“I’m staying,” she said, and then she added, “What am I doing staying closed? I have to open the shop back up. I’m sure you two have somewhere else you need to be.”
“Don’t you want us to wait with you for the police?” I asked her.
“I can take things from here,” Gabby said as she walked us to the front. “You two have work to do. Just because you proved that I wasn’t the killer doesn’t mean that the real murderer is going to get caught without more work on your parts. Now shoo.”
As we walked out front, Gabby opened the blinds and flipped her sign over. Out on the sidewalk, Grace looked at me and said, “It’s your fault, you know.”
“What’s my fault?” I asked.
“Gabby was ready to leave town forever, and you just single-handedly gave her a reason to stay. Way to go, Suzanne.”
I grinned at my best friend. “I don’t even care. Let her stay. She has as much right to be here as anyone else.”
“I’m going to remind you that you said that the next time she gets on your nerves,” Grace said.
“Go right ahead.” Gabby and I had experienced our differences in the past, but all in all, it was a comfort having her nearby. So much was changing in my world in April Springs that it was nice having something that I could count on. Warts and all, Gabby was one of those things that I relied on to make sure that my world would continue to spin long after all of the births, weddings, and funerals.
“Now it’s time to focus on the last three suspects we haven’t spoken with today,” I told Grace once we were back in my Jeep. “I’m not really excited about doing it, but we really don’t have any choice.”
“Are we really going to talk to Emily again?” she asked me. “Suzanne, she’s not exactly your biggest fan right now, is she?”
“It can’t be helped,” I said, even though I agreed with Grace completely. “If it’s all the same to you, though, I’d rather tackle Peter and Max again first.”
“I can’t blame you for leaving Emily for last,” Grace said as we drove toward Max’s place.
“Listen, if you want to hang back when I speak with Emily, I understand. There’s no sense in both of us getting banned from attending the wedding.”
Grace looked at me with a surprised expression on her face. “Suzanne, were you really under the impression that I would go without you?”
“I just assumed that you would,” I said.
“Well, you were wrong. Sure, I’ll get them a nice present, but if you’re not going, then neither am I.”
“But you’re in the wedding,” I protested.
“The second I learned that Emily dropped you, I bowed out. She didn’t like it, but she understood. Suzanne, you and I have been friends for a lot longer than Emily and I have been.”
“You didn’t have to do that for me,” I said.
“Oh, but I did.” Grace shrugged, and then she asked, “Now, how are we going to approach Max and Peter? Should we split them up, or grill them together?”
“I’m just hoping that we find them at Max’s place,” I said. “I haven’t thought it through beyond that, to be honest with you.”
Grace grinned. “Even better. We’ll play it by ear. I believe our investigations always go better when we fly by the seats of our pants, don’t you?”
“It appears to be the best way we know how to investigate,” I replied with a grin.
“Max, we need to talk,” I said as he answered the door.
My ex-husband replied with the hint of a smile despite our earlier differences, “Boy, in the old days, that would have sent chills down my spine.”
“But no more?”
“No more,” he said, almost laughing as he spoke.
“Why are you in such a good mood all of a sudden?” I asked him. It wasn’t entirely uncharacteristic, but it did strike me as odd, given the cloud of the murder hovering over his impending wedding day.
“I’m getting married tomorrow,” he said. “And if that itself isn’t reason enough to be happy, I just got a call from Victor White. You know Vic, don’t you?”
Vic White was a heavyset man with a penchant for raspberry-filled donuts, and not a week went by when he didn’t come by to pick up a dozen or two. “Of course I know him; he’s the main reason I have to keep reordering raspberry filling.”
“Well, I’m so happy that I could kiss his bearded face right now,” Max said.
“This I’ve got to hear. And thanks for that image, by the way. It’s going to take me days to get that out of my head.”