Fatal Chocolate Obsession (Death by Chocolate Book 5) Read Online Free

Bob.
    “How—” I cleared my throat and forced myself to ask the question I didn’t really want to know the answer to. “How did he die?”
    “Blunt instrument,” Lawson said bluntly.
    Trent didn’t elaborate and I didn’t pursue the subject.
    After a few more questions to which I had no answers, the boys gave up.
    Lawson tucked his small notebook into his pocket. “Sorry we had to bring you bad news, Lindsay.”
    “Go ahead,” Trent said to him. “I’ll be there in a minute.”
    Lawson left and Trent pulled me into his arms. “Are you okay?”
    I held on tight for an extra moment then stepped back and gave him my best I’m tough smile. “Absolutely.”
    “Want me to come back tonight after we file our reports?”
    “Of course I want you to come back, but I’ll be sound asleep when you get here. Might as well wait until we can be awake together this weekend.”
    “Call me if you need me.” He gave me a quick kiss and left.
    Henry and I went back to bed but suddenly I wasn’t sleepy. Tired, exhausted and sad, but wide awake. I couldn’t stop thinking of Bob and his proud smile as he told me about his new job. When the cops caught the creep who killed him, I hoped I’d have a chance to tell him what I thought of him. Actually, I hoped I’d have a chance to do more than that. Kick him in the crotch. Push him into a puddle of battery acid. Poke him in the eye with a sharp stick. Life had been unfair to Bob. Death had also been unfair.
    I had just dozed off when the doorbell rang again. Henry opened one eye then closed it and continued his soft cat snores. He wasn’t worried. Maybe Trent had returned.
    I headed downstairs, not bothering to put on my jeans. If it was Trent, he’d seen me in less than my sleep shirt. If it wasn’t Trent, I wouldn’t open the door.
    I flipped on the porch light and peered through the peephole.
    It wasn’t Trent.
    It was some woman with smeared mascara, bright red hair and Big-D implants bulging out of a tiny tank top.
    I live in a quiet neighborhood. Well, there was the time last month when that nut job tried to kill me in Sophie’s house, but other than that, it’s pretty quiet. Okay, for a while people were breaking into my house and digging up my basement. And Paula’s ex did try to poison me. But my point is, I don’t usually have hookers knocking on my door at midnight.
    I turned around and headed back toward the stairs.
    “Lindsay!”
    The hooker knew my name.
    And her voice sounded familiar.
    Over the last couple of years of hanging with Fred, I’d met some interesting people. However, I would not invite most of them into my home in the middle of the night. I started up the stairs.
    “Lindsay, you’re no good for Rick!”
    I froze in place with my hand on the stair rail and one foot on the bottom step. A red rose stuck in the door at work, a sleazy woman shouting my ex’s name on my front porch in the middle of the night. Things were starting to fall into place.
    “You’re right!” I shouted back. “I’m terrible for him! You can have him. He’s all yours! Good night!”
    I made it up two more steps before the shrill voice stopped me again.
    “Lindsay, we need to talk!”
    “No, we don’t.”
    “I could be a better mother to Rickie than you!”
    I gasped. Rickie? The name struck fear through my heart and caused my whole body to tremble. I hadn’t heard that name since his mother reclaimed him over a month ago. What ill wind had blown this woman to my front porch to utter that name in the middle of the night?
    I went back downstairs and stood against the door. “Who are you and what do you want?”
    “Lindsay, it’s Ginger! Open the door!”
    Ginger? Not a hooker, just a bimbo. I opened the door a crack. The woman didn’t look like the Ginger I’d seen in Rick’s house only a few weeks ago. “Ginger? Are you sure?”
    “Of course I’m sure! Don’t you remember me? I met you at Rick’s last month.”
    The boobs were the same, but—