With that, Judi dragged Mel into the antechamber, shutting the door in Uncle Stan’s face.
“Talk later, Uncle Stan,” Mel yelled through the door.
“Men. Sheesh, do they not get it? This is a wedding!” Judi raised her hands in the air as if asking the divine for patience, and then she spun on her heel and went back the way she came, calling over her shoulder, “Angie, I’ll have your dad knock on the door when we’re ready.”
Mel turned around to see Angie standing with the other bridesmaids. She had two sisters-in-law and three nieces and then there was Mel. One of the nieces, Kaylee, a junior bridesmaid, looked Mel over from head to toe.
“That’s some savage fashion you have going on there,” she said. Then she took a picture that Mel was pretty sure was going to be all over Snapchat in a matter of minutes. Just what she wanted, to be shredded by fifteen-year-olds. It was like nothing had changed since she was fifteen.
“Hey.” Angie broke free from the crowd, looking impossibly lovely in a red chemise dress that flared at mid-thigh. “What happened?”
“Noth—”
Angie raised her hand in a stop gesture. “Please, you know I’ll get it out of you one way or another and they’re going to come get us in a second.”
Mel blew out a breath. “Okay, Ray, Marty, and I went to talk to Mallory Cavendish at her country club because there was a rumor that she was having an affair with her tennis pro and Ray was offered five hundred bucks for a picture by the tennis pro’s wife.”
“What?” Angie blinked. Then she shook her head. “That’s Ray for you, always working an angle.”
“Well, turns out they are having an affair,” Mel said. “In fact, Mallory was with Anton—that’s his name—at the time of the murder, but Anton’s wife—aka the woman Ray is working for—threatened to toss Anton out of the country if he cheated on her, so Mallory can’t come forward.”
“Wow, it’s like a telenovela,” Angie said. “But in English.”
“Half Italian,” Mel corrected her. “Anton is quite the master of the romance language. It gets better. Mallory has video of her husband threatening Elise but she’s afraid to come forward with it because he apparently has video of her doing the same, so they’re at a stalemate.”
“Oh, man.” Angie stomped her foot. “I was here prepping the church all afternoon. I missed all of the good stuff.”
“Not all of it,” Mel said. “Uncle Stan is here and he is not happy with me. Apparently, Mallory was under surveillance and my association with the lead investigator and a county prosecutor would not be viewed in a favorable light.”
“Oh.”
“That’s what I said,” Mel sighed.
“Chin up,” Angie said. “Look at it this way: Now that they know Mallory has an alibi, they can pursue other leads. Really, if you think about it, you did them a big favor by weeding her out.”
“Genius!” Mel said. “I’m totally using that argument with Uncle Stan.”
“Angie, love, are you ready?” Angie’s father, Dom DeLaura Senior, peeked around the door. He looked intimidated by all of the females in the room.
Judi bustled around him, clapping her hands, completely unintimidated. “Okay, girls, showtime!”
The women all hustled to the door. Mary, Angie’s sister-in-law, handed her a colorful bouquet made out of ribbons. Angie looked down at it and then up at Mel.
Her brown eyes glowed and she said, “Wow, I’m actually getting married.”
Mel hugged her tight and then hurried after the other women. They lined up by height, with Mel being last because she was the tallest, but also because she was maid of honor.
She peered down the long aisle into the pretty church, with the afternoon light shining through the tall stained-glass windows at the end of the room making the front of the church glow in a rainbow of color.
The weight of it suddenly hit Mel. The importance of the role she was to play as her two best friends pledged their lives together. She watched as the girls started to walk down the aisle in single file. She glanced ahead and saw Joe standing next to Tate.
Judi was right. This was the most important thing happening in their lives right now and she couldn’t be running all over town, trying to figure out who murdered Elise Penworthy when Angie and Tate needed her.
As she took her first step down the aisle, she vowed that until her two best friends took off for their honeymoon, this wedding was her number one priority. She would see them achieve their happy ever after if it was the last thing she did.
Fifteen
“Oh my god, I’m starving,” Angie said as she and Mel slipped into the ladies’ room at the Arizona Biltmore to primp before dinner.
Thankfully, Mel had been able to pop into one of the resort clothing shops and buy a pretty skirt that would get her through dinner and not make her look like she was fleeing parochial school.
“So, what’s next on the investigation?” Angie asked.
Mel shook her head. “Nothing,” she said. “I am tapping out.”
“But what about Cassie?” Angie protested. “She needs you.”
“She has Steve,” Mel said. “She’ll be okay. Plus, we’ve scratched one person off of the suspect list.”
“Not to get hung up on a technicality, but does that actually help her?” Angie asked. “Or does it just make her look guiltier?”
“And we’re done with this conversation,” Mel said. “You are getting married tomorrow and that’s what you should be thinking about.”
“If I think about it I get nervous,” Angie said. “It’s much better for my mental health to contemplate murder.”
There was a sound of flushing and one of the stalls opened. Mel and Angie exchanged a look as Tate’s mother came out.
“Hi . . . er . . .” Angie stalled out as Mrs. Harper went to wash her hands.
“Oh, Angie,” Mrs. Harper said. “Don’t you think
