Free Never Say Pie (A Pie Shop Mystery) by Carol Culver Page B

glad you came back?”
    “Now that I know where to find my favorite ethnic food items, things are looking up,” he said with a pointed look at the shelf behind my counter.
    What? Sam saying something flattering? “If you’ve got any special requests, I’m always looking for a culinary challenge.” I’ve never believed that old saw about the way to a man’s heart, but maybe, just maybe … If I could keep my mouth shut and stick to baking. But could I? And would I want to?
    Right now I wanted so badly to tell him what I’d overheard at the picnic tables, but I wasn’t going to. Even if I had a written confession or caught the killer in the act, I was not going to say a word. If that’s the way Sam wanted it, then that’s how it was going to be.
    He left after I had a rush of customers and I wondered when I’d see him again. You’d think because it was a small town and his office was across the street from my shop we’d be running into each other five times a day and twice on Sunday, but it didn’t happen.
    On that Sunday I was restless. I knew I had to wait until Monday to follow up on the Heath Barr problem. If you can call a murder a problem. I’m not good at waiting. I’m impatient and my restless nature has gotten me into trouble more than once. So far I’ve talked my way out of it, but there’s always a first time. I wanted badly to pay a visit to the newspaper offices to make sure Heath hadn’t told anyone there about the pie contest idea, but they were closed on the weekend. That didn’t stop me from walking over to the town square and knocking on the second floor office of the Gazette just to see if anyone was there. What do I know about the news business? Maybe they had odd hours, I thought.
    But it was closed. Not only closed, but it had a wide yellow tape across the door that said “Crime Scene.” So it was true. So Heath had been murdered right there in his office. I didn’t need Sam to confirm it. I felt a chill go up my spine. That should have been enough to scare me away, but I rattled the doorknob anyway. Nothing happened. I left and came back to my shop hoping no one saw me at the crime scene.
    I had two reasons to visit the Gazette headquarters. Besides making sure Heath hadn’t shared his idea of a pie contest with the editor, I planned to place an ad in the paper advertising my pies. I wanted the populace to know they could find me at the Food Fair on Saturdays with the same mouth-watering pies available throughout the week at the shop.
    I knew it wasn’t my job to solve crimes. Sam had made that perfectly clear. He was right. He had the badge of authority to go where mere citizens feared to go, and I didn’t. It was none of my business who killed Heath.
    It was crazy of me to ever think Sam would appreciate my meddling in his work. He was a private person. Always had been. His parents weren’t around much in his life and when they were they weren’t very friendly or lovable. He’d been on his own as long as I’d known him and that was in high school. Of course for all I knew he had an ex-wife and four kids somewhere. He didn’t mention them but nothing about him would surprise me. I guess he felt the same about me. Did that mean we were destined for each other? Probably not. But I couldn’t deny he figured in more than one of my fuzzy romantic dreams. I have a problem with unattainable men—in that they’re more attractive than the attainable ones.
    Instead of spending what was left of the weekend rolling out crusts and freezing them to prepare for a busy week ahead, I decided to take advantage of the warm sunny weather and take Grannie on a drive out of town. She was as independent as anybody’s grandmother could be, but sometimes she looked a little wistful when she asked me what I was doing on Sunday. Though maybe that was just my imagination, since the activities list at Heavenly Acres was staggering. And she had more friends there than anyone in town. My usual