One Dead Cookie Read Online Free PDF

cars through her rearview mirror, so she lifted her foot
     off the accelerator and drifted to a halt. She’d remembered reading in the town’s
     otherwise irritating newspaper,
The Weekly Chatter,
about Bon Vivant’s ever-more-ambitious plans for its garden. Olivia was fairly certain
     the article had called the renovation “over-the-top frou-frou.”
    Bon Vivant had begun with a modest garden, which seemed to double in size each time
     Olivia returned to the restaurant. Maddie and Lucas had chosen the setting for their
     engagement party because they thought it might be large enough to accommodate their
     guests, as long as those guests spread themselves throughout the grounds.
    A garden sounded like the perfect place to awaken Olivia’s cookie creativity. She
     felt her initial idea for the cookies wasn’t unique enough. Flower and bunny shapes
     were fine for a spring store event, but Olivia wanted a less predictable theme. To
     be honest, she hoped to present Maddie with a cookie creation she wouldn’t have thought
     of herself. If that was possible.
    It was six forty a.m. when Olivia pulled into the parking lot, and Bon Vivant was
     open for breakfast. She slippedinto a light jacket she kept in the car, just in case. The morning air was chilly
     for late April, and she didn’t want to shiver her way through the gardens. The parking
     lot held three cars. Olivia walked around to the rear of the restaurant, where she
     found the patio seating area empty. She went inside, ordered a cup of coffee, and
     obtained permission to wander through the garden.
    Olivia paused on the patio to sip her coffee and take in the view. Bon Vivant had
     added a few small trees since the last time she and Del had dined there. She couldn’t
     identify them, but at least they didn’t obscure the lush hills in the distance. Not
     yet, anyway. Curving paths divided the expanding garden into sections, each with a
     different theme. Beyond the garden stretched several acres of undeveloped land. Olivia
     wondered if Bon Vivant owned any or all of it. Given the restaurant’s popularity,
     she suspected it was doing well financially, despite the hefty prices.
    A light breeze carried a sweet scent that reminded Olivia of her idea to incorporate
     real flowers into the cookie cake design. She followed the scent to a large patch
     of lily of the valley. Olivia was fairly certain that lilies of the valley were poisonous.
     Not the party theme she had in mind. She wished she’d thought to bring a plant identification
     guide, one with lots of color photos.
    Olivia wandered at random, allowing whim and fragrance to guide her. She came to a
     garden filled with wildflowers organized in rows. The small patch flourished due to
     care and an automated watering system. Not a single weed poked through the displays.
     The effect was stunning, yet Olivia found herself uninspired. She wished for a bit
     less perfection. Her favorite cookie cutters always had dents or scratches or those
     tiny variations that indicated they were handmade.
    Once again the Dixie Cups musically expressed their imminent wedding plans, in case
     the event had slipped Olivia’s mind. She fumbled for her cell. “I’m all for fun,”
     Olivia said, “but this is getting old.”
    “What? Not even a ‘Hi, Maddie, friend of my childhood, it’s great to hear from you?’
     I might be having a serious premarital crisis, you know. Or even better, maybe I found
     a dead body in the kitchen.”
    “Uh-huh.” Olivia instantly regretted her cynical tone. Ebullience was Maddie’s normal
     state, and wedding pressures had ramped it up to levels intolerable to ordinary humans.
     “Sorry,” Olivia said. “I’m feeling pressed for time, which makes me cranky. What’s
     up?”
    “Oh, Livie, I’m so excited. Aunt Sadie finished my dress, and it is unbelievably,
     incredibly, gloriously stunning. The embroidery is fabulously…well, I’m running out
     of adjectives or whatever