Read Online Murder of a Chocolate-Covered Cherry by Denise Swanson - Free Book Online
Authors: Denise Swanson
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called for crushed ice and a maraschino cherry.
Brown eyes twinkling, Bunny threw her arms around Skye and said, “I thought you’d never get here. I was just about to start cooking without you.”
Freeing herself from the older woman’s hug, Skye managed to ask in a neutral tone, “Bunny, this is quite a surprise. What are you doing here?”
“I’m your runner.” She pointed to her sneakers. “See? I’m all set to get you anything you need.”
“Oh.” Skye stepped up to the counter, wondering if there was any way to trade runners. She didn’t want to hurt Bunny’s feelings, but since she herself was a novice cook, she really needed a helper who had actually stepped foot in a kitchen before.
Bunny trailed Skye like a piece of toilet paper stuck to her shoe.
Without turning around, Skye said, “Uh, you know, Bunny, since you and I are friends, I think maybe your being my runner is sort of cheating. The other contestants won’t have their friends helping them.”
“Honey, you really are
too
nice.” Bunny tugged her closer until they were face-to-face, her body language turning suddenly hard. “You’ve got to be more ruthless in this world.”
“No!” Skye nearly screamed. All she needed was cut-throat Bunny working for her. That would be like having a wererabbit for a pet. “I like to play by the rules.”
“In that case there’s no problem.” Bunny relaxed her pose and hoisted her jeans up a fraction. “They asked all the runners if they knew the contestants, and almost all of them did to some degree or another, so they said it didn’t matter.”
“Great.” Skye gave Bunny her best fake smile, all the while thinking,
Rats!
Excuses raced through Skye’s mind, but she couldn’t come up with any other good reason to object to Bunny as her helper. She was stuck with the redhead, and the last chance Skye had of producing an edible casserole had just hopped out the window.
Sighing, Skye took the recipe card and a pencil out of her purse, then stowed the bag in the nearly empty cupboard.Handing the card and pencil to Bunny, she said, “Read the ingredients off to me. I’ll find them; then you put a check mark next to them on the card.”
“Okay.” Bunny dug a pair of small reading glasses out of her pocket, settled them on her nose, and asked, “Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Chopped chicken.” Bunny looked at Skye over the top of her lime green frames.
Skye opened the minifridge and took out the Ziploc bag of cubed cooked breast meat. “Check.”
“Elbow macaroni.”
Skye reached into the low cupboard, but couldn’t quite grab the box, which had been pushed to the back. Sighing, she got on her knees and stuck her head inside.
She had just curled her fingers around the package when she heard someone yell, “Son of a B! Who switched my sugar for salt?” The voice belonged to her mother, and May sounded as if she were ready to have a stroke—or all set to give one to someone else.
Skye sprang up and hit her head on the shelf. Flailing backward, she threw her arms in the air, trying to regain her balance, but failed and ended up sprawled on the wooden floor as macaroni rained down on her head like rice on a bride.
Before she was able to get to her feet, May’s shouts bounced off the walls of the warehouse. “I know you did this, Cherry Alexander, and you’re not getting away with it.”
CHAPTER 5
Sift Dry Ingredients Together
A s Skye plucked noodles from her cleavage, she toyed with the idea of pretending she hadn’t recognized her mother’s voice or, even better, that she hadn’t heard the screams at all. Which would have been a good plan if, just as Skye became pasta free, another yell didn’t rip through the warehouse.
This cry was a wordless screech that somehow sounded more ominous than the ones before, and Skye gave up any idea of remaining uninvolved. Crunching over the dry macaroni, she ran toward May’s assigned area.
Bunny followed, peppering her with
Brown eyes twinkling, Bunny threw her arms around Skye and said, “I thought you’d never get here. I was just about to start cooking without you.”
Freeing herself from the older woman’s hug, Skye managed to ask in a neutral tone, “Bunny, this is quite a surprise. What are you doing here?”
“I’m your runner.” She pointed to her sneakers. “See? I’m all set to get you anything you need.”
“Oh.” Skye stepped up to the counter, wondering if there was any way to trade runners. She didn’t want to hurt Bunny’s feelings, but since she herself was a novice cook, she really needed a helper who had actually stepped foot in a kitchen before.
Bunny trailed Skye like a piece of toilet paper stuck to her shoe.
Without turning around, Skye said, “Uh, you know, Bunny, since you and I are friends, I think maybe your being my runner is sort of cheating. The other contestants won’t have their friends helping them.”
“Honey, you really are
too
nice.” Bunny tugged her closer until they were face-to-face, her body language turning suddenly hard. “You’ve got to be more ruthless in this world.”
“No!” Skye nearly screamed. All she needed was cut-throat Bunny working for her. That would be like having a wererabbit for a pet. “I like to play by the rules.”
“In that case there’s no problem.” Bunny relaxed her pose and hoisted her jeans up a fraction. “They asked all the runners if they knew the contestants, and almost all of them did to some degree or another, so they said it didn’t matter.”
“Great.” Skye gave Bunny her best fake smile, all the while thinking,
Rats!
Excuses raced through Skye’s mind, but she couldn’t come up with any other good reason to object to Bunny as her helper. She was stuck with the redhead, and the last chance Skye had of producing an edible casserole had just hopped out the window.
Sighing, Skye took the recipe card and a pencil out of her purse, then stowed the bag in the nearly empty cupboard.Handing the card and pencil to Bunny, she said, “Read the ingredients off to me. I’ll find them; then you put a check mark next to them on the card.”
“Okay.” Bunny dug a pair of small reading glasses out of her pocket, settled them on her nose, and asked, “Ready?”
“Ready.”
“Chopped chicken.” Bunny looked at Skye over the top of her lime green frames.
Skye opened the minifridge and took out the Ziploc bag of cubed cooked breast meat. “Check.”
“Elbow macaroni.”
Skye reached into the low cupboard, but couldn’t quite grab the box, which had been pushed to the back. Sighing, she got on her knees and stuck her head inside.
She had just curled her fingers around the package when she heard someone yell, “Son of a B! Who switched my sugar for salt?” The voice belonged to her mother, and May sounded as if she were ready to have a stroke—or all set to give one to someone else.
Skye sprang up and hit her head on the shelf. Flailing backward, she threw her arms in the air, trying to regain her balance, but failed and ended up sprawled on the wooden floor as macaroni rained down on her head like rice on a bride.
Before she was able to get to her feet, May’s shouts bounced off the walls of the warehouse. “I know you did this, Cherry Alexander, and you’re not getting away with it.”
CHAPTER 5
Sift Dry Ingredients Together
A s Skye plucked noodles from her cleavage, she toyed with the idea of pretending she hadn’t recognized her mother’s voice or, even better, that she hadn’t heard the screams at all. Which would have been a good plan if, just as Skye became pasta free, another yell didn’t rip through the warehouse.
This cry was a wordless screech that somehow sounded more ominous than the ones before, and Skye gave up any idea of remaining uninvolved. Crunching over the dry macaroni, she ran toward May’s assigned area.
Bunny followed, peppering her with
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