Death of a Chocolate Cheater: A Food Festival Mystery by Penny Pike Read Free Book Online Page A

easy access to her “Lyla Vassar, Channel 2” page. Her personal page offered little information to people who weren’t friends, so I put in a request, hoping she’d think I was a fan and maybe give me clearance. In the meantime, I scoured her professional page and learned five useful tidbits:
    1. She’d been at Channel 2 since leaving college six years ago, after winning the titles of “Miss California Animal Rights,” “Miss Keep California Green,” and “Miss Gilroy Garlic Festival.”
    Great. She really was a beauty queen.
    2. Her relationship status was “single.”
    Uh-oh. I thought Jake had said she’d taken up with the DA who prosecuted him.
    3. She was “super grateful” for the award she received for her exposé on the city’s homeless pigeon population.
    Seriously?
    4. She thought San Francisco was the “Best City in California!”
    and
    5. She was “totally psyched” about her upcoming feature on the San Francisco Chocolate Festival.
    I was doomed. Now that I knew she was “single” and “psyched” about the Chocolate Festival, I was certain something was going on between her and Jake. When Jake did call, I let it go to voice mail, and when he stopped by, I told him I was too busy to take a break. There was no way I could compete with Drop Dead, and after my breakup with Trevor the Tool, I wasn’t about to get my heart broken again so soon. By the end of the week, he seemed to have gotten the message. The calls and drop-by visits had stopped and I hardly missed him.
    Crap. Who was I kidding?
    Luckily, I had lots to keep me busy. With the Chocolate Festival a day away, Aunt Abby had Dillon and me making whoopie pies until I was sick of the sight of them. She hoped to collect a bunch of tickets from attendees for her contest entry, win that ample prize money, and hopefully gain fame from being featured on the Food Network show. Success came down to a bite-sized melt-in-your-mouth dark-chocolate-and-raspberry-mocha- cream sandwich.
    At seven p.m. the night before the festival was tobegin, I stood in Aunt Abby’s kitchen, dressed in black slacks and a black silk blouse, waiting for my aunt and Dillon to finish dressing so we could head for the preview party. Reina Patel had invited the judges and contestants to a private soiree at the Maritime Museum, so we could all get acquainted, taste the chocolate contest entries, and celebrate the hard work it took to participate in the Chocolate Festival.
    I hadn’t wanted to go, knowing Jake would be there, but Aunt Abby insisted, and I couldn’t let her down. However, I planned to keep a low profile, hence the black outfit, and hopefully go unnoticed not only by Jake, but also by Polly Montgomery. I was worried if she found out I was part of Aunt Abby’s team, she’d vote for anyone but my aunt.
    “I’m so nervous!” Aunt Abby announced as she entered the kitchen, little Basil scuffling at her feet. She was fiddling with an earring, trying to insert it into her pierced left ear. It was a tiny silver spoon that went perfectly with the tiny silver fork that dangled from her right ear. She wore a pink floral blouse over slinky pink pants, with matching pink heels and a pink shrug over her shoulders. I’d never seen her so dressed up. She looked like a strawberry ice cream confection.
    Dillon sauntered in behind her, this time rat-free. To my surprise, he’d changed out of his usual slacker garb and was wearing what looked like brand-new black jeans and a collared button-down black shirt I didn’t know he owned. He’d even added some product to his normally porcupine hair in an attempt to tame it, and he held a white tie in his hand as if it were a snake. Hisonly concession to his normal style were his red Converse athletic shoes.
    “Mom, why are you nervous?” he asked his mother.
    Aunt Abby and I stared at him, openmouthed.
    “What?” he asked.
    “You look . . . nice!” I blurted.
    “My handsome son!” Aunt Abby added, grinning.