A Catered Halloween Read Online Free Page A

food,” Sean commented as he turned his wheelchair slightly so he could look out. The wind had picked up and was blowing the leaves on the street into the air. He could hear the creak of the store sign as it swayed back and forth. It looked as if a cold front was coming through.
    “I do, but I don’t want to talk about food now,” Libby said.
    Sean turned to face her. “Well, what do you want me to talk about?” he asked.
    Not that he didn’t know. Bernie would say he was being disingenuous, but he’d found in his years as chief of police of Longley that it was better to let the witnesses, especially if they were in a state of shock, introduce the story themselves.
    “We want to hear what you have to say about what happened at the Peabody School, of course,” Bernie said.
    “But I wasn’t there,” Sean reminded her.
    Libby leaned forward and pointed at her sister. “And we wouldn’t have been, either, if it weren’t for her.”
    Bernie snorted. “Like I knew what was going to happen?”
    “If we had been setting up like we were supposed to, we wouldn’t have been there. We would have been in the kitchen,” Libby snapped.
    “We were cultivating a potential customer, which, in my humble opinion, was worth the ten minutes we were going to spend having Mark show us around,” Bernie countered. “Besides, it was interesting to see how the place was rigged up.”
    “Not to me,” said Libby as she put her hand on her forehead. “I’m going to have nightmares for years.”
    “Oh, don’t be so dramatic,” Bernie snapped.
    “It’s true. I am,” Libby wailed.
    Bernie groaned. “Which you’re going to blame on me, just like you do everything else.”
    “That is so unfair,” Libby retorted.
    “Girls,” Sean said before Bernie could reply.
    Both of them turned to him.
    “Enough,” said Sean.
    “But,” Libby began.
    Sean held up his hand. “I mean it. This bickering—”
    “We’re not bickering,” Bernie objected.
    “Fine,” Sean said. “Whatever you want to call what you’re doing doesn’t do no one—”
    “Anyone…,” Bernie corrected.
    Sean glared at Bernie. She’d been like this ever since she’d learned to talk. “Any good. So do you have to give the retainer back? Is the Haunted House closed down for the duration?”
    Libby and Bernie both shook their heads.
    “It’s opening tomorrow afternoon,” Bernie volunteered.
    Sean snorted. “You’re kidding.”
    “Nope. That’s what Mark told us.”
    “This has to be the fastest processing of a crime scene in the history of the town. But then what do I know? I’m an old man,” said Sean. He tapped his fingers on the side of his chair. At least in his day, they would have kept the crime scene closed off for a couple of days. He’d learned to his cost that if you rushed, you always missed something.
    Bernie took another sip of her Scotch and put her glass down. “Well, it is a big fund-raiser for the volunteer fire department.”
    “And money always wins,” Sean said after he’d taken another bite of his pumpkin bar. “You better bakesome more of these. You know what people are like. The more gruesome the crime, the more people want to see where it took place and the hungrier they are after they’ve seen it.”
    “Yeah,” Bernie said. “When business is slow, we should just kill someone.”
    Libby glared at her. “That’s disgusting.”
    “But true,” Bernie countered. “Every time we’re involved in a case, the shop is packed.”
    “I wonder why?” said Libby.
    “People are nosy,” Sean said. “Look what happens when there’s an accident. Everyone always slows down.”
    Bernie frowned as she thought. Finally, she said, “Or maybe it’s because we miss that kind of stuff on some primordial level. You know, in the old days, they used to have public hangings and torture. Now there’s nothing like that. Maybe that’s why haunted houses and horror movies are so popular. People like to be scared and