Page 28 of Little Merry Murder

“No,” he replied. “Not on Claire’s part.”

“If nothing happened, why did I see you with your tongue down her throat!” Holly spat.

Colin stepped back, pressing a hand to his chest.

“Her tongue wasn’t down my anything. I kissed her, one time. She was not expecting it. It was my fault, not hers.” He looked at Holly, then at me. “I’ll make a statement, an honest one this time. I’m sorry for not doing it before.”

“You’ll do nothing of the kind. And you …” Holly said, finger wagging in my direction. “I won’t stand here another second while you accuse an innocent man.”

“I haven’t accused an innocent man,” I said. “I’ve accused a guilty woman. Colin didn’t murder Claire.Youdid, Holly.”

I shoved my hand into my coat pocket, palming my gun in case I was given a reason to use it. Then I looked at Colin, who had started putting the pieces together, his expression one of shock and devastation.

“Tell me you didn’t, Holly,” he said. “Look me in the eye and tell me.”

“How could you believe I’d do such a thing?” Holly said. “Don’t listen to the detective. She’s just trying to rile you up, to rile us both up. Come on, Colin. Let’s go.”

“I suppose now would be a good time to mention the police searched the house a second time,” I said. “They found a partial print, and it’s not a match to Claire or Owen.”

“You’re bluffing,” Holly said. “Sad to see you’re so desperate to solve a murder you’ve resorted to making things up.”

“It’s true, and given what Colin just told me, I’m sure the police have a lot of questions for you, Holly. Wouldn’t it be easier if you just admitted it?”

Holly turned, looking like she was prepared to bolt out of there. Before she got the chance, Colin reached out, grabbing her arm.

“Let me go!” she screamed.

“No,” he said. “I will not.”

“None of this would have happened if you would have kept it in your pants!” she wailed. “I know you’re lying. The day after you’d kissed her, I saw the way she looked at you, the lust in her eyes. No tramp is getting their mitts on my man. Not now. Not ever.”

I cupped a hand to the side of my mouth, yelling, “Did you get all that?”

The three of us turned.

Foley and Whitlock stepped out of the back of a van, heading in our direction.

“I heard it all right,” Foley said. “Every single word.”

CHAPTER 17

A patrol car skidded to a stop beside Colin and Holly, and they were put into the back seat. The car pulled away, with Whitlock following close behind, and Foley walked over to me.

“I gotta say, this one stings a bit,” Foley said.

“It shouldn’t,” I said. “We found Claire’s killer. Nothing else matters. Thanks for hearing me out when I called, and for letting me be the one to confront Holly.”

“It’s the least I could do after what I said to you the other day. What caused you to suspect her in the first place?”

“I could say it was the cologne and the fact I thought Claire had started having feelings for someone at the school, even though I wasn’t sure who that might be. Today I was thinking about the expression on Colin’s face the first time we met. Everyone in the break room that day seemed genuinely sorry about what happened to Claire, even Holly. But Colin seemed a lot more pained than everyone else.”

“Is that all?”

“Yesterday, when I was walking through the halls of the school, I passed by one of the classrooms, and when I looked inside, I saw a quote by Jane Austen.”

“What was the quote?”

“‘What is right to be done cannot be done too soon.’ At the time, I didn’t think much of it. I didn’t know whose classroom it was either.”

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