Death of a Chocolate Cheater: A Food Festival Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

with the former editor of
Chocolatta
magazine—your George Brown.”
    Aunt Abby’s face lost its pink color, but instead of tearing up again, she lifted her head, put on a smile, and she shoved open the school-bus service window. “What’ll you have?”
    Talk about bouncing back. What was going on behind those Kewpie-doll eyes of hers? Had herrelationship with George years ago really been more than just friendship? Did she still have feelings for him? If her reaction to the news that the new judge, Polly Montgomery, had hooked up with her old flame, George Brown, was a barometer of her feelings, she was making a serious effort not to let them show.
    And if the restaurant world was as interconnected as it appeared to be, the chocolate community was even more so. Just like Cabot Cove.

Chapter 3
    The theme song from
Murder, She Wrote
played in my head the rest of the day. I wondered if George’s death had anything to do with my earworm. Had he really died accidentally, as reported? Or was it something else, as Aunt Abby seemed to suspect?
    My thoughts jumped around like popping popcorn. George’s tragic death. His sudden replacement. The uncompromised competition. And now that my nemesis, Polly Montgomery, was to be the new festival judge, was I jeopardizing my aunt’s chances of winning if Polly found out I was part of Aunt Abby’s team? The woman clearly didn’t like me or the pen I wrote with.
    Maybe I should take a clue from one of Dillon’s amateur spy tricks and wear a disguise to the Chocolate Festival. Dillon had a penchant for dressing up like Inspector Clouseau, if not Inspector Gadget, anytime he felt especially paranoid. But I had a feeling I’d just look silly wearing a deerstalker cap and a London Fog trench coat to the event. What would Jessica Fletcher do?
    Exhausted by the time we had served our last customer and closed the counter window around four, Iwas really looking forward to relaxing with Jake. I’d missed him the past few weeks and hoped we could pick up where we left off. Besides, I craved another one of those new cream puffs he was entering in the contest. Hmm. Maybe if I ate up all of his supply he wouldn’t have any left to submit for competition.
    Bad Darcy.
    “Quitting time!” Aunt Abby sang out, removing her chili-encrusted apron and dropping it into the portable mesh laundry basket. “I’m making a caprese pizza tonight. Hope you didn’t nibble all day.”
    I took off my apron and tossed it on top of Aunt Abby’s. “Actually, I have plans after work.”
    “With Jake?” she asked with a bright grin.
    Nothing gets past my aunt.
    “We’re just having a drink. Maybe go to dinner afterward. I’m not sure yet.” I felt my face flush. “No big deal.”
    “Well, it sounds lovely. I was beginning to wonder if you two were still an item.”
    “An item?” I repeated with a laugh. “You sound like a gossip columnist from the fifties. I told you, we’re just friends.”
    “With benefits?” she asked, her grin widening.
    “Aunt Abby! First you talk like a retro news gal; then you switch to teenage slang.”
    “You didn’t answer my question,” she said, eyeing me.
    I shook my head.
    “Just so you know, I have a sense about these things,” she said.
    “Yeah, as I recall, you had the same sense about Dillon and that hippy girl he was seeing in college. What did she call herself? Stormy Mountain? Steamy Magpie?”
    “Starry Meadow.”
    “Yeah, how did that work out?” Before she could answer, I added, “And by the way, where
is
your wayward son? He left right after the lunch rush to get a coffee and never came back.”
    “I told him he could take the rest of the afternoon off. Mondays are slow here, and I figured we could handle it. Besides, he’s doing some more digging for me.”
    Hacking was more likely, I thought, but bit my tongue. “What’s he looking for now?”
    She shrugged. “Just stuff—”
    Something caught Aunt Abby’s eye, and she leaned over to