Behind Chocolate Bars by Kathy Aarons Read Free Book Online Page A

Meadows?”
    â€œYou’re calling it that too?” He glanced around to see if anyone was close enough to overhear. A couple of customers looked away, trying to seem uninterested. “If Erica is done with her phone call, perhaps we can talk in the back.”
    I glared at several of my nebby customers.
    Lockett picked up his coffee, his ring sparkling again, as if begging me to ask.
    â€œSo, a promise ring?”
    â€œLet it go,” he said.
    I smirked. I’d get it out of him soon enough. I led the way back to Erica’s office.
    Erica shut her laptop as we walked in. She must havealready started researching the murder victim. “Detective Lockett,” she said. “How nice of you to stop by and give us an update.”
    He ignored her maneuvering. “Ms. Russell. Want to show me what you’re hiding on your laptop?”
    â€œOf course,” she said with such warmth that I thought she meant it. “As soon as you show me a warrant.”
    He smiled, as if he knew he never had a chance.
    â€œWhat can I help you with?” she asked. “You’d like some information on Dylan, I suppose. Can you tell me why you’d even begin to suspect a young boy like him?”
    â€œFirst of all, he isn’t so young,” Lockett said in his tough-guy voice. “He’s just small for sixteen. But plenty big enough to use a bat and kill someone.”
    A frisson of alarm went through me, and not just at the word “bat.” Lockett seemed to have his sights set on Dylan, and he had chosen his words to deliberately scare us.
    â€œA bat?” I asked.
    Erica went into investigation mode right away. “Was the murder weapon found?”
    â€œNo,” he said.
    â€œBut you found
something
that led you to Dylan,” she said.
    â€œYes,” he said. “His Green Lantern key ring.”
    My heart stopped for a moment before speeding up. The
Green Lantern
was Dylan’s favorite comic book series. I knew his mom had given him a key ring with the superhero’s symbol on it. He’d never talked about it, but I suspected that was one of the reasons he carried it every day.
    Erica’s face went still for a minute and then angry. “There must be thousands of those. How do you know that one is Dylan’s?”
    â€œIt has a Duncan Hardware Store rewards tag that we traced to his father and his house key on it,” he said in a no-nonsense tone.
    Erica shook her head. “He could’ve lost it or loaned it to someone.”
    â€œYes,” he said. “That’s what we were trying to find out when we were talking to him at the police station. Unfortunately, we were interrupted by a disturbance in the lobby.”
    Erica didn’t react to his dig. “He was talking to you before that?”
    â€œNo,” he admitted. “But he would’ve.” At her skeptical look, he added, “Believe me. I know how to handle a sixteen-year-old kid.”
    â€œAnd it’s legal to question a minor without his parent present?” she challenged.
    He scowled. “There are gray areas, and this was one of those.”
    â€œSo the victim’s name is Faith Monette?” I asked, trying to get them off that topic. I wondered if Erica had already told her assistant and tech guy, Zane, to research the victim. He was an online wizard who could dig up all kinds of information, maybe something to take the heat off Dylan.
    â€œYes,” he said. “Did you get that name from Dylan?”
    He sounded like he was going to try to lead us somewhere. To shake up his rhythm, I spoke quickly. “It’s not a secret. Reese blabbed it to the universe.” When he scowled, I changed the subject. “Most of Green Meadows was abandoned when the developer went out of business. What could the victim possibly be doing there on a Sunday night?”
    He frowned. “We don’t know,” he said. “But it’s not