Black and Blueberry Die (A Fresh-Baked Mystery Book 11) Read Free

Danny had been arrested for the murder of his wife.
    “You know how when something bad happens, people always say they never knew it was coming?” Mike said.
    “They used to say that,” Sam responded. “Now most folks say, ‘Oh, yeah, I always knew he was crazy and was gonna snap one of these days.’”
    Mike shrugged and nodded. “Unfortunately, that’s true. It does seem like we have more obviously crazy and violent people these days. But in Danny and Roxanne’s case it was more of a surprise. They seemed happy. I saw the pictures both of them posted on Facebook. They were always doing things together and looked like they were in love.”
    With her usual cynicism, Carolyn said, “Married couples get in the habit of looking like they’re in love. It makes things simpler and easier that way, whether it’s true or not.”
    “I guess. I’m sure Danny and Roxanne had their problems. But if anybody had told me he was going to kill her, especially like...that...I would have said they were nuts.”
    “She was beaten to death, wasn’t she?” Phyllis asked quietly.
    Mike nodded. “Blunt force trauma. In fact, it was bad enough that, well, they had a little trouble identifying her.”
    Carolyn leaned forward in her rocking chair and asked, “Were the authorities absolutely certain it was her who was killed? I mean, could it have been some other woman about the same age and shape and size...?”
    “Her fingerprints were on file because she had a license to carry a gun. It was her, all right. No doubt about it. That other sort of thing only happens in books and movies.”
    Phyllis frowned slightly and said, “Why would she carry a gun? Was she afraid of something...or someone?”
    “Like Danny?” Mike shook his head. “No. Sometimes Roxanne closed up at the beauty parlor where she worked and took the day’s deposit to the bank. She just kept a little pistol in the car because of that and being out after dark. I doubt if she ever fired it except now and then on the range.”
    “You said Danny wanted to talk to you,” Sam put in. “What did he tell you? Did he claim he was innocent?”
    “He did. He said he loved Roxanne and never would have hurt her. But...he’s the one who found her body at the beauty shop and called 911. He was pretty disoriented when the cops got there—”
    “Well, I would expect so,” Carolyn said, “if he found his wife murdered, after all.”
    “But in any homicide where the victim is married, the spouse is always the first suspect,” Mike said. His face was grim. “Danny had a lot of...DNA evidence on him—”
    “You mean Roxanne’s blood,” Phyllis said.
    Mike sighed and nodded. “Yeah. He was covered with it. And he didn’t have any sort of alibi. Plus there were witnesses who said that Danny and Roxanne had been having trouble in their marriage after all, no matter what it looked like to their old friends. That was enough for Danny to be arrested and indicted. Why would the police look that hard at anybody else? I don’t think our detectives would have.”
    “There was no one to testify on his behalf at the trial?”
    “A few character witnesses,” Mike said with a shrug, “but nothing to contradict the physical evidence or discredit the few witnesses the state called. The trial really didn’t amount to much. The jury deliberated less than an hour. Danny was sentenced to thirty years for second-degree murder.”
    Sam asked, “What did he say to make you think he’s not guilty? You’ve dealt with enough criminals to know that plenty of ’em deny what they did, up one way and down the other, even when they’ve been caught red-handed.”
    “He told me he and Roxanne were about to go away together on a second honeymoon. More like a first one, actually, since they didn’t have much of a honeymoon when they first got married because Danny had just gotten out of the army and they didn’t have any money. Anyway, they were going to Las Vegas because they could