Earthly Delights Read Online Free PDF

their pile of flour sacks. I tried supplying them with those dinky kitty beds and they sniffed them politely before going straight back to the empty sacks. In winter they will accept a sheepskin to lie on. ‘Then Hecklecame back with a syringe in his paw. I went out to yell at whoever had left it there and found this girl collapsed on the hot air vent.’
    I swallowed, remembering that slate-blue face. Senior Constable White motioned me to a chair and sat down on a stool. ‘That must have been a shock for you,’ she murmured conventionally.
    ‘Yes, it was. I called an ambulance and gave her CPR until the paramedics came. They gave her a shot of something and she came out of the Valley of the Shadow, screaming.’
    ‘Narcan,’ said the police officer, writing in her notebook.
    ‘Then the ambulance left. The Soup Run heavy, Daniel Cohen, came and calmed the girl. Then he calmed me. Then he left and I got on with the baking.’
    ‘Did Mr Cohen seem to know the girl?’
    ‘Yes, he called her Suze.’
    ‘And did you keep the syringe?’
    ‘Yes, as it happens, I did, it’s in a plastic bag in that drawer. I was going to take Heckle to the vet but when I rang him he said there aren’t any diseases a cat can catch from a dirty human needle so I should just watch and see if he was limping tomorrow and he isn’t even limping now,’ I said, aware that I was babbling.
    Senior Constable White rose, walked over to Heckle and coolly took his paw. Even more surprisingly, Heckle let her and did not pull away or scratch. She had great authority. Then she came back, opened the drawer, and examined the needle through the clear plastic. Then she snapped the elastic band back over her notebook, took the plastic bag, and thanked me for my time.
    ‘No, wait,’ I said. ‘There was another OD outside Mistress Dread’s just now. What’s going on?’
    To my surprise, she answered me.
    ‘One of two things. Either someone is supplying hot shots to drug addicts with the intention of killing them. Or someone has added an extra ingredient to their heroin—usually it is cut with glucose but someone may have decided that Ajax or Die, Rat, Die! gives it that extra kick—and is killing them by accident. At any rate, someone is killing them. Keep your doors locked, Ms Chapman. Thank you for your cooperation. If you will come down to St Kilda Road at your convenience, someone will take your statement.’
    She gave me her card and walked away. I grabbed Heckle and hugged him. Being hugged occasionally is in his job description. I didn’t like this at all. Life had seemed so ordinary when I woke up.

 
     
     
     

CHAPTER THREE
     
    The day was getting on and the lunchtime rush would be starting soon. I put Heckle back down with a handful of kitty treats to comfort him (and a handful of kitty treats for Jekyll in the interests of justice) and went back to the shop. I booked an order for ten loaves of seven seed bread, a speciality of mine, for the next day, and more rye bread for a German restaurant. Then the health bread freaks demanded more crumbly stuff, and the Greek restaurant asked for extra pasta douro for a banquet. I was going to have a busy morning. I decided to ditch the planned potato bread and make fresh herb rolls instead. Life is too short to peel potatoes, I agree, but bread made from real potatoes does taste better than the stuff baked with commercial potato flour. My customers pay me for the extra taste. I am what is known as a niche marketer. Which generally translates as ignored by all government departments unless they want (1) bread or (2) money.
    And, for the shop, olive bread with all those plump, beautiful kalamata olives which Karen the caterer had given me. Turned out that the chairman of the board was allergic to olivesand she had bought the best. Poor woman was almost in tears. Ours is a disappointing profession sometimes. With a batch of muffins that would make up the shop’s supply for the day.
    Herb rolls