Page 23 of She Doesn't Have a Clue
“I was toldthis onewas spotted trying to steal the good champagne, and I come down and find… this!” Abraham crumpled toward the wall again as if he were the one who’d face-planted into a dead body.
“What did you do?” Juliette demanded to Kate. “Did you push her?”
“Wait, what?” she said, snapping her head up and making the roomspin. Whoops, still drunk. “I didn’t… What are you saying? I would never… I didn’t!”
“Oh, so you conveniently found her lying at the bottom of the stairs?” Juliette said, voice dripping with sarcasm as she checked Kennedy over. “Did you even check for a pulse before screaming your head off like an idiot? Or did you already know there wouldn’t be one?”
“Oh my god, Ken!” someone screamed from the stairs, and then Cassidy came hurtling across the room and cast herself across Kennedy’s body with a sob. “Kennedy! Kennedy, are you okay? Oh my god, say something, Ken, please!!”
“Abraham, we need medical help,” Juliette said.
“Jean-Pierre!” Abraham gasped. “He is certified in CPR, among his many other talents. I’ll alert him immediately. Oh, it’s the Greek heiress’s sweet sixteen all over again, isn’t it?”
“What did you do to her?” Cassidy sobbed at Kate.
“Why does everyone keep asking me that?” Kate cried.
“Here!” chirped the French assistant a moment later, stopping short with a stage gasp. “The bride?Non!”
“Yes,” Abraham said with relish, pointing at Kate. “This one found the body. Suspiciously.”
“Suspiciously!” Jean-Pierre echoed. “Is she…”
Abraham drew a line across his neck, making his eyes wide and dramatic as he moutheddead. If he was aiming for discretion, he shot too wide, because Cassidy gave up a wail the Greek chorus would envy, throwing herself dramatically across Kennedy’s body again.
“I can’t find a pulse,” Juliette said in a low voice to Abraham.
“Murder!” Abraham gasped. “We’ll have to inform Rebecca Hempstead right away. Death at a wedding! She’ll want this handled quietly. Shall we detain the killer?”
He looked at Kate expectantly, the rest of the room following suit.
“Hang on, wait, that’s not…” Kate held her head as if that would stop the spinning, and then she held on to her stomach as if that would stop the nausea. “I didn’t touch her! I mean, I touched her, when I tripped over her—”
“You tripped over her?” Cassidy said in horror, once again looking like a raccoon. If the woman was going to go around crying all the time, she really ought to invest in a waterproof mascara. “You stepped on Kennedy?”
“No!” Kate said.
“We all saw you shove her into the present table,” Juliette said.
“And you made a scene when the groom gave his speech,” said Jean-Pierre. “Sucha scene. So embarrassing.”
“No, that didn’t… You’re not… You don’t understand!” Kate protested, the room spinning faster and her stomach twisting up tighter.
Someone took Kate’s arm in a hard grip, making her cry out in pain.
“She killed the bride,” Abraham said with a little too much delight. “She’s a criminal, we must detain her!”
“Nobody’s detaining anybody,” came Jake’s stern voice. Kate had never heard him speak like that, not even when he was on a tear about his dad. He sounded so protective, so fierce. She wasn’t proud of it, but it extremely turned her on. And then he was touching her gently. Kate gave a half sob.
“Kate, are you all right?” Jake asked, just as gentle as his touch.
She wanted to curl up in that voice and block out everything else. The blues of his eyes were stormy but his expression was calm and completely focused on her. Marla hovered just over his shoulder, close enough that it was clear she’d arrived at the same time as Jake. Or had she arrivedwithJake? Marla had said she’d be down in a minute, but surely she would have come running when she heard Kate screaming? Unless she’d found someone more interesting to entertain her for the evening. Someone like Jake. A spear of territorial jealousy lanced through Kate’s insides, stirring up her guts and wrapping her stomach around its handle until it felt like it was a part of her.
Kate gave a little shake, just enough that she could feel her brain hitting the inside of her skull. “I didn’t… Jake, I didn’t.”
“I know, Katey cakes,” he said, his thumb brushing her cheek. “Sit right here. I’m going to check on Kennedy.”
“I’m gonna go find someone actually qualified to deal with this,” Marla murmured, backing away.