The Lime and the Dead: A Key West Culinary Cozy - Book 3 Read Online Free PDF Page B

world. I wouldn’t last a week doing something like that without
calling someone out for being fake or pretentious. No, thank you, I’m just fine
working with you at SubLime Sweets until my dream job comes along,” her
daughter assured her.
    Mother
and daughter fought good-naturedly over which movie to watch, finally settling on
an eerie mystery that took place in the swamps of Louisiana. There were a few
surprised screams, and plenty of hold-your-breath suspense filled moments, and
when it was time for Tiara to head out, Marilyn walked her to the car with a
flashlight remarking that they should probably stick to comedies next time.
Locking the door behind her after her daughter drove away, the tired pie-maker
headed for bed, asleep almost before her head hit the pillow.
    **
    Marilyn
slept so hard that she felt foggy when she woke up the next morning. Sunlight
streamed through her window, but something felt…off. Shaking her head to try to
clear the morning cobwebs from her brain, she heard something that sounded like
she’d left the TV on, but she knew that she had turned it off after the movie
last night. She slipped into her fluffy purple chenille robe and padded
barefoot out to the living room to see where the noise was coming from.
    Bright
blue and red lights splashed color all over the walls of her house as the
lights of multiple police cruisers lit up the cozy interior. Marilyn’s heart
beat rapidly when she saw uniformed policemen as well as the ever-handsome
detective, Bernard Cortland, and her creepy neighbor, Tim Eckels, standing in
her side yard, by the trees that separated her property from his.
    Dashing
back to her bedroom and dressing in a hurry, because there was no way she was
facing that crowd in her ratty bathrobe, she ran a brush through her hair and
tossed it into a ponytail.  Wondering what was going on, she sauntered
nonchalantly out onto her porch. Detective Cortland looked up, saw her and
jogged over, notebook and pen in hand.
    “Good
morning, Detective,” she smiled, hoping that he couldn’t hear her heart
pounding. “What brings you out here at this hour?”
    “We
had a call from your neighbor,” Bernard began, his eyes narrowed.
    “Confidentially,”
Marilyn leaned in. “He’s really strange. He keeps popping up in my yard and on
my porch at different times and it really freaks me out. He actually sort of
threatened me,” she confided as the detective took notes.
    “Threatened
you?” Cortland raised his eyebrows. “In what manner?” his pen was poised over
the notebook.
    Marilyn
related the incident from the previous afternoon and told him how rattled she’d
been over the encounter. The detective took copious notes, nodding and
occasionally asking clarifying questions.
    “So
why did he call you anyway?” she asked.
    Bernard
Cortland looked at her for a long moment before replying. “He found something,”
was the vague reply.
    “Oh…his
cat? Why would he call you about that?” Marilyn looked past the detective to
where Tim Eckels stood.
    “No,
actually he found a body,” Bernard replied, watching her reaction carefully.
    “A
body? What? Whose? Where?” her eyes were wide with fear. She knew that her
neighbor was odd, but it was more than disconcerting to think that he would
kill someone. “What did he do?” she whispered, wondering why the man wasn’t in
hand cuffs by now.
    “He
called in to report a dead body…on your lawn,” Cortland responded, looking at
her closely.
    “On
my…what? Where?” now Marilyn was terrified.
    “Did
you happen to see last night’s episode of Real Girlfriends of the Yacht Club ?”
he asked, changing the subject.
    “What?
No, of course not, I don’t watch that trash,” she waved dismissively. “But
you’re telling me that there was a body found on my lawn? When?” she asked,
practically convulsing with chills.
    “So
you didn’t watch the show, even though you knew that your daughter was on it?”
he persisted.
    “No,
I