The Chocolate Jewel Case: A Chocoholic Mystery Read Online Free PDF Page A

the girls and the bathroom was typical. He could have said, “Is the bathroom in use?” But no, he used the question to create a picture of “little ladies” selfishly occupyingthe bathroom.
    I could see Darrell climbing out the back of his camper, so I called upstairs to alert Brenda, Tracy, and Gina. Then I went to the table, sat down at one end, and began to make myself a sandwich. I’d promised this bunch food, but they’d have to do without gracious living.
    The only thing gracious about the lunch I’d put on the table was the TenHuis chocolates—six Mocha Pyramids(“Milky coffee interior in a dark chocolate pyramid”), five Raspberry Creams (“Red raspberry puree in a white chocolate cream interior, coated in dark chocolate”), and a dozen pieces of molded chocolate. The molded chocolates were from Aunt Nettie’s summer special. She was following the theme of jewels, and each tablet of chocolate was embellished with a representation of a piece of jewelry: a stringof pearls in white chocolate, a diamond ring in milk chocolate, a dark chocolate spray of flowers representing a Victorian brooch. Each piece was wrapped in jewel-toned foils—silver, gold, ruby red, sapphire blue, or emerald green.
    The chocolate jewels we sold at the shop could be bought in boxes also made of chocolate, but the ones I’d put on the table were in a regular white cardboard box withthe TenHuis logo on top. All these chocolates were seconds. Because of our heat wave and the shop’s air-conditioning problems, they’d developed bloom, a haze of white that strikes horror into the hearts of chocolatiers. But the taste was up to Aunt Nettie’s standards, and I hadn’t had to pay for them.
    Brenda and Tracy thumped down from upstairs. They had put on their brown shirts and khaki Bermudashorts, the uniform for TenHuis Chocolade counter help. I was wearing my own brown shirt and khaki pants, so we looked like a chorus line.
    Gina managed to arrange for her path to intersect with Pete’s as he entered from the kitchen. She smiled sweetly, and Pete held her chair and sat beside her.
    He preened, and I watched with renewed astonishment.
    I don’t know how Gina does it. She’s somewherepast fifty years old, and her appearance is anything but sexy, but she’s still got “it,” whatever “it” is. All the men love her. She doesn’t even seem to flirt. I don’t get it. I especially didn’t understand why she wanted to conquer Pete.
    Pete and I got off on the wrong foot from the first. I meant to ask him where he and Joe had known each other, and it came out, “Did you meet Joe in detention?I mean, Detroit! Did you know Joe when he worked in Detroit?”
    The slip of the tongue had made it obvious that I thought Pete could have been, like Darrell, one of the guys Joe had represented in a criminal case. Pete had laughed at me, and I hadn’t been able to say a straight sentence to him since; being nervous makes my speech problem worse.
    Then I overheard (there are no secrets in the 1904house) Pete telling Joe he approved of me. But his opinion wasn’t exactly a compliment.
    “That first gal you married, she had brains,” Pete had said. “This one’s gonna believe any damn thing you tell her.”
    “Don’t let Lee fool you,” Joe said. “She doesn’t miss anything.”
    “Hey, it’s okay!” Pete said. “Every man should marry once for love and once for money. Brains are a side issue.” At least hewas giving me credit for being Joe’s love interest; Joe’s first wife was the one with money. But I had disliked Pete from then on.
    Darrell came in last, stopping in the dining room doorway and looking around uneasily. “I’ll just make a sandwich and take it out to the truck,” he said.
    Gina patted the chair on the other side of her. “Now, Darrell. You join us.”
    “Yeah, Darrell,” Pete said. “Don’tleave me at the mercy of all these pretty girls.”
    Brenda and Tracy giggled, and Pete winked at them. They