Brownies and Broomsticks: A Magical Bakery Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

Lucy’s voice shook.
    Ben nodded, opened the door and left with the two policemen.
    I turned to my aunt. “Jaida’s a lawyer?”
    But she was already speaking into the phone. “We need you. Mavis has been murdered, and the police took Ben down to the station … Mavis Templeton … Yes, my Ben. Of course I know he didn’t do anything … No, I don’t think he’s under arrest. They said they wanted to question him.” She sank into a chair, pale with worry. “All right. Thank you, honey. We’ll wait for your call.”
    The hand holding the phone fell slack in her lap, and she looked up at me with wet eyes. “I can’t believe Mavis is really dead. We were just talking to her.”
    I knelt beside her. “Oh, Lucy, it’s going to be okay. They’ll find who did this awful thing.”
    The front door tinkled open again. I rose to tell whoever it was to go away and leave us alone. The doorframe filled with a brown-haired, blue-eyed man, andthe words died in my throat. His blue T-shirt did little to conceal the muscles beneath, and he topped my five-eight by at least seven inches.
    Great. I didn’t care how good-looking he was; we didn’t need any visitors right then.
    He entered and went straight to Lucy. She rose and wrapped her arms around him, leaning against his chest. Giving her a squeeze, he looked at me over her head, eyes full of questions.
    “Oh, Deck,” my aunt said. “How did you hear?”
    “C’mon, Luce. You know we’ve got a scanner at the firehouse.”
    Ah. That explained the logo on the sleeve of the T-shirt. A fireman, and one who knew my aunt well enough to call her by Ben’s nickname for her. The tension in my shoulders relaxed a fraction.
    “I came as soon as I heard someone was killed in this neighborhood. I heard the cops already have a suspect, though, and they expect to make an arrest soon.” He held her away from him and looked around the bakery. “Where’s Ben?”
    “Arrest? Oh, no. They can’t really think …” Lucy whispered. Tears welled in her eyes.
    I stepped forward and held out my hand toward the man. His forehead creased as he reached out and shook it.
    “Declan McCarthy,” he said.
    “Nice to meet you. I’m Katie Lightfoot, Ben and Lucy’s niece. And I’m afraid the suspect you heard about might be my uncle.”

Chapter 4
    “Let me get you a cup of coffee.” Lucy hustled to the espresso counter, her multicolored skirt swirling around her ankles.
    “You don’t have to—,” Declan began to protest, but stopped when I squeezed his fingers. He looked down at his hand, still in mine, as if wondering how it got there.
    I let go, leaned up and said in a low voice, “It’ll give her something to do besides worry.”
    He hesitated. I sat down. After a few seconds he followed suit. His hands, calloused but clean, rested on the expanse of blue covering the table between us. They looked strong and capable. And bare.
    Not that I meant to look for a ring. I just noticed, is all.
    “Ben told me you were moving here,” he said.
    My attention returned to his face. It looked strong and capable, too, with solid planes, a few laugh lines and a jaw that was a bit too square. Good, because we needed all the strong allies we could get.
    “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you,” he continued with a small smile. “Too bad it has to be under these circumstances.”
    “So you and my uncle are friends?”
    The smile widened into a grin. “Great friends. He mentored me as a rookie. Helped me through some pretty rough times, too.”
    “He’s a good man,” I said.
    “That’s why I don’t understand why the police consider him a suspect. Tell me what happened.”
    So I did, briefly explaining about the brunch, the argument over money and Mrs. Templeton’s threatening to close down the bakery before she walked out.
    “Tell him about what you saw outside,” Lucy called from the kitchen.
    So I did that, too, ending with, “She was sitting there in her car …