Just Murdered Read Online Free PDF

that crystal crown off the display.”
    The crown was five hundred bucks, more than Helen made in a week. Helen came back and crowned the chinless little heiress. Desiree looked like she had a headache.
    “Do you like it?” Helen asked.
    Desiree shrugged. Helen wanted to shake her. Why didn’t she stand up for herself? Helen was grateful when Millicent stuck her head in the dressing room and said, “The groom’s here. Should I send him back?”
    “Isn’t it bad luck for the groom to see the dress?” Helen said.
    “Join the twenty-first century,” Kiki said. “These days, the groom may pick out the dress.”
    “Luke might as well see it,” Desiree said, as if he were viewing a fatal accident. “I’ll be out in a minute. Leave me alone, please.”
    Helen tiptoed up front for a quick look at the groom. Luke was definitely scenic. He wasn’t tall, probably about the same size as Millicent. But he was perfectly made from his cleft chin to his well-shod feet. His deep-brown hair was so thick, Helen wanted to run her fingers through it. Luke’s lightweight blue sweater and gray pants were nothing special. Yet Helen noticed them, because they seemed so absolutely right.
    Luke was with a skinny man about sixty dressed in black. His clothes and goatee screamed, “I am an artiste.”
    “I’m Luke Praine,” the groom said to Helen and Millicent. “This is my director, the owner of the Sunnysea Shakespeare Playhouse, Chauncey Burnham.”
    “Kiki, darling, so glad to see you.” Chauncey had a sycophant’s smile. His lips were unpleasantly red and flexible. Helen wondered if that was from smooching patrons’ posteriors.
    “Really, Chauncey, can’t I have any peace?” Kiki said.
    “I saw your car and I had to come over and say hello.” Chauncey’s smile slipped slightly.
    “You’ve said it. Now go.” Kiki started to turn away.
    “Er, could we have a moment alone?”
    “Anything you have to say, Chauncey, you can say right here.” Kiki was daring him.
    The director took a deep breath, rubbed his goatee, and pursed his rubbery red lips. “All right, I will. Kiki, you promised my company five thousand dollars so we could get through December. Now you say you can’t give us any money until January first.”
    “I can’t, Chauncey. The wedding has been expensive.”
    “The landlord says he’ll close us down next week in the middle of the run. We haven’t been reviewed yet, Kiki. The critic for the Herald can’t come until next Thursday. I know we’ll get a big crowd when we get a favorable review.” Chauncey was pleading now, like a mother begging for the life of her child.
    “ If you get a favorable review. He called your last production ‘uninspired and derivative.’ ” Kiki’s face was a frozen mask of meanness.
    Chauncey showed a brief flash of anger. Then he puckered properly. “Kiki, please. You know Luke is marvelous in this production. I beg of you, help us. We won’t make it to January without your support. We’ll die.”
    Kiki’s smile was cruel. “Don’t beg, Chauncey. It’s weak.”
    Chauncey hung his head. Millicent moved away. Humiliation might be catching.
    Desiree appeared in her frumpy wedding dress and veil, an expensive specter. “Poor Chauncey,” she said softly. “You’re much too nice. If you were only more like your Shakespeare characters, you could save your theater. The bard knew what to do with inconvenient women.” Her smile was honeyed malice.
    Chauncey looked stricken. “Please, dear lady, that’s not funny.”
    “Screw your courage to the sticking point,” Desiree said, a demure Lady Macbeth.
    Sweat broke out on his forehead. “Please, it’s bad luck to quote the Scottish play.”
    “Perhaps.” She shrugged. “But my mother’s death would be good luck for you.”
    There was a shocked silence. Chauncey turned white, down to those mobile lips. “I’d better go,” he said. “You look lovely, Desiree.” He backed out of the shop.
    “Money is