Page 40 of Kiss Marry Kill
“That must’ve made you pretty angry?”
He shook his head. “No. It hurt though, knowing I’d had her and lost her. I knew I’d never get her back once she actually went through with the wedding.”
I frowned. “You realize what you’re saying just makes you seem guiltier, right?”
“No it doesn’t. You’re not listening towhatI’m saying, Sheriff. I saidifshe’d married Archie, I knew I’d never get her back.”
“Yeah. I heard you.”
He looked at me as if he thought I was stupid. “Why would I wait untilafterthe wedding to kill Archie? That makes no sense. If I was a murderer and my motivation was to keep Janelle for myself, I’d have killed Archiebeforethe wedding. Not at the reception.”
I pursed my lips. “Maybe you just didn’t have the opportunity.”
“If I’d wanted Archie dead, I’d have made the opportunity,” he said in a harsh voice.
The hairs on the back of my neck stiffened at the malice in his voice.
“You know I’m making sense,” he said softly. “If I was going to stab that guy in a jealous rage, I’d have done it weeks ago. I’d have done it privately when no one was around.”
“People aren’t always logical about murder. People sometimes snap.”
He shook his head. “You’re a disappointment, Sheriff. I thought you knew how to think outside the box. You seriously just want to slap this murder charge on me? The real murderer will still be on the loose if you do that. I didn’t kill Archie. I don’t care that he’s dead, and maybe I shouldn’t admit that, but it’s the God’s honest truth that I didn’t kill him.”
I had to admit, he was convincing. I changed the subject to throw him off his stride a bit. “Rumor has it you’ve had some problems with drugs.”
He looked embarrassed. “Yes. But I’m in counseling for that as well. I haven’t touched cocaine since Janelle dumped me. Losing her was the wake-up call I needed.”
“You were drunk at the wedding.”
He laughed humorlessly. “Yeah. I was. I was very drunk. I think I’m still a little drunk. I was trying to numb the pain of watching the love of my life marry another man. It was a rough day.”
I thought about what it might feel like to watch Maxwell move on with another person. My stomach hurt just thinking about that. How much harder would it have been for Kobe to sit there and actually watch Janelle marry a man he hated?
“I can empathize,” I said.
“Yeah?”
I cleared my throat. “But that doesn’t mean I don’t still have to look at you impartially. Whether I empathize with what you were going through the day of the wedding, that doesn’t excuse murder.”
“I agree. But I didn’t kill Archie. Like I said, if I had been going to murder him, I’d have done it before he ever even got to the church. It would have been quick and clean.” His voice was emotionless. I got the distinct impression he’d thought it through.
I shook my head. “If you’d gone home like I told you to, you wouldn’t be in this mess right now.”
He raised his brows. “Does that mean you think I’m innocent?”
“No. The other side of that coin is maybe Archie would be alive if you hadn’t shown up again.”
He gritted his teeth. “I’m telling you the truth. I didn’t touch Archie.”
I sighed. “Did you talk to Archie when you came back to the reception?”
“No. When I got back to the reception, everybody was going home.”
I nodded. “Yeah. You kind of killed the mood of the party.”
He grimaced. “Janelle will probably never forgive me.”
I didn’t address that forlorn comment. “All right, so everybody was going home. What did you do?”
