Read Never Say Pie (A Pie Shop Mystery) for Free Online Page A

and if he didn’t want anything special why didn’t he leave?
    I smiled politely and put a hand on the door as if to close it, but he put his foot in the way. “This is serious, Hanna. You can assemble all you want, but I’d like to come in and ask some questions. Like where were you and your friends early this evening when Heath Barr was murdered.”
    I stepped backward and almost lost my balance. “Murdered?” I felt my knees buckle. “Are you sure? How?”
    “With a serrated knife.”
    I stared at him. The whole room behind me waited in hushed silence. Had they overheard? “Then it was murder,” I muttered. No sense hoping he’d committed suicide. I tried to picture the scene, as awful as it was.
    “Where?” I managed to say when I found my voice.
    “Across the throat.”
    I gulped. “I mean where did it happen?”
    “In his office at the Gazette ,” Sam said. “Before you ask when, why don’t I come inside?”
    Knowing Sam, I had no choice, so I stepped aside and he walked in. As usual, he wasn’t wearing a uniform so I addressed the group. “Everyone,” I said loudly so they could hear me over their animated conversations, “this is our police chief, Sam Genovese, with a … a …” A question? An accusation? An inquiry? I looked at Sam. What was the word I was looking for? “An announcement. Mr. Barr, the local food critic was found dead in his office at the newspaper this evening.” I was proud of myself for keeping my voice steady. I purposely didn’t say murdered, but murder had to be on all our minds. “No doubt it was while we were all assembled here,” I said pointedly. Thus giving us all an alibi.
    The room was eerily silent. I hoped Sam noticed that they all looked properly shocked and dismayed. He couldn’t possibly think that one of us … We were all right here at least for the past hour. And yet who else wanted the guy out of our hair more than we did? Why else would Sam be holding the Monday Gazette in his hand? From just a glance, he looked like he’d gone so far as to highlight our names.
    As the chairman of this gathering, I thought it best to first introduce the group to Sam. As if we had nothing to conceal. As if we were all eager to help him solve the crime. After all, murder in Crystal Cove could hurt us all where it mattered, in the pocket book. Who wanted to come to a farmer’s market if you were afraid you’d be stabbed with a saw-toothed blade for sale in that very market? None of us wanted any damaging publicity concerning our fair. Surely Sam understood that.
    I continued to function as best I could in hostess mode. Granny would have been proud of me.
    “Officer Genovese, you already know Tammy and Lindsey.”
    He nodded. We were all in high school together and Sam currently lived in a bungalow next door to Lindsey.
    “Jacques is the French cheese vendor from the Artisan Cheese stand.” I wasn’t sure Jacques was French at all, but he definitely looked European except for his all American Hippie Birkenstocks. He reached out to shake Sam’s hand and said something like “ enchanté .”
    “You know Lurline, I believe,” I said.
    She gave him her usual perky smile as if we were just here to have a party. Better than looking guilty, of course, which she probably wasn’t. I couldn’t picture her slitting the critic’s throat on her way to the meeting, but then who could I picture? I looked around the room. And came back to Lurline. Sam being one of the few eligible men in town, Lurline had zeroed in on him some months ago. I’d seen her flirting with him, but then she flirted with everyone, eligible or not.
    “Bill and Dave run the Primo Pork and Sausage Stand,” I said.
    They nodded as Sam checked off something on the paper he held in his hand.
    “This is Martha who raises free-range chickens.” I gestured in her direction.
    She straightened her shoulders, stood, tilted her chin and looked Sam in the eye. “Any questions about Barr you can ask me. I