Read Online Chocolate Dipped Death by SAMMI CARTER - Free Book Online

up with Aunt Grace’s traditional seasonal display windows made entirely of candy and other edible substances. Just last week, I’d replaced December’s miniature Christmas village with a sledding snowman molded from tempered white chocolate riding down a cotton candy hill on a bright red chocolate sleigh.
    My snowman’s chocolate arms waved in gleeful abandon as the sled careened down its imaginary slope. Tiny threads of monofilament ran from ceiling to strategic points on his stocking cap, a carefully constructed mosaic made from broken pieces of red and green hard candy, and the flying ends of his candy-cane scarf.
    Without a doubt, Aunt Grace’s windows had been both more artistic and more intricate than mine, but my efforts weren’t half bad. Give me another twenty or thirty years, and I might even restore Divinity to its former glory.
    I was just turning around again when Miles Horne’s black BMW roared up the street and screeched to a halt, blocking traffic. The driver of the Suburban behind it had to slam on his brakes and narrowly avoided rear-ending the BMW, but Miles didn’t seem to notice as he shot out of the car, leaving his door wide open. Oblivious to the angry shouts of the drivers all around him, Miles headed straight for me.
    What now?
    I wasn’t in the mood for more questions, and I made up my mind to tell him so, but he surprised me by asking something else entirely. “Have you seen her?”
    “Who?”
    “Savannah. Has she been here?”
    “No. Why?”
    He turned away before I finished speaking and covered his mouth with one hand.
    “Miles? Is something wrong?”
    “I can’t find her,” he said, his voice low. “I’ve looked everywhere.”
    I tried to calm him down. “Have you tried calling again?”
    “Only about twenty times. There’s no answer. She left the hotel at five thirty this morning. I haven’t seen her since.”
    I had a bad feeling, but I didn’t want to make Miles worry even more, so I did my best to look and sound reassuring. “Try not to panic,” I said evenly. “There are probably a hundred places she could be.”
    “And I’ve checked in every one of them.” Someone honked, and another driver rolled down his window and shouted for Miles to move his car. Miles waved them both off, took a couple of jerky steps, and dragged his hand across his face again. “Delta hasn’t seen her,” he said. “Nobody on the hotel staff has seen her, and she hasn’t been to that coffee shop she likes so much. What if something’s happened to her?”
    “I’m sure she’s just fine. Have you driven along the route she takes when she runs? Maybe she twisted an ankle or pulled a muscle and can’t get back to the hotel.”
    He turned a set of agony-filled eyes in my direction. “I’ve looked everywhere I can, but I don’t know my way around that well, and she doesn’t take the same route every day. She likes variety.”
    “Well, I’m sure she’s perfectly all right. Why don’t you move your car so people can get through? Pull in next to my Jetta there,” I suggested, pointing out the lot between Divinity and Picture Perfect. “I’ll meet you back there as soon as Max is finished, and we’ll figure out where she is.”
    Miles glanced toward his car as if he hadn’t noticed it sitting there and gave the disgruntled drivers a distracted wave. “Sure. Okay. I’d appreciate the help.” He stepped back into the street, then looked back one more time. “You really think she’s okay?”
    “Of course she is,” I said. “She’ll turn up before you know it.
     
    I was wrong. Savannah didn’t turn up, and by one o’clock, Miles was visibly shaken. He phoned the police, but the officer on duty said there was nothing they could do until she’d been missing seventy-two hours. I didn’t think I’d survive another sixty-plus hours with Miles pacing back and forth inside the store, so I did the only thing I could under the circumstances. I picked up the phone and called