I studied her. Was that sweat that had just broken out on her brow? “I suppose you could even mix sulfonylurea into it?”
She shook her head slowly. “What do you mean? Why would you do that?”
“Because somebody did it to Richard,” I said, leaning forward. “And I have a hunch that it might have been you.” It all made sense now. Jodi had been trying to be sweet and innocent, but it was she who killed him. She mixed the medication into the protein shake, and with B vitamins and wheatgrass juice in it, he couldn’t tell the medication was in there.
She shook her head and glanced at Della. Then she snorted and turned back to me. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”
“Don’t you?” I asked. “You were the one who got everybody hooked on the shakes. Even Richard was hooked on them. He told his brother all about them, and he said that someone here got him hooked on them. You put that medication in it, didn’t you? Why did you kill him?”
She shook her head and chuckled, but it sounded flat. “Allie, I don’t know what you’re talking about. That’s a crazy thing to say. You shouldn’t say things like that when you know it isn’t true.”
“I don’t think it’s a crazy thing to say,” Lucy said. “I think that you killed Richard, and we want to know why.”
Jodi narrowed her eyes at me, ignoring Lucy. “You’re off your rocker. Richard got us all hooked on these shakes. Isn’t that right, Della?”
Della looked confused about what was happening, but she nodded. “Yes, it was Richard who discovered them. He bought one every morning, like I told you. None of us had ever tried one until he bought one for each of us and got us hooked on them.”
This surprised me and took the wind out of my sails. But just because Richard had gotten everyone else hooked on the protein shakes didn’t mean that Jodi didn’t use one to kill him. “But you still killed him.”
She snorted. “Allie, I don’t know why you would say that. After Della fired Richard, I asked her to rehire him. Sure, he wasn’t the best employee, and I knew what he was up to, but it was too much work without him.”
I looked at Della. “I thought his mother asked you to rehire him?”
She nodded. “She did. But Jodi did tell me that I needed to hire him back. I hadn’t talked to her or the other girls about why I had fired Richard, so I wasn’t even sure if they knew why I had done it. Richard swore he was done with the drugs, so I gave him another chance. In the end, it was easier to rehire him than to train someone new.”
My stomach dropped. Lucy was quiet. “But you still killed him.”
Jodi shook her head and glanced at the clock on the wall. “Well, I’d love to stand here and chat with you ladies, but I have a dentist appointment.” She turned to Della. “I told you I was leaving early today, Della. I’ll see you and Lisa tomorrow.” She turned to me. “I don’t appreciate being accused of murder. I think I’ll talk to the police about it. Someone that accuses innocent people of murder might have something to hide.”
I gasped. She had done it. I just knew she had. I had Alec on the phone before she made it out the door.
Chapter Twenty-One
“Well? What do you think?” I asked Alec when we stepped into the room.
“Wow.” He stood there with a suitcase in each hand, looking around the room. “It looks like Laura Ashley threw up in here.”
I lightly slapped him on the arm and closed the door behind us. “It’s beautiful. Don’t you like all the flowers?”
He shook his head and walked over to the bed, laying both suitcases on top of it. “I can’t believe you booked us into a flower garden. Didn’t they have any real rooms?”
I gasped. “Stop it. It's a lovely room.” The truth was, it did look a little bit like Laura Ashley threw up in here. The wallpaper had a pink background with yellow flowers sprayed across it, and the bedspread and curtains matched it. I hadn’t seen anything like it since the early eighties.
It was our first stop at a bed and breakfast on our honeymoon. The bed and breakfast was in a quaint seaside town, and I wished that the weather was a little warmer so we could have gone swimming. But as luck would have it, the sun hadn’t come out from behind the clouds since we began our trip earlier in the morning.
Jodi Miller was behind bars, as she should be. She had killed Richard Thomas. When Alec tracked her down, she had at first maintained her innocence, but she became nervous under pressure, and she broke, admitting she had killed him. But then she immediately retracted that confession. She had done it, of course. Alec wasn’t exactly sure why, because after her arrest, he had turned the case over to the police, and we spent the rest of the evening packing for our trip.
I went to the window, pulled the curtains back, and looked out. We had a view of the ocean, and it was beautiful. “The view is lovely.”
“I’m sure it is,” he said, unzipping his suitcase. “How long did you say we were staying here?”
“Three days.”
He groaned. “The wallpaper makes me dizzy.”
“Quit complaining.” I went to him, pulled him to me, and kissed him. “We’re on our honeymoon. Finally.”
He grinned. “Finally. I’ll try not to complain too much.” He kissed me back.
“I appreciate the effort.” I smiled up at him. How had
