Grilled Cheese Murder: Book 4 in The Darling Deli Series Read Free Page B

another sip of wine, and was casting around for something else to talk about when she felt her phone buzz in her pocket. Shooting David an apologetic glance, she pulled it out and glanced at the screen. When she saw the caller ID, she felt her blood turn to ice.
    “Hello?” she said, pressing the phone to her ear.
    “Ms. Darling, this is Trish at the Maple Creek Police Department. We need you to come down to the station for us as soon as possible.”
    “Why?” Moira said, her voice sounding hollow. David was gazing at her with concern in his blue eyes.
    “There’s been a death, and we need you to identify the body.”

CHAPTER FIVE
    As David drove her to the police station, an uncomfortable silence once again fell over them. All Moira could do was keep repeating to herself, It’s not Candice, it’s not Candice. That had been the first thing out of her mouth to the woman from the police station. Her daughter was fine, which was the important thing, but the name that they had given her instead was nearly as bad. When they got there, she saw that the small building was busy for so late at night. Detective Jefferson met her and David at the door.
    “Right this way,” he said, leading them both back down familiar hallways to one of the more comfortable interview rooms. “Normally we wouldn’t do this, but he had you as his emergency contact in his phone. We couldn’t find any family to contact.” The detective sighed and put a blue folder down on the coffee table in the center of the room. “I’m really sorry to ask this of you.” He looked between the two of them. “Whenever you’re ready.” Moira took a deep breath, traded a glance with David, and then opened the folder.
    “It’s not him,” she gasped, feeling relief course through her. “It’s not Dante.” Horror was close on the heels of her relief though, as the grisly scene in the photos registered in her brain. The body was someone that she recognized, but thankfully not someone that she knew. Instead of Dante’s familiar face, she saw the empty gaze of the young man that had come into the store a few days ago, the one who had seemed so familiar at the time. The similarities between him and Dante were now obvious, and she couldn’t believe that she hadn’t made the connection before. Trying to ignore the bloodstained carpet under the boy in the photo, she handed it over to David so he could get a closer look.
    “What happened?” she asked, turning back to Jefferson. “Where’s Dante?”
    “If that’s not him, then we don’t know. But it doesn’t look good,” he said grimly. “We got a call from Dante’s neighbor earlier today, a complaint about a gunshot. When we got there, we found him.” He nodded at the blue folder in David’s hands. “He matched the description of the resident, so we thought it must be Dante. But if you’re sure that it isn’t, well, that means we have more questions than before, and fewer answers.”
    “This is so terrible. Do you think that there’s any chance that Dante’s okay?” she asked.
    “I honestly don’t know what to tell you, Ms. Darling. We don’t know what’s going on here, and we don’t know yet whether we should be considering Dante to be a possible victim, or a suspect.” He rubbed his hand across his face, looking weary. “Anything you can tell us about him will be helpful. We don’t have much to go on right now. How long has he worked for you?”
    “Just a couple of months,” Moira said. He had worked for her since shortly after she’d lost another employee . “I’m sorry to say I don’t really know him that well. He’s a very private person, but I never got the feeling that he was dangerous. He’s been nothing but helpful at the deli, and I’ve been able to rely on him to show up on time and put a hundred and one percent into his work.”
    “Do you know where he moved here from?” the detective asked.
    “No, I don’t,” she admitted. “Sorry.”
    “It’s all