This is the seventh part in a series, so if you have not already done so, you might want to read Part I, Part II, Part III, Part IV, Part V, and Part VI before continuing.
Knott worked steadily through her list, starting with the wedding party and moving onto the guests. Everyone said the same thing: Harper was the nicest girl. No one could possibly have wanted to kill her, much less in such a violent and personal manner.
If the killer was right handed, they would have been looking Harper in the face while they drove a blade into her skull. That’s not random. But according to literally everyone present, no one who knew this sweet, beautiful bride could possibly have wanted any harm to come to her.
Knott checked again with security to make sure there was no chance someone not invited to the wedding could have snuck up and killed Harper right before she was about to walk down the aisle. They confirmed that security had been tight and no one who was not a guest or a member of the wedding party had made it onto the grounds.
It wasn’t until Knott was talking to Liz, the maid of honor, who divulged her bad luck with weddings lately, that she thought she might have a lead.
“Were you at another wedding where someone turned up dead?”
Liz let out a wet, startled laugh that sounded somewhere between a laugh and a sob. “Of course not. I just meant that I was supposed to get married last year, but we ended up calling it off.”
“Was that before or after Harper got engaged?”
“Before. Apparently Harper was hesitant to ask me to be her maid of honor because she thought she might feel like she was rubbing it in my face, but she could never do that. I know how much she loved Dick, and I could never be anything but happy for her.”
“She knew about your breakup?”
Liz nodded as she blew her nose into a tissue.
“And she still asked you to be her maid of honor.”
Liz nodded again.
“And you didn’t feel like that was … rude?”
“Of course not. They were two completely separate and unrelated things.”
Knott nodded. Liz looked and sounded sincere, but she had heard the phrase, “Always a bridesmaid, never a bride,” too often not to suspect it must have had some effect on Liz, even if might have been subconscious.
“Who broke off the engagement?”
“I did.”
“And how long after that happened did Harper ask you to be her maid of honor?”
“A few months. She and Dick came down to visit and everything and it was so lovely!” She dissolved into sobs again and Knott decided it was time to put a pause on this interview. Besides. There were a few things she wanted to check on before continuing with her interviews…
To be continued…