Grilled for Murder Read Free Page A

half-foot taller than me, and it felt perfect to lay my hand on his shoulder and have him take my other hand in his. He waited until the song started a new phrase, then led me through the steps. I tried to stay loose and follow, not my strong suit, but we’d gone dancing several more times in recent weeks and I was starting to get the hang of it. He’d told me about staying in the box, about imagining a rectangle defining our moves. It helped. Next to us, Phil twirled the woman he was dancing with, and then bent her down in a dip. He caught my eye and grinned, then straightened and waltzed away.
    The music changed to a slower tune. Jim pulled me in close, and the feel of his warm, smooth shirt under my cheek, his head bent down over mine, was heavenly. But after only a minute in paradise, a woman’s shouts broke our bubble. I pulled away from Jim. Erica and Tiffany stood a couple of yards away facing each other.
    â€œYou’re lying.” Erica pointed a red-lacquered fingernail at Tiffany’s face. “I didn’t do any such thing.”
    The room quieted, with only the music continuing. Glen Berry rushed to his daughter’s side. “What’s going on here?” He looked from one woman to the other, the silver at the temples of his close-shorn dark hair catching the light.
    Tiffany set her hands on her hips, nostrils flaring in her golden-skinned face, earrings mixing gold and silver that flashed in the light. “She’s been stealing from me. She said she wanted to learn how to make jewelry. But all she wanted to do was own it.”
    â€œIt’s not true and you can’t prove it.” Erica glared at Tiffany. “Why’d you come here, anyway? So you could party with a thief? Get some free food and drink?”
    â€œI was giving you the benefit of the doubt. But that bracelet?” Tiffany pointed to an intricate hoop of silver twisted with other metals on Erica’s wrist. “It’s missing from the store.”
    Erica snorted. “My late husband gave it to me. I wouldn’t steal your precious stock. It’s not very well made, anyway.”
    Tiffany took a step toward Erica. Glen stepped between them and pushed out both hands. “Now wait a chicken-picking minute, girls. Y’all don’t need to fight about this.”
    â€œYou’re right,” Tiffany spit out. “Larceny is a matter for the police.” She grabbed her bag from the table and rushed toward the door. She tore her coat from the coat tree and, with a fierce jangle of the bell, was gone at the same time as the coat tree swayed and crashed to the ground.
    I glanced at Jim and shook my head, then hurried to the coat tree, arriving at the same time as Abe. He set it back to standing, while I gathered up a couple of coats from the floor. I dusted them off, one by one, and handed them to him.
    â€œThanks,” I said. “That was quite a scene.”
    â€œI’ll say. Erica has never held back from drama, that’s for sure.” He hung up the last coat.
    â€œDid you bring her here?” Earlier in the fall Abe had asked me out to dinner. It’d ended up being the day a murderer had run me off the road on my bicycle and I’d broken my clavicle, so we’d never gotten to the dinner. Anyway, I was seeing Jim. And it looked like maybe Abe was going out with Erica.
    He laughed the delightful rolling laugh I remembered. “No way. I just happened to arrive at the same time she did. But we used to go out. Long time ago.”
    â€œHow have you been lately?”
    â€œI’m good. Keeping busy.” He stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans, which he wore with a white Oxford shirt and a gray blazer. The look suited him.
    â€œStill playing banjo?” I gestured at the case, which he’d set behind the coat tree.
    â€œYou bet. Might still drag it out tonight if inspiration strikes.” He flashed me his big smile, that same