No Such Thing as a Free Lunch (No Such Thing As...: A Brandy Alexander Mystery) by Shelly Fredman Page A

found her early the next morning, when he entered her apartment to fix the heater. Cause of death was determined to be trauma to the head, caused by a blunt instrument. Laura Stewart was survived by her parents, Rita and Bill and an older brother, Ethan.
    It was the sexual nature of Harmon’s comments to Laura that red-flagged him and led to his eventual arrest. His semen and blood were found on the victim and there were signs of a struggle. Harmon had a history of arrests, including aggravated assault and breaking and entering. He was on parole when Marisco’s hired him—an apparent oversight on the part of the manager. Bet he’s kicking himself now.
    David Dwayne Harmon was on death row; scheduled to be executed next month. But what did that have to do with Tamra? She clearly had an interest in the case, otherwise, why all the questions to Vince? Maybe Harmon wanted to make a deathbed confession and picked Tamra to record his last words. Then again, according to the latest articles, he still maintains that he’s innocent. Could Tamra somehow have become involved in trying to free the guy? I wondered if Harmon had any relatives in the area that might know the answer to this. I made a note to look them up when I got to work.
    The phone rang and I ran to the kitchen to get it. It was my mom. She was calling from a Best Western, just outside of Charleston. Ever since she switched to the unlimited calling plan on her wireless network, she calls hourly, just to feel like she’s getting her money’s worth.
    “Brandy, I got the most disturbing phone call from Doris Gentile.”
    “Mrs. Gentile has your cell phone number? When did you two become such great pals?”
    “I gave it to her in case of an emergency. It’s a good thing I did too. It seems she was taking out the trash this evening and she couldn’t help but notice Robert DiCarlo’s car double parked in front of the house.”
    Uh oh.
“Really?”
Stay calm
. “How did she know it was Bobby? There must be dozens of 1968 red convertible mustangs cruising the neighborhood. It could have been anyone’s.”
    “Don’t be ridiculous, Brandy. She said she saw you get out of your car and climb into Bobby’s and when you finally dragged yourself out of there your shirt was all undone. Honestly, Brandy Renee, I don’t know what you were thinking!”
    Oh crap. How am I going to get out of this one? And why should I have to? I’m twenty-eight years old, for God’s sake. I shouldn’t have to explain my every action to my mother. I’m just going to have to tell her to back off.
“Mom,” I said.
    “Yes?” It was amazing how much disapproval the woman could pack into one small syllable.
    “Have you spoken to Paul lately? He’s having second thoughts about the bar mitzvah. In fact, he mentioned something about canceling the affair and becoming a priest.” Sorry, Paulie, but it’s every man for himself.
    I hung up with my mom and sat back down in the living room, turning my attention back to Tamra. Could her husband have killed her? He certainly had access to Tamra and a motive, seeing as he thought she was cheating on him. But he did leave that sweet message for her on her cell phone… unless he’d left it after he’d already killed her, to throw off the cops and make it look like he didn’t know she was dead.
Yes, Brandy, biology professors are notoriously wily.
Just to be on the safe side I Googled him too.
    Eric called as I perused a deadly dull paper on the life cycle of the amoeba, by Jeff Rhineholt, which led me to believe that if he did in fact murder his wife, he had probably bored her to death by reading her this paper. “Turn on the television,” Eric said. “Channel 3.”
    It took me a minute to find the remote, because Rocky was using it as a teething ring. By the time I pried it out of her paws, it was time for weather and sports. “What’s going on?” I asked.
    “New developments in the Tamra Rhineholt suicide story. Looks like it may not