Brownies & Betrayal (Sweet Bites Mysteries, Book 1) Read Online Free PDF Page A

she tended to hold conversations with imaginary people. We’d had plenty of sleepovers while we were growing up.
    He studied the notebook for a moment. “No, I suppose that’s all for now.” He looked at me. “Don’t leave town. I’m sure I’ll need to speak with you again.” He turned and pushed back through the front door.
    I stood gaping after him. “He thinks I killed her. My fingerprints are on the murder weapon. I’m totally going to get nailed for this.” The thought of going to jail for something I hadn’t done made me shiver. Not to mention that I’d look horrible in an orange jumpsuit.
    “How can he think that? You’d never kill someone.” Honey pushed away from the counter and crossed the undersized kitchen.
    “Because she insulted my brownies—our brownies. How messed up is that?” I started pacing the customer area. “I’ve never hurt anyone for insulting my food—even when they deserved it way more than Valerie. Not that insults are a reason to kill someone . . . ” I stopped because Honey didn’t care what I said and I was only making a bigger fool of myself.
    “We can’t let this happen. He so cannot pin this on you. You have to open this place, and stay here, and meet some nice man and have a dozen babies so we can grow old together.”
    I put my hands up at that comment, completely pulled out of my moment of panic. “Hold on—there’s no way I’m having a dozen anything more time-consuming than goldfish.” I wouldn’t mind meeting a nice man, but it could wait a while—like until the word ‘man’ didn’t make me want to throttle one in particular.
    She nodded as if conceding my point. “What did you think of the paramedic who helped you? He’s divorced.”
    “Jack? Nice at first, ornery once I started to feel better. Idiot.” I whirled back to her. “Why are we talking about guys? I’ve got to prove this wasn’t me. I didn’t kill the obnoxious Roscoe-lover.”
    Honey met me on the other side of the counter, folded her arms across her chest and smirked. “Then we’ll figure it out. Where do we start?”
     

 
    After Honey’s kids were in bed that night, we hashed out the options we had considered earlier. First things first, I thought. Until we knew more about Valerie, we couldn’t decide where she’d been or what she’d done. “How about if we start back at the crime scene?” I asked as we sat in my living room.
    “What are we going to find that the police didn’t?”
    “I don’t know, but let’s walk it out.” I grabbed my keys and she followed me down the stairs. “Your car or mine?”
    Her mouth curved into a smile. “Well, unless you want to sit in cracker crumbs, candy wrappers and forgotten Cheerios, we better take yours.”
    There were advantages to singleness, and a clean car was one of them. It was a good time for the reminder when I was feeling my lack of a significant other so acutely.
    In no time we pulled into the parking lot at the hotel. We hopped out and I locked the doors. We walked to the front entrance, studying all the walls and the long, covered parking area designed for unloading bags. “There has to be some kind of camera system here.” I remembered the monitors in the security room at the hotel in Chicago. Even though this one wasn’t nearly as nice, they’d have something recording, right? Just in case.
    “And the front desk clerk would have noticed her coming in. Valerie tended to stick out.”
    “I bet he or she won’t be here yet, though.” I checked my watch. It was ten p.m., which was an hour from shift change if their schedule was like most hotels.
    “There, in the corner,” Honey said, gesturing to the right.
    I spotted the camera up high, taking in most of the parking area, and knowing what to look for now, I scanned the rest of the space, but didn’t see any more. We walked through the front door and I saw another one above the doors themselves, facing into the foyer, pointed toward the check-in desk.