A Suspicion of Strawberries (Scents of Murder Book 1) Read Online Free Page A

No matter what people say.”
    It was my turn to point at her, but I instead pointed at the floor where Charla had lain until EMS had strapped her onto a gurney and rolled her from the store. “She died right there. I don’t know if I’d want to shop here either. The poor girl.” I hadn’t even thought about when to reopen for business. What sounded like a respectable amount of time, and what sounded uncaring? Still too early to tell.
    “You know what you need to do?”
    I shrugged at her question.
    “You need to close up shop, put this scrub on your worktable, and go home and turn off the phone. You’ve had a horrible shock. I know your first thoughts were for Charla’s sister and friends, but you’ve been through an ordeal, too. I’ll tell Momma and Daddy.” Diana sounded so convincing. “She’ll send some soup over for you or something.”
    “But my back door—the lock’s been jimmied. Someone broke into the store last night.”
    “Huh? You didn’t tell me that. When?” Her outrage would have normally amused me, but now I felt droopy with the adrenaline rush wearing off.
    “Last night. What happened to Charla sort of overshadowed the break-in for a while.” I explained what I’d found that morning.
    Diana snapped her fingers. “I’ll ask Steve to rig something up for the door. In fact, I’ll call him right now.” Not only did she marry before I did, but she married a handyman. She found her cell phone and hit a button.
    Great. The matter of the break-in fought for attention again. I’d have to call the real-estate company and tell them what happened. It wouldn’t surprise me if my rent increased once the lease came up for renewal in a few more months. All over a broken door lock.
    “Thanks, Di,” was all I could manage to say while my thoughts overwhelmed me. I vacillated from shock over the break-in, what happened to Charla, and then to a flooding sense of empathy for Melinda as if I’d been the one to lose a sister. A constricting feeling came into my throat. I struggled to catch my breath as a sense of overwhelming loss swept through me. Lord, if anything like that ever happened to Di—
    Peace
    I wrestled with my emotions while Diana chatted. She snapped her phone shut and waved me off. “Now go. I’ll wait for Steve here and he’ll put in a new lock.” Diana sounded like she was addressing Taylor, my six-year-old nephew. “Stop worrying and borrowing trouble. ‘Sufficient to the day is the evil thereof ’ and all that.”
    I stood and gave her half a smile, then took off my canvas apron. I had to agree. So far today had contained enough trouble for a good long time.
     
     
     
    Chapter Three
    Since I knew I’d be too busy working at the store to take any kind of vacation that summer, I had agreed to teach the church's high school Sunday school class until September. I had thought about calling the Sunday school coordinator to see if she could find someone to take my class that morning, but I stopped myself. A substitute for the substitute. Ha . My Sunday routine would hold back the memories of Charla’s body on the floor. The kids would make me laugh as they usually did.
    As I surveyed the room filled with nine girls and five boys, I didn’t regret the decision. This morning, however, stories flew around with a life of their own. I did my best, though, to deflect rumors with the truth. No one gave me accusing looks when I explained that Charla had tried the scrub before the party, and it hadn’t bothered her.
    So I let them talk about what happened. . .to a point. The adult classes had coffee and doughnut time, better known as fellowship , so I figured the kids needed a chance to talk also. My stomach turned over on itself when I heard snatches of conversation.
    “Her face was big as a balloon.” One kid held his hands up around his face and puffed out his cheeks like a blowfish. “My brother’s friend worked the ambulance yesterday.”
    “I heard a news story once about