Fatal Chocolate Obsession (Death by Chocolate Book 5) by Sally Berneathy Read Free Book Online

that he’d hacked into the police department’s records. Or maybe he didn’t hack. Maybe he worked for them.
    Day trader? Financial analyst? Not likely.
    “So where do we go from here?” I asked. “I think we should question Nicholas Peterson. That’s the only lead we have.”
    Fred’s brows drew together in a frown. “It’s not a very good lead. The police interview yielded nothing. You may have to let them handle this one. They have resources we don’t.”
    I glared at him, took another sip of wine, and leaned back on the sofa. “You have just as many or more resources than they do, and I have something on my side that none of you do. I cared about Bob. I want his murderer caught. To the cops, he’s just another street person in the wrong place at the wrong time. To me, he was a friend, somebody who mattered. If you won’t help, I’ll do it by myself.”
    “Do what? Talk to the man who was going to give Bob another chance by hiring him? What do you think he’s going to tell you?”
    “I guess I won’t know until I talk to him. He might be able to give me names of Bob’s enemies.”
    “He told the police he didn’t know anybody who’d want to hurt Bob.”
    “But you have ways to get information out of people that the police don’t.”
    Fred sipped his wine in silence for a couple of minutes. “I think this was a random murder, not something personal.”
    He doesn’t like to admit when he’s wrong, but I could tell he was hooked. “You think that, but you’re not sure. I do have a point, don’t I?”
    He rolled his eyes and sipped his wine. Definitely interested.
    “We could catch Peterson at work tomorrow,” I said. “Talk to him, look around to see who else is there and whose ears perk up at the mention of Bob’s name.”
    “I’ll do some checking and see if I can find anything to go on. If I can’t, you have to agree to let it go. Deal?”
    We were practically on our way to A-Plus Construction. “Deal.”
    “Tell me how your trip to the Mathis Paint and Body Shop went.”
    I set down my wine. “What makes you think I went there? Do you have me micro-chipped?”
    “When we talked earlier today and I suggested I should go with you to take your car in, you said, Okay . That means you don’t want to talk about it anymore but you’re going to do as you please and not comply with whatever’s being requested of you.”
    Busted! He broke the code!
    I told him about my visit to the Mathis Paint and Body Shop.
    He opened the container of cookies and carefully selected the most symmetrical one. “I don’t like the sound of those people. I hope you’re not planning to take your car back.”
    “No. Of course not.” I twirled my glass and watched the crimson liquid swirl around the curved crystal sides. “Probably not. I mean, I do feel sorry for Brandon, and I think it would help him if he could personally do something to repair the damage he did to my car. They did offer me a really good price. And Brandon has a color picked out for my car that’s absolutely perfect.”
    “I don’t think that’s a good idea. I don’t like the idea of you doing business with somebody like Grady Mathis. I’ll talk to the man who works on my car. He’ll give you a decent price and do a good job, and he isn’t a pervert.”
    “Okay.”
    He looked at me. He didn’t move a muscle, didn’t frown, didn’t scrunch his lips or narrow his eyes, but I knew what he was thinking. He’d broken the code. He knew the translation of okay . I tried to stare him down but finally gave up.
    “All right!” I threw up my hands in submission. “I won’t take my car back to the Mathis boys. Do you want me to put that in writing and get it notarized?”
    “If you’d like.”
    “I wouldn’t.” I set my empty glass on the coffee table and stood. “I’m going home. I didn’t get much sleep last night. With any sort of luck, I won’t be interrupted by the cops or Rick’s girlfriend tonight.”
    “Rick’s