Murder Under the Palms (33 page)

Authors: Stefanie Matteson

BOOK: Murder Under the Palms

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Looking up at the stage, Charlotte caught his eye. He smiled at her, and her heart skipped a beat. Then he proceeded to announce that the first song of the evening would be dedicated to Miss Charlotte Graham.

Connie beamed at her from the other side of the table, where she was seated next to Spalding. Blue eyes sparkling, she leaned forward and asked, “How does that make you feel, Charlotte?”

The audience had burst into applause at the mention of Charlotte’s name, and she could feel their eyes upon her as she spoke in Connie’s ear: “Sixty-five stories nearer the stars.”

As Eddie turned to the band, Charlotte’s thoughts turned back to that first night in the Café-Grill, when he had played their song on the white baby grand as the sun rose in the tall windows at the stern of the ship.

It had been “just one of those things”—then. With both of them married to other people, it could hardly have been anything else. But she wondered if that would still be the case, or if it was destined now to be something more.

Then Eddie raised his baton and the band began to play.

But the song that Eddie had dedicated to her wasn’t “Just One of Those Things,” as she had expected. The band was a few bars into the melody before the lyrics started coming back to her: they had to do with being under the stars while an orchestra played by the shore, and palm trees swayed in the breeze.

She leaned back in her chair and broke out into a wide smile. She was reminded of the saying that Palm Beach was a place in which many things ended but few things began. Whoever had said that was wrong.

Because she and Eddie were about to begin the beguine.

All rights reserved, including without limitation the right to reproduce this ebook or any portion thereof in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of the publisher.

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, events, and incidents either are the product of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, businesses, companies, events, or locales is entirely coincidental.

Cover design by Drew Padrutt

ISBN: 978-1-5040-3718-1

This edition published in 2016 by
MysteriousPress.com
/Open Road Integrated Media, Inc.

180 Maiden Lane

New York, NY 10038

www.openroadmedia.com