Page 9 of A Dead End Wedding

“It’s simple,” Tess said with a sigh. “Jack and I will come over and eat lunch in the new outdoor dining area with him.”

“We will?” I pointed at Eleanor. “I think it’s time you give your poor, hardworking employee a long lunch break.”

“Yes,” Tess agreed, her eyes lighting up. “Do you and your new husband want to have a nice long lunch on me? Take petty cash and?—”

“Oh, no,” Eleanor said, backing up. “I packed a lunch. I’ll stay here and start inventory. It’s all you guys.”

“Okay.” Time to man up. Or tiger up. “I’ve smelled some pretty awful things back in my rebel soldier days. How bad can it be?”

All three women groaned, and I smacked myself in the forehead. Would I never learn?

“How bad can it be?” is one thing you never, ever say in Dead End.

“Okay. We’re on the way.”

“Thanks, Tess.” Lorraine hung up, probably before we could change our minds.

Eleanor picked up a rag and industriously polished a shelf. “So busy here. Too busy to go to lunch. By the way, did you ever decide if you’re closing the shop for your honeymoon?”

Tess gave Eleanor a wry grin. “Yes, that shelf really needs cleaning after I just cleaned it this morning,” she said dryly. “About the shop. I’d love it if you’d open the shop for at least a few of the ten days we’ll be gone.”

“Where are you going?”

“It’s a surprise,” I told her.

“Tess doesn’t know?”

“Tess knows. We’re just not telling anybody else. Less chance of dead bodies showing up that way. If?—”

I stopped speaking when I heard a car door slam shut in the parking lot and the sound of somebody racing up to the shop.

“Susan. And she’s in a hurry.”

Tess and Eleanor were used to my Superior Tiger Hearing, so they didn’t blink.

The door slammed open, and Sheriff Susan Gonzalez rushed in. “We’ve got another dead body.”

5

Jack

Wednesday: Wedding minus 10 days

“You see?” Tess pointed at me and shook her head. “Youknowbetter.”

Susan groaned. “Not again. Which was it? ‘How could it get any worse?’”

“Nope. ‘How bad can it be?’” Tess told her with more than a hint of smugness aimed at me.

“Will you never learn? Wait. What’s bad on your side of town?” Susan asked, shoving her hair back from her face.

Susan Gonzalez, the new sheriff, was tough, competent, and lovely. Criminals who underestimated her for her looks never did so twice. We’d started off with a prickly relationship but had come to trust each other. I helped her out when she really needed it, but I’d made my position clear more than once that I never wanted to go back into any kind of uniform or law-enforcement-adjacent job.

I’d even anonymously funded a slot for a new deputy, not that anybody knew it was me. Except Tess. She somehow knows everything.

Tess quickly told her about the troll.

“Great.Argh. And your Aunt Ruby, my boss, texted me three times about a town hall meeting when I was driving out here. Do you know anything about that?”

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