“Excuse me, Sheila, but…who are you to be handing out advice, anyway? And what the hell are you doing here? Why is it your place to comfort the father of a dead guy you’d been dating for, what? A few weeks?”

She unfolded her arms and, as they dropped to her sides, something winked at me…

…the rock on her ring finger.

I grabbed her hand, startling her, and had a good look at the diamond, which was ten karats anyway, in its simple four-prong setting. Your classic solitaire-style engagement ring. It said money, all right.

But there was a smaller band that spoke even louder.

I asked, “So you and Vincent tied the knot?”

“We did.”

“When?”

The smile on her lips was barely there, but her eyes were laughing. Her cranky attitude had vanished. A cockiness was in its place.

“Saturday,” she said. “City Hall. No one knew but the two of us.”

“How romantic.”

“We got the license Friday. Did you know it’s just a twenty-four-hour wait in this state? I’m here, since you asked, to look after my grieving father-in-law.”

I grinned, laughed. “So, then—congratulations are in order… Mrs. Colby. And of course condolences, since you’re a widow.”

Her chin came up and her smile was at once mocking and feral. “Maybe you’d like to kiss the bride.”

“I’ll pass. You know, since I killed the groom. But, hey—let’s sit. Catch up a little.” I gestured to the nearby sitting area by the fireplace.

“Why not?” she said and, her gait defiantly sexy, went over and settled her curvy self into the nearest brown leather chair. I sat on the sofa, close by.

She had an arm on either arm of the big chair, and put her feet up on the matching ottoman. Comfy. Cozy by the non-fire.

Her tone light now, the crossness wholly gone—it had been phony, anyway—she said, “I showed up at the door yesterday, in tears, and Vance welcomed me in and we wept together. He’s such a sweet old boy. I’m moving in.”

I stuck a smile onto my frowning face. “He’s a little old for you, isn’t he? And, anyway, you must already have a piece of all this—unless Vincent insisted you sign a pre-nup.”

She shook her head and the red hair flew. “No pre-nup. Vincent was nuts about me, didn’t you know? And it’s going to be strictly platonic between me and the elder Colby. I’m the daughter he never had.”

I nodded toward the choke-a-horse rock on her hand. “What did that bauble set your hubby back?”

She frown-smiled back at me. “That’s the kind of question a person just doesn’t ask.”

“But I bet you did. How much?”

Proud of herself now, she said, “A hundred grand.”

I had to smile. That was my bogus blackmail demand to her late husband.