Town in a Strawberry Swirl (Candy Holliday Mystery) by B.B. Haywood

Author:B.B. Haywood [Haywood, B.B.]
Language: eng
Format: mobi
Publisher: Penguin Group US
Published: 2014-02-03T16:00:00+00:00

TWENTY-FOUR

Candy’s phone rang first thing. It was Finn. “You’d better get over here.”

“Why, what’s happening?” Candy was still upstairs, dressing. Her father was already outside on the porch with his first cup of coffee and the morning paper.

“There’s a lot of chatter going on over at the station this morning. The police have found something.”

“What?”

“I’ll tell you when you get here.”

“Where are you?”

“The usual place. We’re keeping a couple of spots reserved for you and Doc.”

She finished combing out her hair and dressing and hurried downstairs. For a few moments she lingered in the kitchen. She disliked rushing out like this, first thing in the morning, without a few minutes to get herself organized and take care of a few chores. But there was one chore she couldn’t ignore. She grabbed her tote bag, did a quick sweep of the kitchen to see if she’d forgotten anything, and headed outside.

Doc had his phone out and was looking down at it. “I just got a text,” he said.

“From Finn, I’ll bet.” And she told her father what she’d just heard.

Doc folded up the paper as he listened, and swallowed the rest of his coffee, then rose. “I’ll lock up the house and meet you over there,” he said as he started toward the door. But he stopped after a couple of steps and looked back at her. “Hey, did someone stop by the house last night?”

Candy gave him a brief wave of acknowledgement as she headed down the steps and around the porch toward the chicken coop. “I’ll tell you about it at the diner.”

The chickens were clucking and pecking at the ground, content as usual. She went about her daily routine, collected the eggs, and ten minutes later she was in the Jeep, headed toward town.

She was the last one to arrive in the corner booth. Doc and the boys were working on a plate of doughnuts and fruit-filled croissants. As she slid into the booth, this time next to Artie, a cup of coffee instantly appeared in front of her, delivered by Juanita.

A warm blueberry muffin and a small chilled bowl with freshly made honey butter arrived a short time later. Despite Candy’s protests, Juanita continued to provide her with free food, because of an earlier episode between the two. For a long time Candy had protested the special treatment, but after a while, rather than fight it, she’d learned to accept it. Instead, she’d simply started leaving larger tips, which worked out to be a comfortable compromise.

Finn waited until they’d all settled, with their food served and coffee cups filled, then leaned forward toward the center of the table, resting his elbows lightly on the edge. “The news is about to break,” he said in a low voice, “so I’m not telling you anything you wouldn’t know in a few minutes anyway. But they’ve found Lydia St. Graves.”

Candy didn’t say anything but Doc sounded surprised. “They have? Where?”

“Up on Route 1. She was in an accident overnight. Her car ran off the road and hit a tree sometime around midnight.

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