1 Death by Chocolate

1 Death by Chocolate Read Free

Book: 1 Death by Chocolate Read Free
Author: Carol Lee
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to Abe.  He gave me the fifty-three cents back to me.  Small town.
     
    “Have a nice day,” Abe said and the three filed out.
     
    “Cheerful crowd, huh?” Lizzie commented.
     
    “Yeah, but it’s weird that Barbara is closed.  Why didn’t she have Ron open for her?”  Ron, Barbara’s ex-husband had just come back to town.  He’d been in prison for insurance fraud.  He’d been helping Barbara out, or maybe she’d been helping him out by letting him work with her.
     
    “No idea, but it’s good for you, right?”
     
    “It is,” I smiled.
     
    The morning passed quickly because there were more of Barbara’s customers that came in and Lizzie even helped a few times before she headed out to work.  By lunchtime things had calmed down and I put the last of the Death by Chocolate cakes in the case, put on a batch of rolls and made a few loaves of bread.  I sat down at the desk for the first time at around two during a lull, checked email and browsed through my recipes for the next business card offering.  The siren startled me since I’d really only heard them during a parade in town.  When I heard a second one, I went outside to see what had happened. I could see a crowd forming and an ambulance, police car and the fire rescue truck, but I couldn’t tell exactly which shop they were going to down there.
     
    I grabbed my coat, locked the shop and went down the road to join the crowd.  When I got there, I realized that they were all gathered around Barbara’s Bakery Brilliance.  The door hung only by the bottom hinge at a crazy angle and the gurney from the ambulance blocked the doorway.  I could see movement from inside, but the large lettering on the window made it tough to make out how many people were inside.
     
    “What happened,” I asked of no one in particular.
     
    “It’s Barbara.” Someone answered. “I think she’s dead.”
     
    I swallowed hard. How could she be?  I saw her just the other day at the Main Street Merchants meeting.  We’d joked about having a bake off to see whose apple pie tasted better. I thought she’d had an appointment this morning.  Had she been ill, I wondered.
     
    “Step back, folks,” David said in a very official voice.
     
    The crowd milled around a bit, but didn’t really move all that much.  Then questions started erupting.  “What happened?” “She’s gonna be alright, won’t she?”  “Did anyone call her husband?” “Is she dead?” “What’s going on, Dave?”
     
    The last question came from Abe Redmond.
     
    “Not sure, yet, we’re still processing the scene.  Want to come inside and we’ll brief you on what we know at this point.” 
     
    The crowd stayed eerily quiet at the interchange and then the gurney got pushed out of the bakery and the hush continued.  White sheets covered the figure on the stretcher, but there could be no doubt that it held a lifeless body.  I stared like everyone else.  Stunned and a bit shaken. 
     
    “Give us some room,” called Peter Lynch and the startled crowd parted.
     
    Backing up myself, I caught Peter staring at me.  I felt really uneasy by the piercing look he gave me, but then he looked away and scanned the crowd.  He looked as though he was taking a head count or attendance.  With that David came out also interested in the spectators.  He saw me and came over.
     
    “What are you doing here?”
     
    “I heard the sirens and came to find out what was going on.”
     
    “Okay folks,” he bellowed.  “Let’s get going.  Show’s over.”  Then he took my elbow.  Lightening shot through my body.
     
    “Listen, go back to your shop and stay there.  I’ll be over as soon as I can.  Don’t talk to anyone until I get there.” He said quietly.
     
    Dumbfounded, I walked back to the shop and fumbled with the lock to get inside.  I thought about placing the closed sign on the door, but then I didn’t.  Don’t talk to anyone? Why?  What’s going on? I

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