Read Online Murder By The Pint (Microbrewery Mysteries Book 1) by Belle Knudson - Free Book Online Page B

Call and see if you can switch with someone."
                  I picked up the phone and hit the redial button.
                  "I can’t believe what I'm seeing," Tanya said, wide-eyed and shaking her head.
                  I put my finger to my lips and mouthed a gentle shush.
                  "Hang up that phone right now," she whispered.
                  I put my hand over the mouthpiece. "Too late, he already knows I'm calli— Hi, Donald...?"
                  Tanya threw both hands up in the air while she listened to me talk. She shook her head, and it seemed automatic. Then, after a moment, she gave up with an exasperated gesture and picked up her cellphone to call her boss down at the pizza place.
                  I gave her the thumbs up. "Seven-thirty, then? Sounds great. See you then."
                  I hung up and she scowled at me.

Chapter 12
     
                  "Ayyy, felicia belladucci! Tuto pace !"
                  That was Junior, greeting me as I walked in at seven o'clock sharp. It was complete gibberish, of course, as the only real Italian Junior could speak were the names of the dishes on his menu. He tossed a round of dough into the air and caught it on his fist.
                  "I giva you cousin some hours, eh bambini ? She's a fine a waitress."
                  "She is indeed." I looked over at Tanya, who surreptitiously offered up a gesture that would probably get her fired from most jobs.
                  "I got this one," Tanya called to the hostess. She led me over to a small booth that was as private as it could get in this place. "You so owe me," she snarled.
                  "I know," I said.
                  "No, I mean you so owe me. There's a children's birthday party tonight. Twins."
                  I could hear them now – a din of voices erupting in bursts of laughter and general noise pollution. A couple of ten or eleven year olds, obviously brothers, possibly the birthday boys, came out of the room Junior booked for special occasions. An attractive blonde in a tight mini dress came out to fetch them.
                  Waiting was tough. I suddenly got the feeling I was being watched. That someone in that restaurant had followed me there and was now scrutinizing me under cover. I felt like covering my face with the menu. Murder had led me to this very spot, after all. It wasn't exactly a comforting feeling.
                  Seven-thirty came around. Seven-forty. Soon it was eight o'clock.
                  "Junior's getting a little antsy back there," said Tanya, stopping by to refill my Diet Coke for the third time. "Want to maybe order an appetizer or something? Just to make him happy?"
                  "Sure. Bring me a sausage roll."
                  I wasn't hungry in the slightest. Eight-fifteen. Eight-twenty. My sausage roll lay before me, untouched.
                  I called Donald. No answer.
                  "Nothing?" said Tanya, stopping by to pick up the sausage roll in order to have it wrapped up for me.
                  "Nope. I'm going home. Let me know if he calls or stops in or... whatever."
                  She took my roll away and I tried Donald one more time. No answer. I couldn’t help but run his last words over and over in my head. " You were right. "
                  I was right, but about what? That he put the diamonds in the package? I'd never explicitly accused him of that.
                  One of the birthday brats ran past me. The blonde was up by the register, chatting with the cashier and commanding the attention of the two pizza slingers, Junior's nephews, both in their late teens.
                  Tanya dropped a rectangular box containing my