Read Online Sally Berneathy - Death by Chocolate 01 - Death by Chocolate by Sally Berneathy - Free Book Online

read it.”
    “ Before I knew Mariah’s name.. .? That’s a strange message.”
    I hadn’t meant for her to read it out loud so I could hear it.
    I sighed. “It’s from a song about the wind. Before I knew Mariah’s name and heard her wailing whining, I had a girl and she had me, and the sun was always shining . Rick used to sing it to me.”
    “Oh.” Paula looked vastly relieved while I was starting to feel pretty stressed. I’d been right. The card was messing with my mind. That was Rick’s specialty.
    “Sitting in a tree in the park when we were young.” I wasn’t telling Paula so much as reliving the incident myself for the second time in just over twenty-four hours.
    “Oh?”
    I shrugged, tore the card in half and tossed it into the trash. “I guess you had to be there. Give the devil his due, he sure knows how to get to me. I knew I should have refused to accept those flowers. I need to get back to my cake.”
    But as soon as I got a chance, I was going to give Paula the third degree. I was going to find out why she’d faked her death at the age of two and why roses frightened her.
    ***
    I didn’t get the chance before we left work. Customers were around, Zach was around, and then she and Zach left to go home. When I pulled into my own driveway, there was no sign of either of them in the house next door. They could be inside behind those closed curtains, down at the park where she often took him to play, or they could have taken a fast plane to Mexico.
    King Henry was waiting on my porch. I’d thought he might leave for his old home or even for someplace new while I was gone, but he was still there. He strolled to the edge of the porch to meet me and wound himself around my legs. Cats must have very flexible bones.
    I set the flowers on the porch while I unlocked my door, and Henry sniffed them suspiciously.
    “They’re from the disgusting man who was here yesterday.” I wasn’t going to lie to him. “But we can pretend I picked them on the way home, if that’s all right with you.”
    He looked pretty disdainful. I could tell he wasn’t into pretend .
    I lay down for my customary afternoon nap. It was the only way I could deal with getting up at three in the morning. I couldn’t go to bed at eight o’clock in the evening , so I slept a split shift.
    I woke a couple of hours later, went downstairs and poked through the pantry. My pickings were getting a bit slim. Opening a can of sardines would seriously compromise the fragrance of the roses , and I just didn’t feel like another peanut butter and jelly sandwich. I found a coupon for buy one pizza, get one free. I could invite Paula and Zach to join me. Ply her with pepperoni then give her the third degree.
    She didn’t answer h er phone until the fourth ring, and then it sounded as if she dropped the receiver and fumbled with it before finally getting it to her mouth. “Hello?” Her voice was breathless and confused.
    “Hi, it’s me. You okay?”
    “Who is this?” Her words were slightly slurred. Had Paula been drinking? She refused to even have a margarita with me, saying she had to be alert to take care of Zach. “Paula, it’s Lindsay. What’s wrong?”
    “Lindsay.” She drew in a loud, shaky breath. “I’m sorry. I must have fallen asleep on the sofa. My head’s really fuzzy.”
    “Well, wake up. I just ordered a pizza. It’ll be here in thirty minutes. You and Zach want to come over?”
    “Thanks, but I don’t think so. I’m really tired. We went to the park after work, and now I think we’ll stay in the rest of the night.”
    “Okay. I’ll bring my pizza to your house.”
    There was a moment of silence, then she laughed. “Have you ever heard the word pushy ?” It was the first time I’d heard her laugh since yesterday morning.
    “As in pushy broad ? That’s what they put under my picture in my high school annual, and I was just a novice in those days. I like to think I’ve perfected the art since