Read Online Brownies & Betrayal (Sweet Bites Mysteries, Book 1) by Heather Justesen - Free Book Online Page B

work. Shawn and Jeff looked almost as good in T-shirts and jeans as they had in tuxes—not something just anyone can say. “Thanks, guys, I really appreciate this.” I told them which equipment to move where and grabbed some metal shelving, pulling it into the customer area. The whole restaurant needed a good scrubbing and a fresh coat of paint. Upstairs too, come to think of it, but there wasn’t time for that right now. I’d have to take a trip to the hardware store and look at paint samples, I decided, and made a mental note to squeeze it into my schedule.
    “I expected you to be back in Prescott by now,” I said to Jeff. Though it was ‘out of town,’ I didn’t think the police would freak out about him returning to work when it was only eighteen miles away—in Chicago that was barely across town.
    “I took an extra day off, thinking I’d do some hiking, but with the change of the wedding, things didn’t work out quite like I expected. I have to head back tonight.” He looked around. “So you’re going to turn this into some high-class bakery, huh?”
    “Yeah. Honey insists business will be good, and I’d love to give it a shot. I’ve been working for other people for too long.” Way too long, no matter how overwhelmed starting my own business made me feel.
    It was time to poke a little more, see if I could learn anything new from the guys. “So you’re going to go home, dive back into work and won’t have to worry about Valerie’s dirty tactics, right?”
    Jeff smiled. “There is that one little upside to all this. Though I really am sorry it happened to her. No one deserves that.”
    “Of course not. I heard she died between twelve and one a.m. Do you have any idea why she’d be running around the hotel then? Seems late to be getting back from her date. And why was she in the conference room? I’d have gone straight to bed.” I tried not to let on how big of a wimp I was as I lifted the old microwave from the counter and hauled it to one of the benches in the other room. The ancient appliance was way too heavy.
    “No idea,” Shawn said. “Seems odd to me, too.”
    “Maybe she was meeting someone there,” Jeff suggested as he and Shawn hefted the old fryer, sliding it through the door without having to remove one of the jams—barely—and setting it in the dining area. “I mean, she must have run into someone down there. Maybe it was planned.”
    “A liaison?” I suggested. Was the theft an afterthought? Had she met a guy for a make-out session and ended up meeting with the wrong person? The front desk clerk hadn’t seen anyone, but did that mean anything? Maybe he’d stepped away from the desk for a while, or the guy could have come in the back way, like Honey and I hypothesized.
    “Wouldn’t be the first time she had more than one date in a day,” Shawn agreed. “She had this thing about juggling several guys at once. I remember Millie and Ana talking about it.”
    “Hmmm. Millie seemed a little jealous when she mentioned Valerie’s success in the dating department.” I tried to pretend I was only mildly curious, but since the topic had come up twice now, it had me searching for possibilities.
    “She would be.” Shawn grabbed one of the paper towels sitting on the counter and wiped his hands. “From what I understand, Millie was dead gone on some guy in college. Valerie knew it, but chased after him anyway. Maybe she chased him because Millie was interested in him. There’s no way to know, but Millie seemed to think so. I don’t think she ever forgave Valerie.”
    That didn’t jive at all with the way Millie had spoken the previous night about her close friend Valerie’s death. I decided to keep that tidbit to myself. “Huh. Doesn’t sound like Valerie was a very popular gal. Anyone else hate her?”
    “Everyone on the planet?” Jeff suggested as they moved to the grill. “You’d barely met her and she insulted you, didn’t she? It took what, fifteen