Read Online 1 Catered to Death by Marlo Hollinger - Free Book Online Page A

marathon. Being a caterer was a ton of work and while I’d expected to be busy, I hadn’t known that I’d be quite so exhausted when I was through. Along with the exhaustion was a sense of accomplishment. No one had choked on my seafood casserole, no one had an allergic reaction to any of the dishes I’d served. I felt like I’d scored a pretty solid hit with my first catering gig and it was a thoroughly pleasant sensation. I could hardly wait to tell Steve all about it.
    Outside the staff lounge, I heard a sudden scream. Stopping in my tracks, I listened. There it was again.
    “Oh, my God! Oh, my God! I can’t believe this!”
    It was a woman’s voice and she was screaming at the top of her lungs. Running to the door, I stepped into the hallway just as Monica came out of her office next to the lounge. “Who is that?” I asked.
    “It sounds like Claudine,” Monica replied. Junebug appeared from around a corner.
    “What the hell is all that hollering about?” she asked. “I’m trying to do a little shopping on Amazon and it’s hard to concentrate with that noise.”
    Simpson came down the stairs. “Who’s screaming?” he asked.
    “I think it’s Claudine,” Monica said again. “It sounded to me like it was coming from the basement.”
    As if proving Monica right, Claudine came running up the steps from the basement, her thin face flushed and her hair looking as if she’d stuck her finger in a light socket. “He’s dead!” she screamed when she saw the knot of us standing in the hallway.
    “Who’s dead?” Junebug demanded.
    Claudine began to hyperventilate. “Frank, Frank’s dead! He’s down the basement and he’s been shot!”
    “NO!” It was Monica’s turn to scream and her voice was at least five times louder than Claudine’s. “He can’t be dead! Do you hear me? He can’t be dead!” She raced toward the steps, her green wrap dress flying behind her like a super hero’s cape.
    “Are you sure he’s dead, Claudine?” Simpson asked.
    “Who’s dead?” Jack Mulholland joined us. I didn’t see where he’d come from, just as I hadn’t seen where he’d come from earlier that day when he appeared seemingly out of nowhere in the parking lot.
    “Claudine said Frank’s dead,” Simpson said, sounding as if he didn’t believe what he was saying. “She said he was shot in the basement.”
    “I didn’t hear a gunshot,” Jack replied. “What, did someone use a silencer on him?”
    “Let’s go downstairs and see,” Simpson suggested.
    “Shouldn’t someone call the police?” I asked.
    “Good idea,” Simpson said. “But first we’d better see what’s really going on. Claudine, I don’t mean to be cruel but you aren’t the world’s most reliable witness. Maybe Frank fainted or something.”
    “He’s dead,” Claudine insisted, covering her face with shaking hands. “I saw his body lying on the floor in the basement.”
    “No offense, but how many dead bodies have you seen in your life?”
    “Simpson, I’ve never seen a dead body before but I’ve never seen a moose before either but if I did, I’d be able to tell that it was a moose! I have a very high IQ, you know!”
    “We all know that, Claudine,” Jack said. “Now let’s go downstairs and see what’s happening before we call the fuzz. Come on.”
    I followed the group down the stairs, not because I wanted to see if Frank Ubermann was really dead but because I didn’t want to remain on the first floor if there was a murderer creeping around the building. I barely knew the members of the Eden Academy staff and from what I had seen of them, anyone of them could have been a killer but there had to be safety in numbers.
    We walked swiftly down the steps until we reached an open area in the basement that obviously served several different purposes—gymnasium, student cafeteria, auditorium. Monica was standing in the far corner of the room, her hands covering her face just like Claudine’s had. Lying on the