Death by Chocolate Cake: A Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page B

expert at this kind of thing. You solve murder cases." He flung his arms up in the air. "Well, you gotta solve this one! You gotta help me prove that I didn’t do it, otherwise my career is over."
    I shot Pippa a look and settled into a chair. "And of course you want justice to be served... You want your good friend Pierre's murder to be solved."
    Justin waved his hand. "Yeah, yeah."
    Pippa was staring back at me. I couldn't read her mind, but I could read the look of suspicion on her face. She seemed to be saying to me, But how do we know Justin DIDN'T do it?
    I gave her a slight shrug. I know.
    If anything, Justin would have been at the top of my list of suspects. He was the one who found Pierre's body. Clearly, the media had leapt to the same conclusions.
    And I didn't want to do that. Jump to conclusions, that is.
    "Justin," I said gently. "Calm down for a moment. Take a seat."
    He gulped down the rest of his vodka and took a seat at a table by the window overlooking the lake.
    I stood and joined him. "Take a few deep breaths." Sitting down, I asked him, "Now, do you have any idea who MIGHT have done it."
    Justin began to bite the nail of his left thumb. After a few seconds of deep thought, he nodded. "Really, it could have been anyone who was there that day."
    Of course.
    "But I'm pretty sure..." Justin glanced up at me. "And don't take offense to this, Rachael."
    I leaned back. "I won't."
    "But I'm pretty sure it was an auditionee."
    I gave him a long stare. "Do you think I did it?"
    Justin shook his head. "No, no. Of course not. You were in the green room, after all."
    I sighed. "Who then? Do you have any names?"
    "Wait here a second." He went and fetched his beloved tablet from the top of his bed. I tried not to groan at the sight of that thing.
    It took him a few minutes to find the auditionee list.
    "Here," he said, sliding it in front of me. "Here is a list of all the potential contestants who got up close and personal with Pierre yesterday."
    I leaned over. "Why are some of the names highlighted in pink?"
    Justin raised his eyebrows. "They are the people who acted the most suspicious. Rachael, I had to deal with the whole bunch of you all week, you know. Put up with everyone's tears and tantrums, assure you all you were doing all right, that your hair and makeup looked fine, and that you were definitely going to wow the judges."
    Not exactly how I remembered events. Anyway.
    "So, I saw everyone. Saw their best, and worst." Justin sat down and stared at me. "I know how desperate some of these people were to get on TV." He didn't break the stare. "Desperate enough to kill."
    I felt a little chill go down my spine.
    He pushed the tablet closer to me. "There you go, Rachael. Those names in pink. They are the people you need to be talking to."

    * * *
    J ustin had narrowed the list down to two prime suspects. The first one was a woman named Renee, a struggling single mother with five kids under twelve who would have been an almost certainty to make it onto the show—unless someone else had a better backstory than her.
    I was worried that person might have been me.
    Justin had told me that Renee was desperate for the $100,000 prize money. She'd talked about little else during the pre-audition phase, apparently.
    "Pretty good motivation," I said to Pippa as we stood in the front of Renee’s house. I glanced guiltily at the front of her house. It looked like the money really could come in handy. The house wasn't just a little rundown. It would take more than just a fresh coat of paint to get this place looking nice. Or even livable. There were planks of wood falling off the exterior and the porch groaned as we stepped on it. I was afraid I was going to fall right through it.
    I knocked on the door.
    A woman, looking nothing like I was expecting, pulled the door back. "Sorry," I said. "I was looking for Renee Austin?"
    "I'm Renee," she said.
    "Oh." I stared at the young, perfectly dressed woman in front of me. I tried my