Black and Blueberry Die (A Fresh-Baked Mystery Book 11) Read Online Free PDF

Phyllis had already heard Danny’s story, and reading the transcript confirmed that it had been reported accurately in the newspaper.
    But examination of the shop’s front and rear doors showed no signs of breaking and entering. A call to the shop’s owner had established that the doors should have been locked. Roxanne had been working on restocking the hair care products the salon sold, and the shop was closed for the day. This immediately cast doubts on Danny’s speculation—which he had voiced to the detectives—about Roxanne interrupting a burglary. It appeared that she must have let the killer in, which would indicate she knew him. The woman who had gotten a license to carry a handgun because she was nervous about leaving work late wouldn’t have unlocked the door for a stranger.
    The medical examiner had testified that Roxanne had no defensive wounds on her hands. Her jaw was broken on the left side, leading him to theorize that Roxanne’s assailant was right-handed—like Danny—and had struck her there first, with enough force to render her unconscious, then carried out the rest of the beating that had taken her life. That explained the lack of defensive wounds.
    She’d never had a chance to fight back.
    And the knuckles of Danny Jackson’s right hand were skinned and bruised.
    “Well, it’s not hard to see why they thought Danny was guilty,” Phyllis commented as she paused in her reading.
    Sam nodded and pointed at the sheet of paper he was holding.
    “It’s a pretty plausible scenario. No signs of a break-in. Evidence that indicates she knew her attacker, otherwise she wouldn’t have let him get close enough to knock her out like that. Wounds on Danny’s hand that looked like he’d been beatin’ on something, not to mention him bein’ covered with her blood. Shoot, I probably would have arrested him, too.”
    “And no alibi,” Phyllis said. “Also, the detectives talked to everyone who worked around there, and no one saw any strangers hanging around the salon or the shopping center where it’s located.”
    “Nobody saw much of anything,” Sam said. “We’ll have to take a look at the place ourselves, though. Maybe the cops overlooked somebody.”
    “You’re assuming we’re going to get involved in this.”
    Sam shrugged and said, “Sure. But I’m curious to see what Danny had to say for himself.”
    “So am I,” Phyllis said.
    Danny’s defense attorney had cross-examined each of the witnesses as the prosecution’s case went on, but he couldn’t shake them from their testimony that there was nothing to indicate a burglary. The medical evidence was strong, too, although the lawyer had gotten the medical examiner to admit that he couldn’t be sure the blow to the jaw had been struck first and had indeed rendered Roxanne unconscious.
    “But the fact that there were no defensive wounds on the victim’s hands or anywhere else is indisputable,” the ME had testified. “In my professional opinion, that indicates the initial blow—whichever one it was—knocked her out so she couldn’t fight back. And then the attacker methodically went on to beat her to death.”
    The defense had objected to that last sentence as inflammatory and prejudicial and the judge had ordered it stricken, but the damage, of course, had already been done.
    Other testimony had addressed the question of motive. Two of Roxanne’s co-workers at Paul’s Beauty Salon had testified they had heard and seen Roxanne and Danny arguing on several occasions when Danny had come by the salon. The issue seemed to be finances, as it often was when couples clashed. Danny and Roxanne had put quite a bit of money into buying the old farm property and remodeling the house, and even though she had a steady job, the business in which he was a partner ate up most of those profits. So for the most part, they were living on what she made, and her friends at the salon said she had resented that.
    “So they were arguin’,” Sam