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

floor in front of her was a man clad in dark slacks and a cashmere V-neck sweater.
    My heart began to pound and I felt dizzy. I’ve never been good with anything dead and always turn my eyes away from road kill. Now, less than ten yards away from me, the body of a man I’d just met was on the ground. I stopped walking, hanging back from the rest of the group as I tried to catch my breath. Simpson, Jack and Junebug reached Monica’s side.
    “Is he really dead?” Junebug asked.
    Jack bent over Frank and I saw him carefully touch his neck, just like detectives did on crime shows. He stood up, an odd expression on his face. “Dead as a doornail,” he announced. He sounded almost pleased to me.
    “Was he shot?” I asked, surprised that I was able to speak at all.
    “See for yourself,” Jack invited, stepping back. It was then that I had a full view of Frank Ubermann’s body. He’d been shot, all right, but not with a gun. Sticking up out of his chest was an arrow, one that had apparently found its bull’s eye.
    “No wonder we didn’t hear anything,” Simpson commented. “I doubt Frank heard anything coming at him either.”
    Monica began to sob hysterically.
    “Steve?” My voice sounded small and I felt like I was very far away from my husband, like I was calling him from the bottom of a barrel.
    “DeeDee? I was wondering about you all afternoon. How are you, honey? How’d the lunch go? Did everyone like the seafood casserole?” Steve sounded so normal, so alive and healthy that it took all of my self-control not to start crying.
    “Yes, they seemed to liked everything…”
    “Are you done then?”
    “No, I’m still at Eden Academy. Steve, could you please come over to the school? Right away? I need you.”
    “Of course. What is it? Can’t you fit everything back in your car?”
    “It’s not that.”
    “You sound funny, DeeDee. What is it? What’s the matter?”
    “It’s awful—the police are here and an ambulance and, oh, Steve, could you just hurry?”
    “DeeDee, take a deep breath and tell me what happened,” Steve ordered. “Slowly.”
    I couldn’t stop myself. I started crying too, not as hysterically as Monica but I was still crying. “Someone’s been murdered. And at my very first catering job!”
    “I’m on my way,” Steve promised. “Don’t move. I’ll be there in ten minutes.”
    Steve made it in seven. The longest seven minutes of my life. While I was waiting for him to arrive, I sat in the staff lounge and watched as several policemen hurried in and out of the doorway. This was the first murder that had happened in Kemper since we’d moved here twenty years earlier and I had the impression that the police were almost as shocked as the Eden Academy staff.
    Steve burst into the room, my knight in shining armor with a bad knee and bifocals. “It’s OK,” he told me when he reached my side and grabbed my hands “everything is OK.”
    “Steve!” I jumped into his embrace and buried my head against his shoulder. “Oh, Steve, it was so awful!”
    “What happened?” Steve asked, still holding me tightly. “Are you all right?”
    I nodded against his jacket. “I’m fine. The lunch was fine too. Well, it wasn’t really fine. I mean, everyone liked the food but they were all so awful to each other, Steve. They were crabbing at each other and being so terrible. It was like they all hated each other.”
    “Who got murdered? Did someone get shot?”
    “Excuse me, sir, but who are you?”
    Turning, we saw a police officer who appeared to be approximately fourteen-years old with a round baby face, big blue eyes and not even a hint of a beard on his peachy skin. He looked like someone dressing up like a cop for Halloween. Steve eyed the police officer’s nameplate. “I’m Steve Pearson, Officer Austin.”
    “This is a crime scene, sir. I’m afraid we can’t just let you walk in the way you did.”
    “It’s all right, officer,” I told him. “This is my