Read Death among the Roses: a Melanie Hart Mystery (Melanie Hart Cozy Mysteries Book 1) for Free Online Page A

impressed at how smoothly this effort had gone. Maybe Ginger and I had a chance at succeeding after all.
    “Anything else?” Ginger asked me as she slid the phone book back into the drawer.
    "Yes. I was wondering what you can tell me about Tony Stepich?”
    Ginger returned to the table and sat. “Like what?”
    "I don't know. Maybe what you think he's like. Why you think Gary chose the fellow for his best man? And whether you know if there was any trouble between them?"
    "Sheesh," she said, "I wasn’t expecting you to grill me."
    “It’s just that Stepich didn't seem like someone I'd expect Gary to hang around with.”
    "And what makes you think I know anything more than you do about the guy?"
    "You were a member of the wedding party. You spent more time with him than I did. I really only met Tony to talk to tonight."
    Ginger pursed her lips, then shoved her chin forward. “So why is everybody so down on Tony?”
    “I didn’t know they were.”
    "Gossford spent an awful lot of time with him when he was grilling us this afternoon at the church. You haven't heard anything from your end about that one, have you?"
    “From Gossford?” I shook my head. “Why would I?"
    “I thought you two were tight.”
    "In a way we are. He updates me on the local crime reports from his department," I said. "But he never offers me details in an on-going investigation. Especially now, when he’s hot on the trail of a killer.”
    “Is he?”
    “What?”
    “Hot on somebody’s tail?”
    “Ginger, that’s my point. Even if he were, he wouldn’t tell me.”
    “Whatever. But I'm still waiting for you to explain why you’re so interested in Tony.”
    “Well, for one thing," I said, "he's a stranger here. In order to rule him out as a suspect, we need to know more about him.”
    “He may be a stranger, but he's not the only one.”
    “What does that mean?” I shoved my coffee cup away from me. I’d had enough caffeine for one night.
    “It means look to the guy escorting you about town. You don’t know anything about Josh Devon or what he’s after, either. So why aren't you interrogating somebody about him?”
    “Oh for pity’s sake. Gary was dead before Josh even arrived at the church. I was standing there beside the body when I heard Josh’s car pull into the parking lot.”
    “For all you know.”
    “What does that mean?”
    “Can you be certain Devon didn’t arrive earlier, kill Gary, then come back when you were conveniently standing there to witness his arrival? That’s what I’d do if I needed an alibi.
    I blinked and studied Ginger's face. The woman was possibly more devious than I’d thought. She'd certainly spotted an option I'd missed. I suppressed a scowl. I hated it when Ginger out-thought me. “You could be right,” I mumbled.
    “Darn straight, I could be,” she said with a wide grin.
    Still, I couldn’t stop thinking about Ginger's enthusiastic defense of Tony and wondering what lay behind her statement. I hoped my new partner wasn’t already convinced of Josh’s guilt — or hopelessly committed to Stepich’s innocence, either.
    But it wasn’t until I reached home that I remembered I’d forgotten to fill Ginger in on the last minute phone call Gary had received at the church. Little did I realize then, how large a part that call was to play in Ginger’s future.
     
    ***
     
    Back home that night, I found Dad in the living room with the television on and his face buried in our competitor’s newspaper. Checking the contents of the Herald Times was a daily obsession for us. Published in Provincetown, the largest city anywhere near Cloverton, the newspaper covered events in ten surrounding counties, including our own.
    Although the Times didn’t write up all the stories our newspaper ran, they hit the big ones. We always checked their pages to be certain we hadn’t missed any important local happenings. Fortunately for us, that rarely occurred.
    But Dad and I knew the coverage of Gary’s