A Slice of Murder Read Online Free PDF Page B

on? I pounded on the door, but Maddy didn’t respond. Now I was getting worried. Had something happened to my sister since I’d spoken to her? I could have gotten back into the car and driven around the abutted cluster of buildings, and it’s what I should have done if I’d been thinking straight. Instead, I hit the remote lock on my car and ran toward the walkway that separated the long line of facades, a set of spaces twelve feet wide that ran the entire ninety feet of the buildings’ depths. The town had really done a wonderful job decorating the square in an attempt to bring folks back to our downtown area for shopping. A huge mural in the walkway, filled with scenes of Timber Ridge a hundred years ago, nearly covered one wall, and the shortcut featured a brick, two-tiered footpath with benches, quaint electric lights, and individual plantings interspersed along the way.
    I barely noticed it this time through, though. As I came out onto the plaza, I rushed past the dress shop; the pharmacy; the candle shop; and the Shady Lady, a store that somehow managed to stay afloat selling only lamps, shades, and accessories. There was an empty space beside mine, one that had last featured a yarn shop that had barely lasted three months. Finally, I was at my door.
    I started going through my keys as I reached A Slice of Delight—searching for the right ones—as I peered inside. There was a light on in back, but I couldn’t see Maddy. If anything had happened to her, I’d never be able to forgive myself. What was that noise coming from inside? It sounded like someone was pounding in an odd, rhythmic order.
    I finally managed to get the door open and was hit by a wave of music that nearly deafened me. I rushed through the front dining area, where we had several booths and tables for our customers, then went past the front register, through the kitchen, and into the back prep area. Maddy looked up from her chopping station, waving a knife in the air and singing to the odorous tune slamming out.
    “Hey, I didn’t hear you come in,” she said as I lunged for the radio and killed the music.
    I looked at her with disbelief. “Really? It’s not like I haven’t been pounding on the back door or anything.”
    She winked at me. “That’s a good thing. I put the old barricade up, so you wouldn’t have been able to get in even if you’d tried.”
    The fire marshal had questioned the wisdom of an old-fashioned timber dropped between two metal brackets across the back door when he’d first inspected the place, but Joe had assured him that it would be taken down whenever anyone was in the store, and the fire marshal had let it pass. I wasn’t positive money had changed hands, but I wouldn’t have put it past my husband. He and I had different ideas about security. I didn’t think there was that much worth stealing in the shop, but he acted as though we were guarding Fort Knox and all its gold. Maddy and I had gotten out of the habit of blockading the door, but it appeared that she was beginning to reacquire it.
    “Since when did you start blocking the back door?” I asked as I removed the timber. It was cumbersome and heavy, one of the reasons I’d stopped moving it back and forth.
    “I feel better having it there when I’m here alone.”
    I raised an eyebrow. “Are you here alone much?”
    “Not these days, but there was a time….”
    I knew what she was talking about. After Joe’s accident, I’d been absent quite a bit, and honestly, if my sister hadn’t stepped in, I probably would have lost my restaurant along with my husband, a double blow that I doubt I would have ever recovered from.
    “I understand,” I said as I surveyed her work, trying to change a subject neither one of us wanted to discuss. “Everything looks good,” I added.
    She pointed a knife at the mushrooms. “I have a few more to cut. Then we should be ready for business.”
    We normally opened at noon, but the call-in orders usually started