Wed and Buried by Mary Daheim

Judith didn’t blame Renie for trying to drag her away by the sleeve of her navy suit.
    But Judith wasn’t quite ready to leave. “This is the front of the hotel,” she said, raising her voice over the din. “See the main entrance?”
    â€œYeah, right, very nice,” Renie responded, choking a bit on the dust. “See the cousin? She’s getting hungry.”
    Judith counted the floors. There were ten in all. Certainly anyone who fell from the roof would be seriously injured and most likely killed. “There’s not much of a guardrail on the roof,” Judith shouted. “See that lowwall? It’s probably only about knee-high. The woman in the bride’s dress went right over and…” Judith stopped. Now that some of the dust had cleared, she noticed a small balcony jutting out from the top story. It was about six feet wide, serving what looked like French doors. “Coz!” Judith cried. “Look! What if the woman landed on that balcony? She would only have fallen about eight feet. She might not have gotten more than a few bruises.”
    With a tortured sigh, Renie gazed upward. “Okay, I see it. Is that the part of the roof where she went over?”
    Judith tried to picture the scene from Friday night. “I think so…It was more or less the middle part, so it could have been. It all happened so fast.”
    â€œAnd where did Tux Boy go after that?” Renie asked, brushing dust from her lavender designer suit.
    â€œI don’t know,” Judith admitted. “I turned around to tell Joe what had happened, and when I looked back, the roof was empty.”
    â€œHmmm.” Renie now seemed intrigued. “So he could have jumped onto the balcony, too, or gone back into the hotel the same way they got onto the roof.”
    â€œRight.” Judith’s excitement was still palpable. “That might explain everything. But why do such a thing?”
    The foreman was now at Judith’s side. “Look,” said Hector Pasqual in an impatient tone, “you’re gonna have to get outta here. This is a construction zone. We can’t have gawkers.”
    Frowning, Judith took a couple of backward steps. Renie was already halfway to the corner. But just as Judith started to turn around, a workman came running out of the building, waving his arms and shouting.
    â€œWe got a stiff on ten! Somebody call the cops!”
    Judith froze. Hector Pasqual grabbed the newcomer by the arm. “What the hell? Keep it down, Louie!”
    Louie yanked off his hardhat and rubbed his curly blond hair. “I’m telling you, it’s a stiff! And whoever it is has been dead for awhile. Jeez, I feel sick!”
    Some of the other workmen had now begun to congregate around Hector and Louie. Their voices were lost in the tight little knot of burly, sweaty laborers. Then Hector apparently signaled for quiet as he summoned help on his cell phone.
    Judith beckoned to Renie who was slowly, if reluctantly, walking back toward the Belmont. “Louie found a body,” Judith said, both fearful and excited. “What do you suppose? I’ll bet it’s the woman in the bridal gown.”
    Renie’s brown eyes widened. “You mean—you were right?”
    Judith glared at Renie. “Don’t tell me you thought I was nuts, too?”
    â€œAh…” Renie grimaced. “Not nuts, just…embroidering? I mean, sometimes you come up with some pretty big fibs, coz.”
    â€œOnly when I have to,” Judith retorted, keeping one eye on the ever-growing cluster of workmen in front of the hotel. “But I never make things up just for the sake of invention.”
    Renie gave a little shrug. “Okay, I guess not.” Seeing the fire in Judith’s black eyes, Renie hastily corrected herself. “I mean, of course you don’t. So why are we standing here under the noonday sun? You’ve proved your point.