Read Online Bed & Breakfast Bedlam (A Logan Dickerson Cozy Mystery Book 1) by Abby L. Vandiver - Free Book Online Page A

taking a sip
of my coke. Viola Rose had waited to bring it to me until I got back. Miss
Vivee had downed half of her cup of coffee. “Did you order my food, Miss
Vivee,” I asked.
    “Of course I did. You think I was just
over here twiddling my thumbs?”
    Miss Vivee pulled the notebook and pencils
out of the plastic Hadley Drugstore bag. She opened up the notebook and licked
the tip of her pencil.
    “Okay. Who we got so far?” she asked. Her
shaky hand perched over the paper.
    “You want me to write?” I asked.
    “Why would I need you to write? I’m
heading up this investigation. These should be my notes.”
    Before I could say anything, Viola Rose
brought our food over.
    “I put extra egg salad on there, Miss
Vivee. “I knew you were only kidding when you said you didn’t want any.”
    “I don’t kid, Viola Rose. But I realized
my outburst wasn’t nice so I decided to eat some.” She looked up at the
waitress. “For the sake of your feelings.”
    Viola Rose shook her head.
    “Okay, you two enjoy.”
    I put some ketchup on my fries, and on my
burger with a little mustard. I bit into it and the juice from the meat ran
down my arm. “Oh man. This is good,” I said through a mouth full of food. “You like
your egg salad, Miss Vivee?”
    “It’s okay,” she said.
    “You want more coffee, honey?” Viola Rose
came to the table with a steaming pot in her hand.
    “No,” Miss Vivee said and placed her palm
on the top of the cup. “But I do want to ask you something.”
    “Anything you need.”
    “It’s about Gemma Burke.”
    “Poor thing. I heard about what happened.
Terrible thing that it happened at your place. I reckon that Renmar was just
beside herself. ‘Specially with the Sheriff having to confiscate her famous
bouillabaisse.”
    “Sheriff ruffled her feathers with that
one,” Miss Vivee said. “She wants to make sure no one finds out her secret
ingredients. And the thought of the county lab examining it practically sent
her off her rockers.”
    Viola Ray set the coffee pot on the table,
put her hands on her hips and let out a laugh. “Renmar’d kill over somebody
trying to get her recipe. Come to think of it, sort of a coincidence, Gemma
asked me did I know how to make Renmar’s bouillabaisse. She said she’d do
anything to find out what’s in it.”
    “Did she now?” Miss Vivee asked seemingly
intrigued.
    “Tell me Viola Rose, what do you know
about her?”
    “Who? Gemma Burke?” Viola Rose asked. “Probably
no more than you. You remember her before she left here to go to the big city.”
    “Yeah, I do. But that was so long ago.”
    “Well she hadn’t changed much. She still
was a nice girl. Quiet but polite. She was always smiling.” Viola Rose tilted
her head upward and squinted her eyes like she was thinking. “I asked her once
why she come back after she was so gung ho to leave and she told me she just
missed home.”
    “So she hadn’t changed much, huh?”
    “No way I could tell. Only thing I know
she did different was she had become what you called one of them, uhm,
runners.”
    “Joggers,” Miss Vivee said and eyed me.
    “Yeah, you know. But now that I think
about it she seemed quieter than before. Always keeping to herself. I thought
about that when I used to see her running out there.” She pointed through the
window. “Always by herself.”
    “She’d run past here,” I asked.
    “Yep. That’s was the last time I saw her. Her
going past my window. Every morning she’d come from her house and jog down
along past here. She did it on the day she died.”
    “What time was that, Viola Rose?” Miss
Vivee asked.
    “I know exactly what time it was. Eleven
thirty. Junior Appletree had come in for his lunch. Comes in everyday at the
same time. Funny, how I noticed her that day. Can’t say that I remember what
time she ran by here any other day.”
    “But you do remember that she passed here
every day,” I asked.
    “Sure do. Every day during the week.