned
that you and Jesse were quite close. I thought it might be better for you if I
came to your home and told you personally rather than getting a call from some
stranger or seeing it on television.”
                Sophie sat down on one of the
cream-colored couches in the large room that overlooked the bay and the late
afternoon incoming fog which soon would reach land. She struggled to keep her
composure and began to speak in her accented soft voice, “I met Jesse when I first
came to Cedar Bay. I usually brought my own wine with me when I drove down from
Portland, but the weekend I met him I had forgotten to pack it, and I do enjoy
a good wine, so I stopped at The Crush to buy a nice bottle. There was an
immediate attraction between the two of us, and from then on, whenever I came
down for the weekend we would get together. We began to really care for one
another. I’m divorced, and he’s divorced. Neither of us has children. The only
problem we had was his ex-wife. I never met her, but from what Jesse told me
she wanted them to reconcile, and she was extremely jealous of anyone she
thought might be interested in him. Evidently she said a lot of bad things
about me, although I’ve never met her.”
                “I’m surprised he told his ex-wife about
you,” Kelly said.
                “I don’t think he did. I understand his
ex-wife and his sister, Celia, remained good friends after the divorce, and I
believe Celia was the one who told her about me.”
                “Knowing Celia, that doesn’t surprise me.
I’m sure my husband will want to talk to you about where you were around noon
today. He’ll probably be here tomorrow.”
                “I’m leaving for Portland tomorrow morning,
so if he wants to talk to me he’ll have to do it before I leave. Now that this
has happened, I’m not sure I even want to come here anymore. Jesse was
everything I ever hoped to find. Without him…” she stopped speaking in
mid-sentence, sobbing uncontrollably.
                Kelly got up from the couch and walked
down the hall, trying to find a