Love, Laughter, and Murder Ever After (The Wedding Planner Mysteries Book 1) Read online

  “You bastard!” screamed Contessa, as she flew into a rage and began wailing on Gerald. Charles pulled her off.

  “We’re innocent,” declared Gerald, grasping his wife, but there was no love between them. Anyone could see that.

  “How did he do it?” Contessa cried. “How did he get his hands on that cake?”

  Sterling stepped forward and laid a gentle hand on Kitty’s arm.

  “There’s a surveillance camera above the flower shop next to Kitty’s store,” he explained. “The angle was perfect. We have footage of Gerald Astoria creeping up the street at the crack of dawn, rifling through the cake boxes that were stacked in the back of Harry Collins’ van, and then sprinkling the poison on the piece of lemon custard cake. Fingerprints confirm he'd handled the lemon custard box. The case is air tight."

  Gerald broke down in tears. “Why did you do it, Astrid?”

  “I couldn’t help myself,” she admitted. “I loved him. I’d killed for him. I wanted to be with him.”

  “I didn’t want to have to kill him,” he cried. “All I ever wanted was for you to stop. All I ever wanted was for you to love me again.”

  Kitty noticed Sterling lowering his cell phone from his ear and ending a call she hadn’t realized he’d placed.

  “Gerald Astoria,” said Sterling, approaching the killer. “You’re under arrest for the murder of Duke von Winkle.”

  Astrid cried.

  “Don’t worry, Honey,” said Sterling. “You’re next.”

  Just then four police officers barged into the chamber and seized both Gerald and Astrid and carted them off under Sterling’s directive, as Charles flew into an onslaught of apologies to Contessa on his parents’ behalf.

  “It’s not your fault,” she whispered, kissing him. “I still want to marry you.”

  She’d done it. Kitty had solved the case. And as she stood at the back of the chapel and watched Contessa and Charles pledge their undying love and lifelong devotion to one another, a deep sense of satisfaction rose in her chest.

  “I couldn’t have done it without you,” Sterling whispered into her ear.

  “You didn’t,” she responded cutely.

  The reception that followed was filled with laughter and cheer as the sun set on the horizon. Contessa spread her father’s remains on a warm breeze that doused the procession in blinding ashes, but Kitty was able to find the humor in a daughter’s strange need to honor her father at the worst possible moment.

  Sterling was laughing as well, and then, without warning, he scooped Kitty into his arms and gazed deeply into her eyes in such a way that soothed her heart and soul.

  Drawing ever near, he withheld his kiss and said, “Don’t ever meddle in my investigation again.”

  She smirked coyly and replied, “Don’t ever meddle in mine.”

  ###

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  Jeanine Spooner