Chocolate Crunch Murder Read Online Free Page A

Shepherd?”
    “Shush, you. You’ll give it away,” Heather replied, but it wasn’t that much of a secret, anyway. She hummed Black Magic Woman.
    A car drove by, tires rolling along the blacktop, the driver illuminated by the orange haze of the sun.
    “You’d better tell me, woman. I don’t have time for your games.” Amy stuck out her finger and waggled it under Heather’s nose.
    Heather cut off at her favorite part of the melody. “This is the way to Randy’s Burger Bar.”
    “Randy’s?” Lilly asked. She stopped mid-stride, the laces on her sneakers dangling loose. “You’re investigating!”
    “Tie your laces,” Heather replied. “And don’t worry about what I’m doing or not doing, young lady. This is a walk. Exercise orientated. Nothing else.”
    Amy snorted.
    “What’s that for?” Heather narrowed her eyes at her best friend.
    “You skipped ‘leg day.’ I forbid you from using exercise as an excuse.”
    “Hey, I feed you donuts of the highest possible quality. You owe me your allegiance.”
    Amy snorted a second time. “So, what’s the deal? Are we snooping? Breaking and entering?”
    Lilly perked up, and Dave barked, his tongue lolling from the side of his mouth. The two of them together were incorrigible. “Ooh, can we? I know Bill and Colleen will totally ground me if they find out, but if you stick up for me –”
    “Absolutely not,” Heather said. “We are just walking, and that’s final. I just wanted to see if they’d taken the police lines down, that’s all.”
    “Couldn’t Ryan tell you that?” Amy asked, a frown puckering her usually smooth brow, the orange hue highlighting her tan and the glint of gold in her locks.
    “We’ve agreed not to talk about the case unless I find out something relevant.”
    “And you haven’t yet.” Amy slowed her pace to match Heather’s. “Apart from the bug van.”
    “The bug van?” Lilly asked and twirled one of her braids around her finger. “What’s that? Sounds funny.”
    “All right, we’re not discussing this anymore, and that’s that. You two, you three, I should say, are conspiring to get in trouble.” Heather folded her arms while she walked. She didn’t want Lilly in any trouble. “Actually, we should turn around, go another way.”
    Randy’s Burger Bar stuck out like a biscuit in a donut line-up. The neon sign might’ve been dim, lifeless even, but it was still there.
    “Aunt Heather,” Lilly said, and drew out the ‘r’ at the end of her name.
    “Do me a favor, Ames? Check I didn’t just wrinkle because Lilly said that.” Heather gestured to her face.
    Amy pretended to squint at her.
    “Fine, Heather,” Lilly said. “We’ll just walk past. It’s not like we’re doing anything. I mean, it’s just a building. Hey, who’s that?” The girl pointed, narrowing her eyes at the figure standing at the brink of the alley.
    The same alley which Heather had traversed just the day prior.
    “You three stay here,” Heather said.
    Lilly groaned a complaint, and Dave whined, naughty kids, the pair of them.
    Heather ignored them and walked down the road, feigning interest in the sidewalk. She stepped around a conspicuous stain on the concrete, eying the figure out of her peripherals.
    A man draped in a floor-length coat, stood at the mouth of the alley. He twitched toward the street, then backed off again.
    Heather slowed and glanced at him. She raised a hand in greeting. He didn’t wave back.
    “Hello,” Heather called. “How are you? Lovely evening, isn’t it?” Shoot, it was technically afternoon.
    The shifty guy didn’t answer her.
    “Say, you don’t have the time do you?” She tucked her arm behind her back and hid her watch.
    The man shook his shaggy head. Long strings of hair hung around his shoulders. His beard brushed the top button of his coat.
    At least he’d responded.
    “I’m Heather. What’s your name?”
    “Hammond,” he replied, in a voice drier than sandpaper.
    “Nice to meet