Read A Biscuit, a Casket for Free Online Page B

filter in, and waited, mug
     in hand, for her drug of choice to brew. She should have whipped up a smoothie first
     and gone out for a run, but she wanted coffee. Now. It had been a late night. And
     not a good one, at that.
    “Did you hear what happened, Nutter?” she asked her cat when he strolled into the
     kitchen.
    Nutty stared at her, eyes unblinking. Stan figured that meant no.
    “There’s been a murder on the block.” She waited for the appropriate shock. Nutty’s
     expression didn’t change. “That’s a little coldhearted,” she remarked. “Just because
     you didn’t know the guy doesn’t mean you can’t feel a little badly.”
    Nutty rubbed on the table leg and meowed. Clearly, he was only interested in breakfast,
     not the untimely death of Hal Hoffman. “You’ll have to wait a few minutes until the
     dogs come in,” she told him. “The kitchen’s only doing one shift today.”
    Nutty meowed at her again. A challenge. Who said animals didn’t talk back?
    The coffee was taking much too long to brew. She went into the sunroom while she waited
     to watch the dogs. Henry ambled along as Scruffy bounced around him, trying to get
     him to play tug of war.
    The coffeepot finally beeped and she poured a large cup of the thick, black liquid.
     The coffee was a welcome jolt to her exhausted system, and she sighed happily with
     her first sip. Leaving the dogs to play a few minutes longer, she went to the front
     door to see if newspaperman Cyril Pierce had been on the job.
    He certainly had. The Frog Ledge Holler sat on her front porch, a perfect throw from whomever Cyril, its esteemed editor,
     used these days—likely a local elementary schoolkid with a dependable bike and a desire
     to make a few bucks a week hurling papers at houses. She picked up the plastic-wrapped,
     skimpy local newspaper and went back inside.
    Front page, above the fold: L OCAL D AIRY F ARMER F OUND D EAD IN C ORN M AZE .
    Stan skimmed the story, which detailed how Harold “Hal” Hoffman’s body had been discovered
     by an employee working in the corn maze last night. No further information until the
     autopsy was conducted. The photo of Hal was full color, clear and bright. She’d only
     ever seen him in jeans and a flannel shirt, a hat pulled low over his face, as he
     went about his business around town. But this photo, with no hat and the hint of a
     dress shirt apparent, showed how attractive he had been. Stan hadn’t realized. The
     years of farming and harsh New England weather had rested a lot better on him than
     they had on his wife. Then again, if the gossip mill was to be believed, she did a
     heck of a lot more of the farming than Hal had.
    A chorus of barks and woo-woos from out back caught her attention. Stan dropped the paper and hurried to the sunroom
     door to see her dogs at the fence. She stepped out to see what they were looking at.
     Beyond the yard of her next-door neighbor, Amara Leonard, the Hoffmans’ dairy cows
     were clearly visible as they started their morning stroll to the grassy field at the
     back of their property. Scruffy loved cows and always tried to get their attention.
     Henry just followed her lead.
    “Let’s go, guys. Breakfast!” Stan called. The dogs came charging to the door. “You
     can’t go play with the cows today,” Stan told Scruffy, ruffling her ears, which looked
     like pigtails. “Although I’ll probably have to go visit them. See how Em’s doing.
     It’s probably the neighborly thing to do, right?”
    The dogs stared at her as if to say, Don’t ask us about neighborly etiquette.
    Stan sighed. “Come on, then.” They raced to their breakfast spots, meeting up with
     Nutty, who had already assumed his position on the counter. Stan headed to the fridge,
     but heard her iPhone ring. Where had she put the stupid thing? She stood still and
     listened. Traced the sound to her coat pocket, which still hung on the back of the
     chair where she’d draped it after