Green Velvet Murder: A Donut Hole Cozy Mystery - Book 16 Read Free Page B

“I don’t have
time for this. I have a funeral to organize.” She slammed her front door
closed, then clicked the lock.
    “Told you,” Amy said.
    Heather scrambled her phone out of her
pocket, then swiped her thumb across the screen. “Hello?”
    “Shepherd,” Geoff said. “I found
something in the store. You’ve got to come check it out, now.” He hung up.
    Heather dropped the phone from her ear
and stared at the screen. “Has everyone lost their manners? Slamming doors,
hanging up in the middle of a conversation.”
    “Calling people ‘useless,’” Amy added.
    “Right,” Heather said, then glanced at
Belushi’s front door. “We’ve got places to be and a baker to investigate. Are
you with me?”
    “Anything’s better than this,” Amy
replied. She shuddered and flapped her hand in front of her face.
    “Don’t be such a drama queen.” Heather
slipped her arm through her bestie’s and dragged her back down the front
stairs, then off to the sidewalk.

Chapter 5
    Delightful Donuts had seen better
days. The sign above the door hung askew, the front door’s bottom hinge creaked
each time the wind gusted against the wood and glass, and the windows, oh boy,
coated in grime.
    “Who eats at this place?” Amy asked,
and mock stuck her finger down her throat.
    “Careful, if Geoff sees you do that,
he might try to feed you one of his rock hard fudge balls.”
    “I’d rather die,” Amy replied, then
gulped. “That was in poor taste wasn’t it?”
    “Not as bad as the taste of his
donuts.”
    “Stop, you’re going to make me gag
again,” Amy whispered.
    The front door slammed, and Geoff
strode out to meet them, wringing his massive hands. “What took you so long,
Shepherd?”
    “Because that’s the way you talk to the
woman who’s about to help you out,” Amy said, loudly, all the fear from the
past half hour absent. “The same woman you’ve tried to steal from and mimic in
business.”
    Geoff beckoned for Heather to follow
him.
    Amy bristled and rammed her fists onto
her hips. “He’s ignoring me. Geoff Lawless is ignoring me.”
    “I don’t think your unique brand of
sarcasm is appreciated at Delightful Donuts,” Heather muttered, then worked her
jaw. Just the name of the place gave her the creeps. Way too close to home.
    Heather shrugged, then followed Geoff
through the front door of his bakery and across the main room. It was empty of
customers, probably because he’d closed the place for the day, and she skirted
around the spot on the floor where she’d found Jelly Polinksi’s body a couple
of weeks prior.
    “Is it just me, or does everyone in
this town die?” Amy whispered, through the dust and scent of sticky, sweet
glaze.
    “Where, in Hillside?”
    “Yeah,” Amy replied.
    “Everybody dies,” Heather muttered. “I
mean, in general. Our days are all numbered.”
    “And on that bombshell, it’s back to
our scheduled investigation,” Amy said, in a faux announcer voice.
    “What are you doing?” Geoff growled,
from the kitchen doorway. “Get back here.”
    “He’s not great at being polite.” Amy
traipsed up behind Heather and tailed her into the kitchen.
    Shivers spread up Heather’s limbs and
into her core. Steel tables lined the walls, and a steel sink stood in the
center of the room. A huge faucet hung up the basin, dripping water. Drip,
drop, drip.
    Amy dug her nails into Heather’s
shoulders. “This is the kitchen of a bakery? It looks more like a, a –”
    “Slaughterhouse,” Heather finished,
for her.
    They shuddered at the same time.
    Geoff didn’t notice. He tugged at the
end of his beard, then pointed at the window beside his back door. It had four
spaces for panes and only three dirty glass plates. The fourth had been knocked
out.
    “Someone broke in.” Geoff paced back
and forth, still tugging at that long, brown beard. “They broke in here. I bet
they stole some of my fudge balls.”
    “Wait a second. You’re suggesting that
someone broke