A Catered Christmas Killer (A Sinful Sweets Cozy Mystery) Read Online Free PDF Page B

Sydney exchanged a knowing look.
     
    “Well, if the party is to continue as planned, we have work to do,” Sydney said. The women walked back to the kitchen and started getting dough ready, pulled out the hundreds of hard boiled eggs from the oversized fridge and set out ingredients for the parfaits.
     
    They both set to work on the bread together. If they were going to get all remaining loaves cooked by the five o’clock arrival of guests, they had to get the dough ready as quickly as possible so it had time to rise.
     
    “Do you think it’s strange that Marcus wants to keep the party on as scheduled?” Grace asked as they each finished their first batches of dough.
     
    “Very strange. What husband wants to socialize when he just lost his wife?”
     
    “What else do you know about him?”
     
    “Almost nothing. He let Julia do all of the planning. Or at least hire everyone to do the planning,” Sydney told her.
     
    The sound of the front door opening made them both stop their conversation as Marcus walked through to see who it was.
     
    He came back into the kitchen, leading a woman dressed in a traditional maid’s uniform. Sydney had to stifle a chuckle. She didn’t know anyone still made their hired help wear uniforms like that.
     
    “Sydney. Grace. This is Maria, our housekeeper. She’ll be cleaning the house from top to bottom today and will be staying through the party as well. I suspect that she’ll want to clean the kitchen at some point but I’ll let the three of you work that out.”
     
    “Oh no, Mr. Duran. I can wait until Monday to clean the kitchen. The guests won’t be coming in here, so unless you’d like me to clean it up—” She looked expectantly to Sydney and Grace.
     
    “It’d be easier for us if we didn’t have to worry about that today, thanks. We’re already a little behind schedule because of this morning’s . . . events.” Sydney wasn’t sure Maria knew about her boss’ death yet.
     
    “No problem.” Maria made no indication that she’d been informed of the murder. “I’ll get to work in the main room. Will there be others who I should expect today?”
     
    “Drew should also be arriving soon. He’ll be the bartender, I think. Julia was taking care of all of that.”
     
    “Where is Mrs. Duran?” Maria asked innocently.
     
    “She was . . . murdered last night,” Marcus said slowly, emotionlessly.
     
    “Oh my.” Maria didn’t know how to react. “I’ll start in the bar then so that I’ll be out of his way whenever he gets here. Good to meet you Sydney and Grace.”
     
    “You too, Maria.”
     
    Marcus and Maria left the kitchen in opposite directions and Sydney and Grace were free to get back to their work. And their conversation.
     
    “I bet Maria knows all the inner goings on of this house,” Grace said. “I wonder how long she’s been working for them.”
     
    Sydney nodded her agreement. “Yesterday, something interesting happened. Maybe she’ll have insight into it.”
     
    Grace turned and gave Sydney her full attention, inviting her with her eyes to continue.
     
    “On Thursday, I met Ryan Jacobson, the manager of Natural Wonders. He and Julia seemed very . . . friendly. Then, yesterday, when Julia and Marcus were gone all day, Ryan showed up with a bouquet of flowers. I told him she wasn’t here and he told me not to tell her he’d stopped by. I forgot about it right after because I had so much to do, but maybe that had something to do with her murder.”
     
    “That is interesting. You don’t think she was having an affair, do you?”
     
    “I couldn’t tell from the littler interaction I saw, but Maria might know something. Do you think an affair could have led to her murder?” Sydney asked.
     
    “Maybe Marcus had found out about it! He seems a little callous today about his wife dying. And he was here all last night.”
     
    “And Ryan seemed really surprised when I told him Julia wasn’t here. Like they’d had