If Fried Chicken Could Fly Read Online Free PDF

wide. The old woman I’d seen a moment before was disappearing, and Gram would be back soon.
    “You’re right, of course, Betts. Thanks.” She stood and patted my arm. “Now get your fingerprints taken and we’ll get everyone out of here as quickly as possible.”
    “Right here, Betts,” Jim said as he joined us at the desk and reached for what looked like an ink pad. “Sorry about getting your fingers messy. We have the high-tech computer fingerprinting stuff at the jail, but our portable kit is still old-fashioned.”
    “No problem.” I let Jim take my hand. Finger by finger he rolled them each over the black ink and then a piece of cardboard that had squares designating which finger went where.
    “Tell me about today, Betts,” he said as he rolled.
    “What do you mean?”
    “Start with the morning and tell me what you did all day. When did you get here?”
    “Am I a suspect?” I said. “Should I get an attorney?”
    “Spoken just like someone who went to law school,” Jim said as he peered at me through his thick glasses.
    “I dropped out.”
    “Smart girl. No, Betts, you’re no more a suspect than anyone else. I’ve got nothing except for a dead body. I’d like to get a snapshot of what happened at the school today. Who was here—in and out? Did you see or hear anything strange? Was the school empty for a period of time?”
    In my head I rewound the day, back to when I woke up and had my normal first cup of coffee.
    “I got here about nine a.m. I usually get here a little earlier—the daytime students get here at ten o’clock and I like a couple hours to do paperwork or prepare for the day. This morning I was a little late but not for any particular reason. Gram always gets here at nine thirty and she was on time.”
    “Did you go to the supply room in the morning?”
    I shook my head. “Not that I remember. I wouldn’t unless I thought the night cleaning staff had missed something. They seldom do.”
    “What time do they get here?”
    “About midnight.” I looked at my watch. “A couple hours from now.”
    “I’ll talk to them when they get here, but I’m not going to let them clean up tonight. Maybe tomorrow. Okay, so you were a little late. Did you notice anything odd or out of place?” Jim started rolling the fingers on my other hand.
    I thought backward again. “No, Jim, I don’t think I did.” But I thought harder. I had a faint inkling that something unusual had happened that morning, but I wasn’t sure. I suddenly remembered that I thought I’d heard Gram talking to herself in her office—adamantly. I’d peeked in, but she acted like I’d been hearing things. It was odd, but I doubted it had anything to do with Everett’s death. “No, nothing.”
    “How about classes? How did they go?”
    “The daytime classes went off without a hitch. We worked on some pie crusts in the morning and then red velvet cupcakes this afternoon. We have a catering order tomorrow for the cupcakes. We wanted the class to practice today. I don’t remember any issues.”
    “Sounds good.” Jim smiled. “Did you or Miz leave the school at any point during the day?”
    “Yes, I went out for lunch and then a couple hours later to the store for red food coloring for the cupcakes. I thought we had plenty, but we didn’t. I had to make the emergency run to the store.”
    “What about Miz?”
    “I don’t really know. She might have left at noon, but I’m not sure. You’ll have to ask her.”
    “All right.”
    “Jim, you know Gram didn’t kill anyone,” I said.
    He handed me a wet wipe for my inky fingers and said, “Betts, I don’t know who killed Mr. Morningside, but someone did. Your gram didn’t give me any reason to believe that she was the killer. In fact, I’d put money on the fact that we’re going to be looking for someone none of us knows, a stranger. At least I hope so.”
    “We’ll have another Broken Rope mysterious and bizarredeath. It will be good for the tourist