One Dead Cookie Read Online Free PDF Page A

Maddie’s afternoon-long, blowout
     engagement party, to which everyone in the town of Chatterley Heights plus the surrounding
     area considered themselves invited. Maddie and her future husband, Lucas Ashford,
     had planned a quiet, private, no-frills wedding, so the engagement party was both
     a celebration and their gift to their hometown. Olivia was helping Maddie plan the
     party, which would be held in the ever-expanding garden behind the Bon Vivant restaurant
     on the north edge of town.
    Providing dozens and dozens of decorated cookies for the many guests to snack on was
     a huge feat in itself. However, Maddie also wanted a cake made of cookies. She envisioned
     something gloriously original, gorgeous, and, of course, yummy. Naturally, Olivia
     wanted to create such a gift for her best friend. The cookie cake was Maddie’s one
     request for a wedding gift, to be served at the engagement party. Olivia had four
     more days to accomplish the entire assignment, while doing her part to keep The Gingerbread
     House running smoothly. Her imagination, usually so attuned to anything cookie-related,
     had overloaded and shut down.
    Now that Olivia wasn’t running with an energetic dog, the morning air felt chilly.
     She walked briskly to the side street where she parked the used PT Cruiser with which
     she was not-so-secretly in love. She told herself that her affection arose from the
     car’s practical design, which allowed her to transport numerous covered cake pans
     filledwith iced cookies to themed events. But she had to admit that her heart stirred every
     time she saw the elaborate painting she had commissioned to advertise The Gingerbread
     House. A fanciful depiction of a yellow-and-purple Victorian house, festooned with
     silver and copper cookie cutters, decorated the hood. Across the doors, ornate lettering
     spelled “The Gingerbread House,” and grinning gingerbread men and women somersaulted
     all over the car’s trunk. Definitely not her most practical expenditure. However,
     her ride got noticed.
    The scent of cinnamon welcomed Olivia when she opened the PT Cruiser’s door. Simply
     sitting inside ought to have triggered an idea for Maddie’s cookie cake, but Olivia
     had tried it several times without success. She needed visual stimulation. She turned
     her key in the ignition and drove off without a destination in mind. Her car pointed
     north, so north she went.
    Ever since Frederick P. Chatterley first wandered onto the stretch of land that became
     Chatterley Heights about two hundred and fifty years earlier, the town’s wealthier
     inhabitants had clustered north of the town square. No one knew why. The land wasn’t
     more arable, nor were the views particularly stunning. Frederick P. was not a get-up-and-go
     sort of town founder. His sole desire was to get up on his trusty steed and go to
     the home of his mistress of the moment, and the north end of town had been the closest
     he could get to her without moving in next door. Eventually the Chatterley family
     built a mansion on the site of Frederick P.’s original house.
    Olivia drove through the historic section of town, now solidly middle class, and across
     the northern boundary of Chatterley Heights. Unlike so many small towns, Chatterley
     Heights had experienced minimal suburban sprawl. Oliviasoon reached a sparsely populated area. Only one new business had chosen to locate
     beyond the north edge of town—the Bon Vivant restaurant, an upscale establishment
     that took pains to meld into the countryside. Olivia and Del had shared a number of
     tasty meals at Bon Vivant, often featuring previously unimagined varieties of pizza
     accompanied by excellent merlot. As she drove past the restaurant, Olivia smiled at
     the memory of those times. She and Del always tried to snag a table by the window
     so they could enjoy the restaurant’s elaborate garden, showcased against lush rolling
     hills in the distance.
    Olivia saw no approaching