6 Death Takes The Blue Ribbon by Teresa Watson Read Free Book Online

haven’t seen her much lately. They just got back from vacation about a week ago.”
    “Send someone over to talk to Delia and her husband,” Owen said to T.J., who nodded and walked out.
    “I thought T.J. was in charge of this investigation?”
    “D.A. said he would prefer that I handle it,” Owen replied. “It’s not that he doesn’t trust T.J., of course. He knows T.J. is a good investigator…”
    “It’s because of the whole FBI thing, right?” He shrugged. “Maybe you should let him run it anyway. What the D.A. doesn’t know won’t hurt him. And I think it would help to re-establish T.J. in the community.”
    He didn’t say anything. T.J. came back, and the two of them stepped outside to look around the alley. “Don’t touch anything,” Owen admonished me as they walked out.
    I resisted the urge to stick my tongue out at his retreating back. Instead, I glanced around the kitchen. Stainless steel was everywhere: the sinks, the countertops, the work tables, even the freezer. I wondered how many fingerprints they would find on the surfaces. Knowing Delia, probably not a whole lot. She was very meticulous about keeping the bakery clean. She told me once it was because she never knew when a health inspector was going to show up unannounced.
    As I looked around, I noticed a trash can near the freezer. I thought that was kind of odd. Wouldn’t it make more sense to leave it closer to the sink or the work tables so you could throw egg shells, empty spice bottles, or other baking needs out? I walked over and looked into the black rubber trash can. There was a large black garbage bag in it, and there appeared to be something near the bottom, but I couldn’t make out what it was, so I pulled out my phone, and turned on my flashlight app. There was some colored plastic wrap wadded up in a ball, and some old newspapers. Something shiny under the edge of one of the newspapers caught my eye, so I pulled up the edge of the paper to take a look. I gasped at what I saw.
    Two smashed pies. Blueberry.

Chapter Nine
    I didn’t sleep well that night. Images of the surprised look on Harold’s face right before he fell over kept running through my mind. I got up before the alarm went off at eight, and put Babe and Mittens in the backyard before I took a shower.
    There was a text from Trixie waiting for me when I finally remembered to turn on my phone. If I could get away with it, I’d leave that thing off all the time. Sometimes, it’s nice to just unplug from the world, curl up on the couch with Mittens, and read a good book. Days like that were few and far between ever since Dale Gordon, the owner of the newspaper I worked for, put me in charge and left town. He came back after a few months, and I was thrilled, because I thought it meant he was taking over again. Nope. I was still in charge and still stuck with Jake.
    All of this had nothing to do with Trixie’s text, of course. She wanted me to meet her for breakfast at the café. I finished getting ready, let the dogs back in, fed them and made sure there was plenty of water in their dishes, grabbed my stuff and left.
    She was munching on some bacon when I slid into the seat across from her. “Did you oversleep this morning?” she asked as I took a piece of bacon from her plate.
    “No, I just didn’t feeling like rushing around this morning.”
    “Are you sure it wasn’t because some hunky deputy was at your house for dinner last night?” she teased.
    “Who told you that?”
    “And give away a good source of gossip? Not on your life,” Trixie said. “So, what did you two kids talk about?”
    “We talked about Harold Norwell falling face down in a pie.”
    “Oh ugh, that’s an image I didn’t need put in my head this morning,” she said, pushing her plate away.
    I grabbed the last piece of bacon from her plate and ate it. “Then you shouldn’t have provoked me.”
    “Wow, you’re in a cranky mood.”
    “I had that image in my head all