Dying for the Truth (A Rockcrest Cove Cozy Mystery Book 4) Read Free Page A

his move, and instead he gave her a finger shake through the window before walking back into the kitchen area.
     
    Shocked, Maddie stood rooted to the ground where she stood, not sure what to do. Embarrassed, she looked down the street to see if anyone had actually witnessed the exchange. Satisfied that no one had observed her, she knocked once again, more insistently this time, but Evan did not come out again.
     
    Unaccustomed to being ignored, her temper began to get the better of her.
     
    “Ignorant fool,” she muttered to herself. Her mind began to rethink taking the advice of her attorney and suing Evan for his bakery. After all, it was built on her ideas, her recipes—and even when she looked inside the shop, her own decorations. She had every right to claim back what was hers.
     
    With her ego bruised, she shouted through the door. “You’ll talk to me, Evan Foster, or I’ll make you pay for what you’ve done!”
     
    Even while shouting, she knew she didn’t really mean what she had said. Feeling completely out of character and tired of standing on the street with a stupid box of cupcakes in her hands, she let out an exhausted sigh of exasperation. Her arms tired, and her good intentions rebuffed, Maddie just felt lost and confused. Why would he be so reluctant to talk to her? After all, she was the victim here, not the other way around.
     
    Her arms tired, she let Astoria’s bag slip to the ground, and the quiet little feline peeked her head out of the bag to figure out what was going wrong. She took a wary step onto the sidewalk and gave Maddie a sideways glance to see if any reprimand would come. Over the years, Astoria had learned that only on certain occasions was she allowed to venture into unknown territory, and this was certainly something new to her. She peered around the dark street and ventured down the sidewalk, making sure to keep Maddie in view.
     
    Maddie looked at her box of cupcakes, trying to decide what to do. “Oh, to hell with it!” she said out loud. She shoved the entire box of cupcakes on top of a garbage can already filled with yesterday’s throwaways.
     
    “Come on Astoria,” she said, picking up her canvas bag and walking back toward her car.
     
    By now, the street was still deserted, lone for a solitary figure walking toward her on the sidewalk. She couldn’t tell if it was a man or a woman, as they were bundled up to protect themselves from the winter chill. With sunglasses to shield their eyes and a ball cap on their head, she would have hardly paid any attention to them until she saw them also peering into the window of the bakery.
     
    “I wouldn’t trust their services if I were you,” she said, still fuming from Evan’s effrontery. “This is the most unethical business I’ve ever had to deal with.” The other individual never responded, and Maddie continued on her way without giving it a second thought.
     
    Now less than twenty-four hours later she was sitting in the police station, accused of murdering someone she’d never even gotten to talk to. Maddie tried hard to make some sense of the entire scenario, but without more information she found she was only frustrating herself even more.
     
    She started to return fire with Connors, but before she could utter a word, Bailey, Kyle, and Eleanor burst into the room.
     
    “This interview is over,” Kyle announced.
     
    Connors raised his mighty bulk from his chair and fixed his bushy eyebrows on Kyle. “What is the meaning of this?”
     
    “I’m sure even you, Chief Connors, recognize that the questioning of a suspect is not to be done without an attorney present.”
     
    “She never asked for an attorney.”
     
    “Was she given a chance?” He turned to Maddie. “Do not say another word to him on this subject.”
     
    “You can’t just come into my station and …”
     
    “Yes, I can. You need to keep up to date with the laws and regulations. It may come as a surprise to you that there have