Read Wedding Duress (Events By Design Cozy Mystery Series Book 2) for Free Online Page A

still blood and a chalk outline in the next room, for crying out loud!”
    “Well, don’t forget, she supposedly drugged Diana, too. The cops found the residue from crushed up sleeping pills in the water glass beside her bed. She didn’t even try to hide it. That’s how she was able to take the scissors to Diana’s hair without her waking up. As for the murder, I guess she really didn’t want Diana’s special day to move on. When Sandrique came out to assess the damage and see what he still had to work with, she must have just flown into a rage. I don’t know how well you got along with your siblings, but drugging someone and murder takes this way past jealousy and rounds the corner into pathological land.”
    “I don’t know, this is all too bizarre to be real. Why would her sister do such a thing?”
    “You didn’t hear this from me, mostly because I didn’t hear it from Sandrique last week who didn’t hear it by mistake when Mrs. Barber was talking to Mrs. Perkins. Wow, that’s quite a roundabout way to get to some gossip,” Tori said, almost to herself. “Anyway, the mother of the bride says that the younger sister, Brianna, has always been jealous. She’s lived in Diana’s shadow her whole life, and has always come in second best. The final straw for Brianna was not getting into her mother’s sorority, even though she was a legacy through her mom and even though Diana was an active sister at the time.”
    Stacy’s mouth fell uncouthly open in shock, wide enough that a small bird would have been in danger of being eaten if the two of them happened to meet forcefully.
    “I know way too much about this stuff, but are you freaking kidding me?! How did Brianna not get in if her mother and Diana were sisters? She’s a double direct legacy! Oh god, I do know too much about this stuff.” Stacy shook her head to clear her thoughts. “She had to have a murder record or a history of drug abuse or something… run over an old lady? Been involved in pit bull fighting?” Tori shook her head.
    “No, that’s the weird thing. Spotless. She was a majorette in high school, a member of the student council and the homecoming court every year, volunteered at the nursing home and played the piano in her church. A sorority’s wet dream, if I’m not mixing my metaphors. Do sororities even have wet dreams?”
    Stacy swatted at Tori’s arm and reminded her to behave herself like a lady. They watched with genuine-looking smiles plastered on their faces as Diana, her eyes still red from crying but everything else about her appearance as flawless as always, worked on building a new look for her wedding now that she was wearing someone else’s hair.
    “I refuse to buy this. Something’s not right here. Look at Mrs. Barber,” she said, pointing surreptitiously with a slight jerk of her head. “The woman’s practically beaming. It’s like she doesn’t care that her daughter’s just been locked up, as long as her other daughter, her star child, looks perfect for the spotlight. I don’t like it. And I’m not about to let this firm be dragged into something suspicious.”
    “Stacy, let it go. We can’t afford to have anyone looking into Events, remember? If you go nosing around in their plans, no matter how crazy they may be, someone could take a good hard look at Abigail’s current address!” She leaned her head towards the bride and what was left of her family and friends, raising her eyebrows to drop the hint.
    “I know,” Stacy said with a deep sigh, “but something’s not right. I can’t stand this feeling of being fooled, and we owe it to Sandrique to get to the bottom of this!”

Chapter 7
    “ M iss East ? May I have a word with you?” Diana’s mother called out in a pinched voice when Stacy and Tori finally made ready to leave. They stopped and turned back, but Mrs. Barber’s piercing gaze bored into Tori until the young woman realized she wasn’t wanted.
    “I’ll just wait by the car, Miss