A Catered Halloween by Isis Crawford Read Free Book Online Page A

crown on her head and ruby slippers on her feet. She’d gone as Glynda the Good Witch from The Wizard of Oz , and she’d gotten so much candy, the pillowcase she’d carried was half full by the time her dad made her come home.
    Halloween was still her favorite holiday. Every year she and Libby opened A Little Taste of Heaven and stood in the doorway and gave out homemade candy and cookies. They labeled every bag they gave away so parents would know where the treats had come from, which the parents seemed to agree with. Otherwise, they’d have to serve the prepackaged stuff, which would be a shame.
    Bernie sighed. It was a pity that they wouldn’t be able to do that this year, but they wouldn’t be at theshop; they’d be serving at the Haunted House. She’d definitely miss seeing the little kids come parading by, but what could she do. Mark was paying them well, and they needed the money, although she wasn’t sure that any amount of money could compensate for what she and Libby had seen last night. Whenever she closed her eyes, she could see Amethyst’s head rolling down the stairs. She could still hear the bump, bump, bump that it had made.
    Bernie shuddered and tried to think of something else, but she couldn’t. The image was fixed in her mind. She kept wondering how it had been done. The person couldn’t have used a chain saw. That would have made too much noise. So maybe the weapon was an axe. Which meant someone might have found it on the premises. Or someone could have brought it in. It was really impossible to know.
    Or someone could have used a fiber-optic laser beam. She’d just seen someone cut glass with one a few weeks ago. Of course, things would be clearer when the coroner did the postmortem. From what Clyde had told her dad, it was scheduled for tomorrow.
    She hadn’t looked closely enough to see if the cuts on Amethyst’s neck were smooth or jagged. She’d been too shocked. Of course, if she didn’t want to wait for the PM, she could always ask Marvin to find out. His dad would know since both parts of Amethyst’s body were resting in his funeral home. Bernie took another deep breath and got in the car. Maybe Amber and Libby were right, Bernie thought as she started up her vehicle. Not that she would let either of them know that. Maybe she and Libby shouldn’t go back. Maybe there was some crazy person there, waiting to claim another unsuspecting victim, although that was not what her father thought.
    If he did, he would never have allowed them to go back there, no matter what the circumstances. And he was usually right about these kinds of things. Thirty years in law enforcement had given him pretty good instincts. It was a thought Bernie consoled herself with as she drove over to see Felicity Huffer.
     
    The lobby of the Pine Bough Manor was practically deserted when Bernie walked in. There was a small cluster of people gathered around a bulletin board, and she could hear the tinkle of music and someone exhorting everyone to “breath in and out and focus on letting your energy go out into the world.”
    A vision of people walking their energy on leashes became lodged in Bernie’s mind. She shook her head to clear it and looked around. There was a fountain over by the far wall, with some goldfish swimming in the pond by the base. The dining room stood off to the right.
    Three large ficus trees stood in pots over by a large picture window. The floor was carpeted in a pale green tweed, while the furniture was covered in light tans. As Bernie approached the reception desk, she decided the place reminded her of the lobby of a moderately priced hotel.
    The woman at the reception desk smiled when Bernie asked for Felicity, and pointed over to the sofa in the back of the room. “She’s waiting for you,” the woman said. “She’s very excited. In fact, I believe she has something to give you.”
    Bernie wondered what it was as she made her way over to the sofa she’d been directed to. At