Read Brownies & Betrayal (Sweet Bites Mysteries, Book 1) for Free Online

way, but she was on those tall, skinny heels and didn’t seem wobbly to me, so she couldn’t have had too much to drink.”
    I thought it was sweet and rather naïve that he thought someone couldn’t walk on stiletto heels while drunk. Some people were super coordinated. I was not so lucky. “Did you see anyone else around? Anyone who appeared to be looking for someone?”
    “No. Like I told the police, I didn’t see anyone else for a long time after that, and hardly anyone in the half-hour before it. Once the hotel restaurant closes, we don’t get a lot of people in and out.”
    It didn’t surprise me. Silver Springs was practically the polar opposite of Chicago and New York. “Yeah, the city all but rolls in the sidewalks by ten. Thanks.”
    I wiped the keycard on my jacket to get any fingerprints off of it, and on the way out the door, I dropped it next to a planter where a cleaning person would most likely find it in the morning.
    “What do you think?” Honey asked once we were out of hearing of the clerks.
    I wrapped my jacket closer around me and wished I’d worn something warmer. Arizona may be far warmer than Chicago, but in March, the temperatures still dipped to or below freezing at night. “I think whoever she met must have come down the back way. Valerie’s room was in the same wing as the conference room, but I think Analesa mentioned they bought a block of rooms for the wedding party, so that’s not much to go on.”
    “So we’re no better off than we started?” Honey asked.
    “Not unless we can get one of them to admit they saw someone leaving their room between midnight and one.” I was discouraged, though I knew it was stupid to let it get to me. We’d barely begun to investigate.
    “If we only knew why someone would want her dead,” Honey said.
    “Let’s hope we only find one reason for her death.” I grimaced as I thought of how rude she was. “The woman knew how to make enemies, that’s for sure.”
    “Then we’ll have to keep digging.”
    I frowned and tried to think of our next move. Since we were tired, though, we returned to my home for a snack. I still had a few brownies left from the batch I’d made for the wedding breakfast.
    I unlocked the door to the apartment over the restaurant and headed up. The lamplight fell in pale splashes against the faded yellow paint on the right wall of the stairwell, showing rub marks and chips in a few spots. Family portraits and postcards from trips my family had taken littered the walls. The Acropolis, Eiffel Tower, Big Ben, Egyptian pyramids and St. Basil’s Cathedral in Russia made appearances, many with me and my parents in the corner of the shot. 
    The little apartment still held a slight musty smell despite my having been there for a week. Everything was familiar, and contrary to the pain I’d felt on my more recent visits, comforting. The room held old, worn sofas covered with afghans Grandma had knitted, the fake plants standing sentinel in the corners and on tables. More faded paint in mint green, more pictures and knickknacks. Coming back here had been a balm to my broken heart.
    The restaurant had kept me busy with cleanup and renovations, but I’d managed some basic cleaning in the apartment since my return to town. There was a lot still to be done.
    While Honey plated up the brownies, I headed to my tiny room for a comfy sweatshirt. The thought of moving into Grandma’s much bigger room hadn’t occurred to me until she’d been gone over a year, but I was so rarely here, I hadn’t bothered. Since it would have required going through her personal effects, the bigger space wasn’t worth the time, or the pain it would have dredged up. Now some time had passed, I might be able to face it.
    Two sparkling salad plates, now with a couple of brownies on each, and two tall glasses of milk sat on the coffee table when I returned to the living room.
    With a sigh, I kicked off my newest pair of Monolo Blahniks and wiggled my