Deadly Valentine (Special Releases) Read Online Free PDF Page B

the top of his head. Except for a selected few friends, Mitzy had been a real bitch to everyone else.
    ‘‘Jealous?’’ She laughed. ‘‘Why would anyone be jealous of me?’’ She almost sounded sincere.
    ‘‘Because you’re successful, you live in the only penthouse in River’s Edge, you’re a well-known town figure and your last name is Sanders.’’
    She laughed. ‘‘You have no idea how hard it is being Mitzy Sanders.’’
    Yeah. But it did surprise him that she was trying to play down her success. Earlier at the penthouse she’d been flaunting it. What had changed? Oliver wasn’t there, he thought. Or Tempest.
    Also she was acting as if being married to Oliver wasn’t all it was cracked up to be. He suspected she liked being Mrs. Oliver Sanders more than she liked being married to Oliver, but Mitzy was the kind of woman who liked to keep up appearances.
    ‘‘Was Peggy jealous of you?’’ he asked. If he knew Mitzy—which he thought he did—she’d rubbed her affluence, her success and her husband in Peggy’s face.
    Mitzy stared at him, half smiling. ‘‘You don’t really think that Peggy tried to...poison me?’’ She seemed to find even more humor in that. ‘‘Peggy didn’t have what it takes to kill anyone.’’
    Mitzy made it sound as if she saw the inability to kill as a character flaw. ‘‘You seem so sure of that.’’
    ‘‘Peggy was a dreamer,’’ Mitzy said. ‘‘In that way, she was a lot like Oliver.’’
    He raised a brow.
    She pursed her lips as if she wished she hadn’t added that last. ‘‘Oliver would be nothing without a good woman behind him. But then I suppose that could be said of most men.’’ She smiled, but he couldn’t miss the bitterness in her tone. It didn’t surprise him that Oliver might be a disappointment.
    ‘‘Anyway,’’ she continued, ‘‘how stupid would that be? Peggy plotting to poison me, then forgetting and eating the chocolates?’’ She laughed and shook her head. ‘‘Not even Peggy was that dumb, although you know how she was about chocolate.’’
    No, he didn’t. ‘‘She had a weakness for it? But she’d lost so much weight....’’
    Mitzy lifted a finely honed brow. ‘‘Just because she was slim, don’t kid yourself, Peggy was only masquerading in that body. She knew she’d never be able to keep it. She was like a person who buys a car she can’t afford. Eventually the bank is going to come pick it up. With Peggy it was just a matter of time before she started eating again and she knew it.’’
    ‘‘That’s pretty cold,’’ he said. Even for Mitzy.
    She opened her purse to take out a mint, unwrap it and pop it into her mouth. ‘‘It’s just the truth,’’ she said, sounding almost sad. ‘‘It was cruel of Oliver to make Peggy buy me chocolates knowing chocolate is the woman’s weakness.’’
    Jack couldn’t agree more, especially under the circumstances. So why had Oliver? ‘‘Does he usually get you chocolate for Valentine’s Day?’’
    ‘‘Valentine’s and every other occasion he can think of,’’ Mitzy said. ‘‘I swear he buys it for himself. Or maybe just to bug me. He knows I don’t eat the stuff.’’
    ‘‘Not even one piece?’’ Jack asked in surprise.
    She shrugged. ‘‘I usually eat a piece just to appease him and he finishes the box. He’s a chocoholic and damned lucky he has the metabolism he does otherwise he’d be fatter than Peggy used to be.’’
    So Mitzy would have eaten one piece to appease Oliver. And it seemed one piece would have been enough to kill her.
    ‘‘What about Oliver? Did he have any reason to want to harm you?’’ Jack had to ask.
    The question didn’t seem to surprise her. ‘‘Oliver has no more killer instinct than Peggy did. I assure you, Oliver wouldn’t know what to do without me.’’ She looked bored. ‘‘Anything else you want to know?’’
    ‘‘Only who might have poisoned Peggy and why,’’ he said and thanked her