Page 27 of Little Merry Murder

“Or a lover.”

“Alover?”

“I think Claire was sweet on someone other than her husband,” I said. “She could have been having an affair, or maybe she was hoping to be more than just friends with someone, though an affair hadn’t started up yet.”

“What are you getting at?”

“I heard you were friends with Claire. What I want to know is, was she just a friend, or was she something more?”

“This is ridiculous,” Holly said. “Are you accusing my husband of something, because it sure sounds like it. Seems to me you’re grasping at anything you can to shift the blame from Claire’s husband to someone else.”

“Oh, I’m not grasping, and I have plenty to say about my suspicions to the police. Speaking of the police, I suppose I should go. I’m expected at the department.”

I turned, opened my car door, and waited.

“Wait,” Colin said.

I grinned and then faced him. “What is it?”

“After Claire’s mother died, we talked more than usual—it’s true. I was worried about her, trying to be a good friend. For a while, that’s all it was, a friendship between two people who cared for each other.”

“When did things change?”

“About a month ago. You know what they say about emotional cheating? I never believed in it. Never thought it could happen to me … until it did.”

I turned toward Holly. “Did you know?”

“He told me, yes,” she said. “We talk about everything.”

I doubted that.

“How did you feel when he admitted it?” I asked.

“It hurt a fair bit, but we were already separated at the time, and Colin assured me the cheating had been emotional in nature, nothing more.”

“Did you believe him?”

“She just said she believed me, even though I was sure she she hadn’t,” Colin said. “I thought I could pull back from Claire, shift things to the way they were before. And then, I started developing deeper feelings for her.”

“What are you talking about?”

“I never wanted it to come out like this, but here we are. I was gutted when I heard about what happened to Claire. It made me realize I loved her.”

Holly’s eyes went wide. “You,what?!”

“I should have told the police from the beginning,” he said. “I’ve been feeling awful about it, just awful.”

“Why didn’t you say anything to them?” I asked.

“I didn’t think it would make a difference, and I suppose even in death, I wanted to protect her integrity.”

“Herintegrity?” Holly scoffed. “There’s no integrity when a woman goes after another woman’s man.”

“She didn’tgo afterme,” he said. “She never did anything wrong. Let me be clear—nothing happened.”

The look in Holly’s eyes told me she’d started to unravel.

“Nothinghappened?” she asked.

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