Salami Murder: Book 8 in The Darling Deli Series Read Online Free PDF

investigating this for you guys, and he slipped me a message. The man suffered blunt force trauma to his skull, and also had bruises and scrapes consistent with a struggle,” David told her.
    “Oh, my.” Moira remembered the mysterious person in the hat and sweatshirt they had seen on the video camera. Whoever it was must be the murderer… and he—or she—had committed the crime while her daughter was just a few yards away in her apartment above the shop. She felt ill as she thought how close her daughter had been to the killer. “Do they have any leads?” she asked quietly, turning her back and walking a few steps farther away from Candice.
    “Not yet,” David told her. “They’re busy questioning Matt’s friends and family to see if he had any enemies. They still don’t know if this was something personal, or a case of him being in the wrong place at the wrong time.”
    Moira found herself hoping that the former was true. If Matt had been targeted and killed for personal reasons—money owed, or maybe some sort of criminal activity gone wrong—then Candice was likely out of danger. But if the murderer had merely stumbled upon Matt when he broke in to the candy shop, then the real target had likely been her daughter or the store itself.
    “Thanks for telling me,” she said to David. “We’ll probably talk more about this tonight. Right now, I want to go tell Candice the bad news.”
    “Okay” he said. “Tell her I’m sorry; I wish I had been the bearer of better news. See you this evening, Moira.”
    A few hours later, the rich scent of beef stroganoff filled the stone house. The dish was simmering quietly in a skillet on the stove while the noodles boiled in a pot on the adjacent burner. Moira stirred a small amount of white wine into the creamy beef and mushroom mixture, careful not to splash any onto the clean stove.
    “The table’s set,” Candice said, walking into the kitchen and leaning over to give Maverick a quick skritch. “Is there anything else you want me to do?”
    “I can’t think of anything—” A knock sounded at the front door, interrupting her. The dog pricked up his ears and Moira smiled. “Well, you can let David in. Tell him we’ll be ready to eat in just a few minutes.”
    Moira hurried to finish preparing the meal. The noodles, once they met with her approval, were dumped into a glass bowl. She put the stroganoff in a second bowl, so they could spoon as much of it over the noodles as they wanted. Then she opened a fresh bag of croutons, sprinkled them over the salad, and tucked a few salad dressings under her arm. Candice and David appeared just a few seconds later to help her carry the dishes out to the dining room table.
    The stroganoff was delicious, and they ate in silence for a few minutes until Candice straightened up and put her fork down. She looked between David and her mother, worry in her eyes.
    “Mom told me Matt was murdered,” she said to the private investigator. “That there’s no way he just fell and hit his head.”
    “It has officially been declared a homicide,” he agreed. “I’m sure the police will contact you again in a few days to see if there’s anything else you can remember—any detail you might have forgotten to tell them when we found the body.”
    “I’ve been going over that day again and again in my head,” Candice admitted. “And I just can’t think of anything. I honestly didn’t even know that other person was there. Matt acted completely normal when I talked to him. I just wish that I had thought to keep the back door locked. Or if I had realized that there was a problem with that outlet earlier, Matt might not have even been there that day.”
    “Don’t blame yourself,” he warned her. “That’s a dangerous path to go down.”
    “I know,” she said with a sigh. “I just feel so bad. I can’t believe something like this happened. The candy shop is supposed to be a happy place, but now all I think of when I’m