Lucy and the Valentine Verdict by Rae Davies

Chapter 1
    Love may conquer all eventually, but in my
experience it needed a good kick in the pants to get itself
going.
    And that was exactly what I hoped my
Valentine’s weekend at a not-too-far-away resort was going to be
for the love in my life.
    Except things never worked out the way I
planned. Never.
    “What do you mean a boiler exploded?” I
asked Betty, my part-time employee at my antiques shop, Dusty
Deals.
    I’d driven to the store this morning to drop
off my Alaskan malamute, Kiska, with my best friend, Rhonda, who
ran the book store next door and to meet my cowboy detective
boyfriend, Peter Blake.
    We’d been planning this Valentine’s weekend
getaway for weeks.
    “Just what I said... a boiler... it
exploded.” She enunciated each word.
    “What kind of boiler?”
    She cocked a brow. “The kind that heats the
building? Here...” She held out that morning’s copy of the Helena Daily News and stabbed at it with one ruby red
fingernail. “No one was hurt, but the hotel is going to be closed
for at least a week. They should have called you.”
    The reservations weren’t in my name, so if
they had called, I wouldn’t have known it, but that really wasn’t
the issue here.
    “Do boilers even still exist?” I asked. “I
thought they went out with steam locomotives.”
    Betty lowered the paper to her lap and
stared at me with strained patience.
    I got the message. Denial of the facts would
not change said facts.
    I huffed out a breath. What to do now?
    “There is this...” Betty pulled an envelope
out from under the phone. “Ethel stopped by last night after you
left. She got these tickets, but due to some... commitments...
can’t use them.”
    Ethel was a local octogenarian who until
recently was only known for her charitable works. A few weeks
earlier, however, I’d discovered a few other aspects of her
personality and habits. Based on the expression on Betty’s face, I
guessed that Ethel’s commitments had more to do with the
latter.
    Still, who was I to judge, or turn down
something that might save my weekend? I took the envelope.
    Inside were two tickets and a flyer. All
three were bright pink and emblazoned with the words Valentine’s
Mystery Weekend. Love hurts, but can it kill?
    I grimaced. I certainly hoped not. At least
not in the next few days.
    “I don’t know...” The bell over the front
door dinged and Peter walked in. He was looking all masculine and
rugged in his favorite Stetson and Justin ropers. His gaze settled
on my face and star detective that he was, he said, “You
heard.”
    I grimaced again. I’d still been hoping that
Betty and the Daily News were wrong.
    “They called you,” I said.
    “Yes.” His gaze moved to the fluorescent
slips of paper in my hand. “What do you have there?”
    I glanced down, a bit startled to find I was
still holding the items.
    Betty jumped in for me. “Tickets to a
mystery weekend in Seeley Lake.”
    Peter cocked a brow. “One of those Clue things?”
    I assumed he meant the game, which was
accurate enough. I read from the flyer, “
Calling suspects, murderers and victims! Play your role
and play detective. You may just be the one to figure out ‘who
dunnit.’
”
    Peter held his hand out to Kiska, who
wandered over for a rub behind the ears. “We could go.”
    My eyes widened. “Really?”
    He lifted one shoulder. “Sure, although it
doesn’t really seem fair.”
    Suspicion settled in quickly. “What do you
mean?”
    He laughed. “Well, I am a detective.”
    I snorted.
    His hand stilled. “What?”
    “Nothing.” I glanced at Betty, who suddenly
seemed busy rearranging a collection of Occupied Japan figures.
    I looked back at my boyfriend. “And I’ve
helped solve four murder cases.”
    His lips turned up at the side. “You
have.”
    His intonation was flat, no mockery that I
could detect, but still...
    “This is a murder mystery weekend, just like
you said, like
Clue
, and I’ve read a
lot
more mystery novels than you