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  “Please come here right now. Okay?” he said, clearly upset about something.

  “What’s going on, Alex? Why are you acting like this?”

  “I don’t want to argue about this, Poppy. I just need you to come to the jewelry shop. Right now,” Alex said quietly, his tone frightening me.

  Chapter Two

  Samuel Morrow’s jewelry shop was located three blocks up Main Street from the police station in a section of the street many Sunset Ridge citizens referred to as the business district. As far as business districts went, it wasn’t much, but along with his jewelry store, there was French’s Hardware Store, Martin’s Pharmacy, and Cardow’s Shoe Store. Not exactly even strip mall level, but for a small town, it wasn’t too bad.

  There had been more when I was a little girl, but big box stores and the mall in Frederick had cut into local business and caused many of them to close. But most people in Sunset Ridge believed in keeping the town’s remaining stores open and vibrant, so unlike many small town businesses, these four shops were often quite busy.

  I hurried past the shoe store and saw Nate Cardow inside helping a young mother and her two little boys who were seated in front of him. Well, the mother sat. Her two sons bounced in their seats and wiggled their legs as Nate struggled to fit the smaller boy’s feet into a pair of shoes. The scene was at once humorous and frustrating to watch, but no matter how much the child squirmed, Nate patiently worked to get his little foot into that shoe.

  Yellow police crime scene tape blocked the entrance to Morrow’s Jewelry Shop, forcing me to duck underneath it, and I walked into the store as I had any other murder scene I’d been at. After nearly a dozen, I could say I was used to them, as much as anyone could be accustomed to seeing the place where someone lost their life.

  Behind the glass cases that faced the front door, Alex and Craig stood conducting their initial investigation. Craig wrote feverishly in a small notebook he’d begun carrying after he started working with Alex, in an effort to emulate the man who’d become a mentor to him, while Alex stood with his arms folded staring down at the floor where I suspected Samuel Morrow lay. The coroner stood off to the side with his two assistants talking in a low voice and pointing at where Alex stared.

  Although the scene resembled nearly every other one I’d been at, suddenly my legs felt weak, like at any moment they’d give out and I’d crumble to the floor in a heap of unsupported bones and flesh. Hoping to steady myself, I grabbed a hold of the glass display case next to me before announcing my arrival as casually as possible.

  “Hey, guys!” I said in my usual cheery voice, forced at the moment.

  Alex took one look at me and rushed over to my side as everyone else simply smiled and said hello as they always did. My fiancé knew me too well, though, and sensed something was wrong as I stood there with a smile pasted on my face.

  Just before he reached me, I caught a glimpse of Samuel Morrow lying on the floor behind the jewelry case in a pool of his own blood with shattered glass surrounding his body. My gaze focused on the bullet hole in the middle of his forehead and then immediately on his steel grey hair he always took such care to meticulously keep slicked back and stylish but now looked unkempt, especially around his temples where the hair stuck out straight from his head.

  The effect made his demise all the more real because I knew Samuel Morrow would never let himself be seen like that if he had a choice. But someone had taken that choice from him, violently and mercilessly.

  “Poppy, is everything okay?” Alex asked as he reached me.

  All at once, my stomach roiled at the sight of Samuel Morrow lying there dead, and I covered my mouth with my hand, afraid I might vomit at any moment.

  Quickly, Alex wrapped his arms around me and escorted me to a storeroom off the main storefront. Shaking my head, I tried to dispel what I’d seen just a moment before, but that vision wouldn’t leave my mind. I wasn’t sure it ever would.

  “What’s wrong, Poppy?” he asked, obviously confused by my reaction.

  Why wouldn’t he be? I’d seen dead bodies before on cases we worked together, so why would he think this one would bother me?

  I shook my head faster in an effort to push all the bad out of my mind. It didn’t work.

  “I don’t know. Just seeing Samuel on the floor like that got to me. Did you see his hair? He’d never let it be like that if he could.”

  Alex nodded. “I know,” he said in his deep voice that made me feel safe and secure.

  As much as I didn’t want to cry, the tears welled up in my eyes and before I knew it, I was standing there in Samuel Morrow’s dusty storeroom sobbing. Alex pulled me close so my face pressed against his chest, and for a long minute, I just cried.

  I didn’t know why. Well, other than a person I knew and liked lay dead just a few yards away from me, I didn’t know why I was crying. Part of me felt foolish and stupid, but another part of me didn’t know any other way to express my sadness at Samuel’s death.

  “I’m sorry, Poppy, but I wanted you here with me.”

  The way he said that made me feel needed but also didn’t make any sense. I looked up at him, confused. Alex had never needed me to work on a case. Even I knew that.

  “Why? What do I bring to this case, other than knowing Samuel, which everyone else in town can claim?”

  Alex hesitated, drawing his black eyebrows in like slashes that made him look more worried than I’d seen him in months. I waited to hear his answer, and finally, he said, “This looks like a robbery that turned bad. Something was taken. Something having to do with us.”

  “Us? What do you mean?” I asked as my mind raced to the only items in the store that had to do with us.

  Our wedding bands.

  But why would anyone want to steal our wedding bands?

  “Oh my God! Someone stole our wedding rings? Who would do that?” I asked as my mind whirled from the mere idea.

  Alex held me by my shoulders and explained in that calm voice I’d heard him use with victim’s families, “Poppy, they took just one of our rings.”

  “What? What do you mean?”

  “They only took yours.”

  I stared up into his dark eyes and saw real concern in them that worried me even more. “Just mine? Why would anyone take just my ring?”

  Slowly shaking his head, he said, “I don’t know, but until this case is solved, I want you by my side. Something feels very wrong here. I don’t think this was a coincidence.”

  Grabbing onto his black uniform shirt, I clutched it in my hand as everything around me seemed to give way. “What do you mean you don’t think this was a coincidence? What if the person thought they were about to get caught and ran out in a hurry? Maybe they’d only get to take one thing and my ring happened to be it.”

  No matter how panicked I was quickly becoming, the rational side of my brain told me this sounded unlikely. But why would anyone just want my ring? Then the worst truth of all this dawned on me.

  Samuel was murdered over my ring. My ring.

  Barely able to hold back the tears, I asked, “Alex, did someone kill poor Samuel Morrow because of my wedding band? Oh, my God. I’m going to be sick. Why would anyone do that for a ring?”

  I buried my head in his chest again and reveled in the feel of his arms holding me as I sobbed over the death of such a sweet man. Alex hugged me to him and whispered, “We don’t know all the facts yet. We don’t know what happened. I just want you next to me from now on until we get this case solved, okay?”

  I looked up at him and dried my eyes. “What is going on? Why are you worried about this?”

  “I don’t know. I just don’t want to take any chances, so don’t fight me on this. I know you didn’t want to work this case, but I want you nearby. Just to be safe.”

  “Safe from what, Alex? What would I have to be safe from?” I asked, still confused.

  Alex pulled me into the back of the store away from Craig and whispered, “Out of an entire jewe
lry store, someone decided to take just your wedding ring? That doesn’t sound strange to you? Maybe it’s just a coincidence, but I don’t want to take any chances.”

  The thought that someone did this all to take my ring sounded insane, but I saw in Alex’s expression he was truly worried. I took a deep breath and wiped the last tears from under my eyes before forcing a smile.

  “Okay. I’ll stick like glue to you. How’s that?”

  Alex smiled and kissed me on the forehead. “Good. I can’t let anything happen to my bride, after all. Without you, this whole marriage thing doesn’t happen. You’re an integral part of it.”

  “Well, it’s good to know I’m important in this world,” I said as he turned to head back to the front of the store.

  We walked out to where Craig stood looking down at Donny as he completed his preliminary examination. The coroner looked up from Samuel’s body when he heard us walk around the counter and smiled up at me.

  “It’s getting close to the big day. You two ready?”

  Steeling myself, I smiled and nodded. “Ready as we’re ever going to be. Did you send in your RSVP for the reception, Donny? I don’t think I remember seeing your name in the confirmed column.”

  The coroner stood up and smacked himself in his extraordinarily large forehead. “I knew I’d forget. That’s why I told you I’d be there right after you invited me.”

  “Thankfully, I remembered, but I need to know who your plus one is.”

  Everyone around us stopped what they were doing and stared at Donny to hear who he planned to bring to the wedding reception. The Sunset Ridge coroner was notoriously secretive about his personal life, although Derek had commented more than once that he assumed all Donny did when he wasn’t dealing with dead bodies was read books about them.

  To be honest, I had a hard time imagining him with a woman only because the man seemed to wear the same five or six shirts all the time, even though a couple of them had obvious stains no amount of washing could remove. If he had a woman in his life, that wouldn’t happen. No woman would allow a man she cared about to walk around like that.

  Noticing everyone looking at him, he grimaced and rolled his eyes before grumbling, “Just assume I’m coming alone. No need to show any of you guys who I spend my hours off with.”

  One of his assistants from the coroner’s office laughed and said, “Planning on bringing your big screen TV and a six pack of beer with you to the reception, Donny?”

  Donny shot him a nasty look and snapped, “Just get that body in the wagon and stop flapping your gums.”

  Alex looked at me and gave me a tiny smile before turning back to pay attention to Donny. “Any ideas on what killed him?”

  “I’m going with the obvious for now and saying a gunshot to the head. If I find anything else that would make more sense, I’ll let you know. In the meantime, let’s go with this being a shooting. I’m guessing early this morning, if that helps at all. Right around dawn, say between six and seven am.”

  He turned on his heels and walked out past his assistant, throwing him a glare. After they left, I nudged Alex in the side and whispered, “I feel wrong joking around with poor Samuel lying there dead.”

  “I know, but it’s just how we handle this job.”

  “I know. I know. I’m just overly emotional today,” I said, shaking my head. “I need to get into the game. Anything else I missed?”

  “I don’t think so.”

  “So far, then, Samuel is dead from a gunshot wound to the head and only one item was stolen in a jewelry store full of expensive pieces. And that one item had no real worth, except to the two of us.”

  Alex said nothing but nodded. I knew the fact that Samuel may have died because of my ring bothered him. I just wished it didn’t make me want to cry for the third time that day.

  Craig cleared his throat, and the two of us turned to face him as Donny’s men wheeled Samuel out on their stretcher. “The state police forensics lab is here to do their work on fingerprints. Anything I should tell them?”

  “No,” Alex said, shaking his head. “Just stay until they’re done and make sure the scene is contained before you leave. I’m going to speak to Samuel’s wife and break the news to her. Meet us back at the station when you’re done.”

  “Will do.”

  Two forensics officers walked in and gave us a silent nod as we left to go to Samuel’s home and speak to his wife, Eliza. Of all the times I’d accompanied Alex on this part of the job, this one would be the most difficult of all. I’d never met Samuel’s wife, but I knew from the way he spoke of her that she was the love of his life.

  I could only imagine she felt the same and would be devastated by the news Alex had to give her.

  Settling into the passenger seat of the police cruiser beside him, I took a deep breath and let it out slowly. What had been a wonderful day with Holly finally finding a dress the two of us loved had turned into one of the worst days in recent memory.

  Alex reached over and wove his fingers through mine for a moment before gently squeezing my hand in his. “If you want, you can wait in the car while I speak to Samuel’s wife.”

  As much as I wanted to take him up on that offer, I wanted to be strong more, so I shook my head. “No, I’ll go with you. It will give me a chance to extend my sympathies. I remember how much that meant when my mother died.”

  His hand slid from mine, and he pulled away from the curb. We drove down Main Street toward Victorian Row and in a couple minutes we were parked in front of Samuel Morrow’s very elegant slate blue and grey Victorian home. Not even half a mile from his shop, he’d walked to work every day since opening his store in 1992.

  Little details like that were the kinds of things he liked to talk about when he spoke to customers. I’d always appreciated that since I knew he wasn’t native to Sunset Ridge. Coming from New York, he could have been standoffish. My father had mentioned more than once that people viewed him as an outsider for the first year or so he lived in town, but once they got to know him, they didn’t think of Samuel as a former New Yorker or transplant to our small town.

  He was just Samuel Morrow, the jeweler with a store on Main Street.

  And now as Alex turned the car off and I looked out at Samuel’s gorgeous home he so proudly showed off every holiday season with decorations that far surpassed everyone’s in town, I prepared myself to listen to Alex tell his wife that he’d been murdered sometime early this morning.

  The car door opened, and I looked up to see Alex holding his hand out. “You sure you want to do this? I can handle it on my own. It’s okay, Poppy.”

  I took his hand and stepped out of the car onto the sidewalk. “I can do this.”

  We walked up the perfectly white concrete sidewalk to the grey painted stairs that matched the rest of the huge wrap around porch that made the house so elegant looking. Before we could ring the doorbell, a middle aged woman wearing a maid’s uniform and her light hair in a bun opened the front door and stepped out to greet us.

  “Can I help you?” she asked in a small voice.

  Alex walked up the steps to meet her and said, “My name is Officer Alex Montero. This is my partner Poppy McGuire. We’d like to speak to Mrs. Morrow.”

  The woman looked down at me on the sidewalk for a moment and then back at Alex before shaking her head. “I’m sorry, but Mrs. Morrow is out to Washington D.C. for the day.”

  “Do you know when she’s expected back?” Alex asked.

  “I expect her back by dinnertime, Officer Montero.”

  “Well, can you please give me her cell phone number? I need to speak to her,” he said, slightly more insistently than before.

  Once again, the maid shook her head. “She doesn’t have it on her today, unfortunately. She forgot to charge it, so she left it at home. I know Mr. Morrow left for work early today, so perhaps he could help you. I’m sure he’s at his store on Main Street.”

  I winced at her mention of Samuel doing what he’d done eve
ry day but Sunday for two decades without fail. Alex simply shook his head.

  “Thank you. Please tell Mrs. Morrow I was here and will return later today.”

  The maid smiled and walked back into the house. Alex joined me on the sidewalk and looked back before he began to head toward the car.

  “I don’t think she knows about Samuel yet, Alex. If she does, she deserves an Oscar,” I said once we reached the car.

  He glanced back at the house one more time. “I don’t think so either, and even though I wasn’t looking at the wife as a suspect, my gut says this feels odd.”

  “It could be a coincidence that the very day her husband is murdered is the same one she decides to take a trip to D.C.”

  Alex turned to face me and arched one dark eyebrow. “That would be the second coincidence in this case. I’m not a fan of coincidences, you know.”

  “I do. But sometimes those things just happen.”

  He shrugged and opened my car door for me. “For now, that’s what they’ll have to be. I think I want Craig to find out about Mrs. Morrow. All I know is she was married to Samuel. Do you know anything more?”

  “Only what the gossips have said in the past,” I said with a slight smile, knowing Alex would be interested in what the old ladies in town had whispered about Eliza Morrow.

  “Do tell,” he said as I took my place in the passenger seat beside him.

  “What do you say to going to The Grounds and getting a coffee first? Today calls for more caffeine than I’ve had this morning.”

  Alex turned to look at me and smiled. “It’s a deal. I buy the coffee and you give me the gossip.”

  Chapter Three

  The Grounds had a large group of late morning coffee drinkers waiting for service when we arrived, so I quickly snagged a table while Alex staked out his spot in the long line that snaked back to the front door. Saturdays were always busy at the coffee shop, so I expected to be sitting alone for a while, but just a minute later, Pam came toward the table with a coffee cup in each hand.