Jewelry Can Be Deadly (Sage Gardens Cozy Mystery Book 6) Read Free

get out of here, Samantha.” Jo tugged at her arm and looked around at all of the police officers. There were only a few, but to her it seemed like thousands. “Let’s go. There’s nothing we can do here.”
    “What if the police want to question us?” Samantha continued to stare at Valda’s body, more specifically the crumbs that covered her mouth.
    “That’s what I’m afraid of, Samantha. You know how I am with cops.” Jo shifted with an antsy energy from one foot to the other.
    “All right, all right.” Samantha started to turn towards the door. Before she could reach it one of the officers blocked her way.
    “Miss?” The lead officer called out to her. Jo slipped out the door without the slightest hesitation. Samantha found it impossible to walk away from the officer’s command. “Are you the one who supplied the muffins?”
    “Yes.” Samantha swallowed hard. She couldn’t imagine that her attempt at welcoming new neighbors had led to an untimely death.
    “And why are you here now?” The officer whipped out his notepad.
    “I was walking past the villa and I heard Roger scream. I wanted to make sure that everything was okay.”
    “You’re a friend of the deceased?” The officer scribbled on his notepad.
    “No, not really. They just moved in. I brought the muffins to welcome them.” The officer looked up at her with slightly parted lips.
    “Okay,” he said slowly and then made another note on his notepad.
    “Am I free to go?”
    “Sure. Unless you poisoned the muffins.” He smiled. Samantha stared at him. His smile faltered. “You didn’t, did you?”
    “No, I didn’t.” Samantha glared at him.
    “Then you’re free to go. I’ll be in contact if we need any more information from you.” As Samantha stepped out the door she overheard Roger’s heated words to another officer.
    “It’s quite obvious she choked. No one else was in the house.”
    Samantha found Jo loitering at the end of the driveway as far from the police cars as she could get.
    “What took you so long?” Jo looked at the villa nervously.
    “The officer was quite interested in my muffins.” Samantha wrung her hands. “I’m afraid they’re going to think I was involved. Roger was shouting at one of the officers when I left. They must have been asking him some upsetting questions.”
    All of a sudden Jo remembered the necklace. “Samantha, I have to go back in there.”
    “Huh? You couldn’t wait to leave.” Samantha looked at her strangely.
    “I have to look for something that should be in there. I need to see if it is or not.”
    “Okay.” Samantha followed her up the walkway to the villa. An officer blocked the door from any nosy residents.
    “I need to get in for just a second.” Jo cleared her throat.
    “No, you don’t.” The officer crossed his arms. He was wide enough to block the entire door.
    “I left something inside, please, the key to my villa. I have to get it.” Jo tried to look calm. Her heart pounded. To speak directly to a police officer was enough to make her break out in a sweat. It had taken her quite some time to get comfortable with Eddy, even though he was already retired from the force when she met him. The officer looked over his shoulder at the lead officer and then nodded.
    “All right, but make it quick. The scene needs to be contained in case there is any evidence of a homicide.”
    Jo thought that was a little strange. Why would they suspect homicide when it was so clearly an accidental death? She didn’t want to ask any more questions than she needed to, however. She crouched down near the body under the pretense that she was searching for her key. What she was actually looking for was the necklace that Valda had worn that morning. As she suspected the necklace was gone. There was a red mark on the curve of her neck, but Jo imagined that could have been caused by the woman clawing at her neck if she had truly choked.
    “Excuse me, why are you in here?” Roger paused