Terror in Taffeta by Marla Cooper Page A

yelling at each other right there in front of that nice dress lady and all the bridesmaids. It was pretty awful.”
    â€œWow, I can imagine. So what ended up happening?”
    â€œHe broke up with her,” said Vince. “There was no baby.”
    â€œThere was a baby,” insisted Nicole. “After he left, she told us she’d had a miscarriage, but she hadn’t told him because she was afraid he’d call off the wedding.”
    â€œOf course he’d have called off the wedding. That was the only reason he was marrying her,” said Vince. “There was never any baby.”
    â€œBut the miscarriage—”
    â€œOh, honey, don’t be naïve,” said Mrs. Abernathy. “You know what I call a five-month-pregnant bride-to-be with no baby bump who suddenly loses the baby when her fiancé gets suspicious?”
    Nicole shook her head.
    â€œA manipulative little tramp, that’s what.”
    â€œOkay, good, that’s very helpful,” I said, trying to break the tension. I put an asterisk next to Trevor’s name. “What was his date’s name?” I asked, checking the seating chart. “Oh, here it is. Naomi.”
    â€œHe hadn’t been dating Naomi very long,” volunteered Vince. “But he knew Dana had been invited, so I think he wanted to make sure she knew he wasn’t available. At least not to her.”
    â€œDo we know anything about this Naomi person?” asked Mrs. Abernathy.
    â€œNot really,” said Nicole. “She was just a plus-one. Seemed nice, though.”
    â€œWhoever she is,” said Mrs. Abernathy, “I’m sure she’s a significant improvement over Dana.”
    â€œYeah, especially with Dana being dead and all,” I said before I could catch myself. Oops. “Sorry, Nicole.”
    â€œSo, what now?” asked Mrs. Abernathy. “Do we take a vote or something?”
    â€œI definitely think we should talk to Trevor,” I said. “He sure was asking a lot of questions about Dana at the reception.” I flipped to the tab in the binder marked “Travel Info” and scanned down to Trevor’s name. “And luckily, he hasn’t left town yet.”
    â€œDo you want me to talk to him?” asked Vince. “I’ve known him the longest. He might be more likely to open up to me.”
    â€œI don’t know,” said Nicole, looking up at her husband. “You can’t come right out and accuse your friend of murder.”
    â€œBesides, you shouldn’t have to do that,” said Mrs. Abernathy. “You’re on your honeymoon!”
    Some honeymoon, I thought . The couple hadn’t even shared so much as a meal alone since the wedding.
    Feeling sorry for Vince, I jumped in to volunteer. “Why don’t I go? I’ll come up with some reason to drop by and see if I can get him to talk. If I can’t get anything out of him, you can always follow up later.”
    â€œOkay, it’s settled then,” said Mrs. Abernathy. “Kelsey will handle it.”
    â€œBut what if he didn’t do it?” asked Nicole. “Who else do we have?”
    I checked the seating chart to see where we’d ended up. “Well, there’s Claire, Uncle Roy, Trevor, and I guess his date, Naomi. There’s the San Francisco crowd, but most of them don’t have any motive.”
    â€œDon’t forget the four of us,” said Nicole.
    â€œOh, darling, don’t be ridiculous,” said Mrs. Abernathy.
    I went ahead and added our names to the final list, just to be fair, eliciting a scowl from Mrs. Abernathy.
    The door to the dining room swung open and Brody sauntered in, carrying a plate of food he’d managed to finagle from Fernando. “Hey, guys. What’s going on?”
    â€œSuspect list,” said Mrs. Abernathy. “Watch out or she’ll put you on it, too.”

 
    CHAPTER 9
    It’s funny what