Read Online Chocolate-Covered Crime by Cynthia Hickey - Free Book Online

and had spent every penny.
    “Goodness!” Aunt Eunice clutched a hand to her bosom. “Where do we start?”
    I grabbed a box. “We each take a room. I’ll start with the bedroom and bath, you take the kitchen, and Aunt Claudia can have this room.”
    I loved taking charge. Very few events in my life left me feeling like I knew what I was doing. Cleaning out closets and purging drawers was a pleasure. Most of the time, I got a little carried away and, to Aunt Eunice’s dismay, threw out more than I should. I looked forward to tossing the majority of Mae Belle’s garish belongings.
    Clothes went straight into the donation box. Bedding and decorations into the boxes for a garage sale. Aunt Claudia ought to be happy about that. Whatever cash we made would go to her, being Mae Belle’s closest living relative other than quiet Uncle Fred. There was very little to throw away. With my first boxes full, I hefted one and headed to the living room.
    “Hey!”
    I dropped the box I carried and ducked as a book sailed toward me.
    “What are you doing?”
    It looked as if a hurricane had blown through. Aunt Claudia had done everything except sort and pack. I’d had enough.
    “Stop. We know you’re looking for something you think Mae Belle possessed. Don’t you think it would be easier to find something if you went through her belongings with care and precision? She was your daughter, after all.” So much for maternal instincts. “Show some respect.”
    “Don’t talk to me in that tone of voice, young lady.” She held up a hand. “Help me up.”
    I rolled my eyes. “I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but. . .” Yes, I did. Forgive me, Lord . “You’re making more work for us instead of helping.”
    I planted my feet and tugged. The nerve of the woman.
    “You just want it for yourself.” She glared at me.
    “Want what?” The beginning of a headache knocked between my eyes.
    Aunt Claudia fell onto the sofa. The springs protested beneath the sudden onslaught of her weight. “When my mama died last year, she left Mae Belle ten thousand dollars. I need that money. Fred and I are barely scraping by. It should have been mine anyway. She was my mama, and Mae Belle had been nothing but an ungrateful little twit.”
    It took all my willpower, and a VRd/p>sharp bite to my tongue, to hold back the ranting I wanted to release on the woman. I dug my fingernails into the palms of my hands.
    “Then Aunt Eunice and I will help you look. But from all the things crowded in here, I doubt there’s any money left.” I shoved an empty box into her hands. “Sort through this room, and maybe we’ll get lucky.”
    Good grief . I retrieved my dropped carton and stacked it in a corner. Why couldn’t I be at Summer Confections drowning in chocolate?
    With a deep sigh, I moved back to the bedroom and resumed my search. In a shoe box on the top shelf of the closet, I discovered Mae Belle’s bank statements and an envelope of photos. I was right. Mae Belle had spent all but a few hundred dollars. I’d let Aunt Eunice be the one to spill that particular bit of news to her sister.
    I flipped through the photos. In every snapshot, Mae Belle posed with Lewis Anderson, the funeral director. And from the way they had their arms wrapped around each other, they were not strangers. Oh what tangled webs we weave.
     
     
     
    CHAPTER TEN
     
    Leaning back on my haunches, I studied the photos further. Why would Lewis lie about knowing Mae Belle? I’d have to do a little more searching into the man. With Mae Belle dead, the man’s lies could hide a sinister motive for denying that he knew her. Maybe Aunt Eunice could tell me something about him. She knew almost everything about everyone in Mountain Shadows. I stuffed the photos in my pocket and the papers back in the shoe box.
    Why wait for Aunt Eunice to spill the beans when my tongue ran like a raging fire? “Aunt Claudia?” I marched into the living room. “Here’s Mae Belle’s bank