Read Online 3 Loosey Goosey by Rae Davies - Free Book Online

customers into the shop and merchandise, which she paid for. I just took a cut when the things sold, and somehow they always did.
    On the other hand, I loved Betty and didn’t want to lose her.
    It was a tough call. One I wasn’t up to making right now.
    “Where are the socks?” I asked.
    Twenty minutes later, there was a suspiciously clean spot on the floor outside my office, four socks were living new lives in the Dumpster out back, and Kiska was sprawled out blocking the fire exit completely unrepentant.
    “Did you see the paper?” Betty gestured to a copy of the Daily News lying on the front counter.
    I glanced at it with trepidation, wondering if whatever was on the front page today might explain my mother’s call. Ben had said that he called her and that she was fine. He’d also said, though, that he would go by to see Stone yesterday, but I doubted that the detective’s visit today had been for early Christmas shopping.
    With another sigh, I picked up the paper.
    The front page story was, of course, by my dear friend Daniel.
    Local Chef Found Dead .
    Not a whole lot on the news front there, at least to me. And there wasn’t a whole lot in the rest of the article either. It was a “safe” piece, where the paper lists the “known” information or the “known” information that the police are willing to release, which this early in an investigation usually wasn’t much.
    Thankfully, though, neither Ben nor I were mentioned, aside from a general acknowledgment that a “local woman” had found the body and that the body had been discovered in the parking lot across from the chef’s new restaurant.
    There were no guesses at cause of death or even if the police found the death suspicious.
    As I was mulling this over, the front bell rang and in walked Detective Stone.
    “Ms. Mathews.”
    My hand tightened on the paper. I hid it behind my back, like a guilty toddler with a broken vase.
    “Been reading?”
    Self-conscious, I dropped the paper back on the counter. “It looks like you are making progress.” All good.
    “You were at the restaurant two nights ago, weren’t you, Ms. Mathews?”
    His question caught me off guard. I glanced at Betty. She raised her brow and tilted her head in a “beats me” motion.
    “While you were there, did you order the pâté?”
    It was a simple question. One I could have easily answered, but Stone had a less-than-positive effect on my personality.
    “Did you talk to Peter?” I knew he would have. So why come ask me what he already knew?
    “Did you eat any of the pâté?”
    “No.”
    “Why not?”
    I wasn’t sure where he was going with this, but I didn’t like it, not one little bit.
    “I’m not a fan of goose liver.”
    “But you ordered it.”
    That was a little difficult to explain. I looked at Betty, but she just sat on her stool and twirled her beads.
    I lowered my eyes and mumbled, “I didn’t really realize what it was.”
    “Or did someone tell you not to eat it?”
    “No, Tiffany brought it out to us, told us what it was, and then things got... difficult.”
    He smiled. “You mean your brother intervened.”
    “No.” I shook my head hard. “He didn’t even know I was there.”
    “The picture in the paper yesterday says otherwise.”
    “He knew I was there later, but not when...” I waved my hands in what in my mind was a clear explanation of the activities that had interrupted my dinner with Peter.
    “Peter was there. He’ll tell you.”
    “Yes, I’m sure he will, but right now, I’m asking you.”
    I breathed out through my nose, a long calming breath that kept me from muttering something that the detective would hear and surely hold against me.
    “The picture was taken later. The...” I paused. The protest interrupted our dinner, but the protest was Ben.
    “Yes?” Stone prompted.
    I took another breath. “Ben didn’t know I was going to be there, and he didn’t tell me not to eat the pâté. He didn’t even know I ordered