Deadly Desserts (Sky High Pies Cozy Mysteries Book 6) Read Free Page B

Portia said. “Was that—”
    A second shriek sounded as Pinky
Newton lurched into the open doorway.
    “Come quickly!” she shouted. “It’s
Lacy Orvane! I think she ate one of the chocolate-dipped strawberries!”
    Portia slowly removed her reading
glasses. “Don’t be silly,” she said. “Everyone knows that Lacy usually sneaks a
bite or two beforehand. It’s hardly a sin if she couldn’t wait for the rest of
us.”
    “That’s not it!” Pinky sputtered.
“I think she’s dead!”

CHAPTER
5
     
     
    Lacy Orvane was on her back in the
next room, one leg twisted beneath the other at an awkward angle. Her eyes were
fixed on the coffered oak ceiling, a wide-eyed stare that sent a chill down my
back as I knelt beside her.
    “Is she dead?” Pinky asked
nervously.
    I lifted Lacy’s right arm, found a
faint pulse and watched as a chocolate-dipped strawberry tumbled from her hand.
It landed on the carpet with a faint thump and rolled toward the credenza
where all of the desserts and snacks for the judging session were arranged in
neat rows.
    “Call 911!” I said as the other
judges poured into the room. “And get me something to put under her head!”
    Pinky was on her phone in a flash,
telling the emergency operator that we needed an ambulance for a fainting
victim.
    “I don’t think she fainted,” Luigi
whispered, tapping my shoulder. “Maybe it was a heart attack.”
    I kept my eyes on Lacy as the small
group swarmed around our friend on the floor. “Anything’s possible,” I replied,
glancing at the wayward piece of fruit. “But I think it would be a good idea to
put that strawberry in a plastic bag.”
    “What on earth for?” Portia hissed.
“Daphne can clean things up later.”
    I looked over my shoulder.
“Please,” I said. “Will you do that for me?”
    Her eyes widened slightly as she
realized the seriousness of my request. Portia and I had talked a few times
about my years as a private investigator in Chicago. She was also aware that
I’d assisted the local police with a couple of cases since I moved back to Colorado.
Between those previous conversations and the expression on my face, she could
tell that I suspected our fellow committee member’s predicament might not be as
simple as a fainting spell.
    While I kept one hand on Lacy’s
shoulder and the other on her wrist, Daphne rushed into the room with a small
needlepoint pillow.
    “Will this do?” she murmured,
crouching on the floor. “It’s from the showroom upstairs.”
    As I carefully raised Lacy’s head,
Daphne slid it underneath. I caught a quick glance of the proverb on the front
before it was obscured by our friend’s luxurious curls: I’d Give Up
Chocolate, But I’m No Quitter!
    “The ambulance should be here in a
couple of minutes,” Pinky said from the doorway. “Is there anything else that
we should do in the meantime?”
    I looked up again. “Pray,” I said.
“And cross your fingers.”

CHAPTER
6
     
     
    Portia Pearson sat at one end of
the long mahogany table, tapping her lacquered nails against the wood and
scowling at the clock on the far wall. The lights in the conference room had
been dimmed, and the faint aroma of coffee lingered in the air.
    “How much longer are they going to
make us wait?” she griped. “We have work to do!”
    We’d been in the room for nearly an
hour. After the ambulance arrived and the paramedics began assessing Lacy’s
condition, Hank Russell, one of the first responders and a veteran of the
Crescent Creek Police Department, had asked the festival judges to wait in the
conference room until Dina Kincaid could talk to us. As lead detective with the
department, she often conducted the city’s official inquiries into crimes that
involved theft, property damage, personal injury, accidents or death.
    “This is taking forever ,”
Portia hissed. “I feel like a prisoner!”
    “Imagine how Lacy must feel,” Pinky
said quietly.
    Portia stopped drumming her
fingers. “What